SHARLENE Mawdsley joked her first visit to Croke Park won’t be her last after cheering on boyfriend Michael Breen as Tipperary defeated Kilkenny.
It was a nip and tuck affair all the way with the Premier eventually securing their spot in the All-Ireland final by a scoreline of 4-20 to 0-30.
Afterwards she congratulated Breen for helping his side grind out the win[/caption]
She captioned this pre-match snap of the parade ‘What a day’[/caption]
Afterwards the corner-back posted a photo on Instagram of them all smiles as their county will now face Cork on July 20.
Breen captioned it: “First time in Croke Park is it?” To which the sprinter replied: “And not my last!”
Tipperary went down to 14 men when Darragh McCarthy was shown a second yellow card for wrapping keeper Eoin Murphy across the knuckles with his hurl with 12 minutes left.
But Oisín O’Donoghue’s wonderstrike at the death fired Tipp back to the showpiece for the first time since 2019 – and boss Liam Cahill hailed his warriors for clawing the Cats at Croker.
He said: “It was a bit of a blow at the time but look, I think it really ignited the rest of the players on the field.
“Look, it’s misfortune, the second yellow. By the rule book it’s there, as a second yellow. We had no complaints with it at all.
“Just disappointed for Darragh, he commits to everything. I suppose just before that we probably had really discussed getting Oisín in at that time.
“Lo and behold, Darragh was coming off alright but we can’t get Oisín in to replace him. Again, the impact of our bench coming in had a big bearing on today’s game.
“I really thought they gave us huge energy. Tynan in particular was superb when he came on. Obviously, Oisín and Noel as usual, giving us that calming influence. Just happy, as I said, that the job is done now.
“We try and turn the page as quick as we can and look forward to two weeks’ time.”
Cahill’s tenure as Tipp boss was under huge fire when they failed to win a game in the Munster SHC last year.
But his pleas for patience have paid off, and he hailed his players for taking them back to the biggest day of all against all the odds as McCarthy, John McGrath and Jason Forde fired first half goals against the Cats.
He said: “It’s been difficult to navigate over the last two years from my perspective, I won’t deny that. A huge change was required, it’s starting to come through now.
“As I said, it’s all down to the players. And to be fair, the alignment with our county board off the field as well.
“These fellas set really high standards for themselves to be fair and they committed to that. We have a really tight group. I know every manager says that when they sit in front of you guys after a win.
“It takes a lot of work to create that because if you haven’t everybody on the same wavelength, days like today just don’t happen.
“I mean not just players, I mean the backroom team we have, the people that support them. We’re a unit that keeps things really tight and we have one another’s back.
“That’s what really makes it proud for me is that when you can create something like that and the tests come like they came today outside there at Croke Park.
“The players usually find the answers. Just thrilled as I said to be in the final.
“The game was exciting, it was probably a very much mistake-ridden game as well which probably led to a lot of the excitement with the number of mistakes that were in it.
“We have a lot to do to make sure that we’re in a position to go forward and try and take on Cork in two weeks’ time.”
