Rhys Shelly has pledged that Tipperary will bounce back after their Championship campaign petered out badly.
Tipp were on the brink of a Munster final appearance facing into their last round robin game against already-eliminated Waterford, but a six-point defeat sent them a different route and though they beat Offaly easily, they were flattered by a two-point loss to Galway in Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final.
Shelly said: “There are a lot of positives now and there’s a lot of youth in this team and a lot of maturity. The senior fellas on the team were exceptional this year - the likes of Seamie Callanan and Noel [McGrath] and Bonner [Patrick Maher].
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“This is my first year on the panel and we learned so much from them, and just hopefully next year they'll still be around and be able to teach us.
“I have no doubt in the next few years we’ll be back up and lifting the Liam MacCarthy, I have no doubt - if we keep on the right track anyway.”
Only for a couple of fine saves from Shelly, they would have been decisively beaten by Galway.
But he admitted: “One of them would have been my own fault, I gave a bad ball away, I won’t lie. But I just do my best, it’s just hard.”
He added: “We got a bit of a slow start there and didn’t take advantage of a few opportunities we had in the first half.
“We were lucky enough to only be three points down at half time, very lucky and then they got that goal at the start of the second half.
“It was an uphill battle from there but fair play to the boys, it just wasn’t our day in front of goal. You have those days as well, but things are going in the right direction, it’s just a pity we didn’t get the win.”
