Gaelic Games

Michael Ryan’s Tipperary tenure begins with Offaly win

Premier County overcome filthy conditions beat rivals by five points in Templemore

Michael Ryan’s first game in charge of Tipperary saw his new charges beat Offaly. Photograph: Inpho
Sun Jan 10 2016 - 18:51

Tipperary 2-17 Offaly 1-15

Michael Ryan’s tenure as Tipperary senior hurling team manager got off to a winning start in Templemore on Sunday afternoon.

The Premier County scored a five-point victory over neighbours Offaly in bitterly cold conditions at the home of JK Brackens.

In a game lacking any real quality due to the heavy underfoot sod, which still held up well, Ryan was nonetheless pleased by what he saw.

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He said: “You’re never going to get quality, all you’re looking at here is application and a little bit of progress. We were happy enough with that.”

For Offaly, this was a big step up in class after their comfortable opening round victory over DIT in the Walsh Cup, as Eamonn Kelly took charge of a clash against his native county.

Kelly said: “We got a poor contest last week so it was definitely up a few gears.”

Tipp led by 2-10 to 1-8 at half-time, with Patrick 'Bonner' Maher and Adrian Ryan scoring the goals.

James Mulrooney, Offaly's best player on the day, scored a first half goal to keep the visitors in touch but without dual players Shane Dooley and Joey O'Connor, both on duty with the footballers, it was an uphill battle.

Tipperary: D Gleeson; Joe O'Dwyer, M Breen, C O'Brien; W Ryan, J Meagher, Pádraic Maher; J Gallagher, B Maher (0-1); D McCormack (0-1), Patrick Maher (1-1), S Curran (0-4, 2f, 2 65s); L McGrath, C Kenny (0-5, 1f), A Ryan (1-2). Subs: D Fitzell for Gallagher (30), J Forde (0-1) for Patrick Maher, M Cahill for Breen, D Quinn (0-1) for B Maher, K Morris (0-1f) for McGrath, D Mooney for Gleeson (all half-time), L Ryan for W Ryan (40), John O'Dwyer for McCormack (43), B Maher for Morris (61).

Offaly: C Slevin; D Mooney, C McDonald, N Wynne; D Shortt, C Doughan, R Hughes; S Ryan (0-1), S Kinsella (0-1); P Murphy (0-3), C Egan (0-1), J Mulrooney (1-7, 0-4f, 0-1 65, 0-1 sl); S Quirke (0-1), B Murphy, S Cleary. Subs: J Sampson for Ryan (23), J Dempsey for Slevin (h.t), J Gorman (0-1) for Egan (40), P Camon for Hughes (41), B Mulrooney for McDonald (43), B Leonard for Shortt (43), F Hannon for Quirke (63), S Connolly for Wynne (67).

Referee: A Stapleton (Laois)