TIPPERARY’S sharp-shooter Conor Sweeney has warned All-Ireland quarter-final opponents Galway they’re not going to Croke Park on Sunday to “make up the numbers”.
Liam Kearns’ men bounced back from their disappointing Munster final defeat to Kerry three weeks ago to clinch their first-ever All-Ireland quarter-final berth by beating Derry in Kingspan Breffni Park last weekend.
Sweeney was in inspirational form, hitting five points from play, including the equaliser and the winner against Derry: “It’s the first time ever we’ve reached an All-Ireland quarter-final and it’s great,” he said, “but we’re not just there to make up the numbers either. We’ll go and compete as best we can and hopefully we can do ourselves justice.
“We’ve played them twice over the last two or three years and we’ve lost to them twice, but we’d be fairly familiar with them. We’re looking forward to it. We don’t have much of a turnaround, but we’ll be ready.”
Sweeney hailed Tipp’s resilient spirit by coming from two points down in stoppage-time to win by one. They were also five points ahead after the hour mark and conspired to fall behind six minutes later: “We just keep going - if we’re down 10 points or two points, we just keep going,” he said.
“I don’t know what it is about us. I think Liam has it instilled in us that we just keep going no matter what.”
The Ballyporeen clubman added: “Derry have ended up playing with the wind in every second-half and they’ve always finished strongly. We didn’t win the toss and so it didn’t work out that way for us, but we stuck to our gameplan. But do you know what, the wind never wins you a game.”
Kearns paid tribute to Sweeney’s performance and five-point haul in Breffni: “I was delighted for Conor Sweeney because he’s been frustrated with his form this year, but he was fantastic for us,” he said.
