By Cian O'Connell

Tipperary manager Michael Ryan was delighted by the character and touch of class demonstrated by Tipperary at Croke Park on Sunday.

Trailing by eight points early on Tipperary recovered to win comfortably against Dublin as the Premier County advanced to the penultimate stage of the Allianz Hurling League.

Ronan Maher's sending off on the stroke of half-time didn't disturb Tipperary, who closed out the game impressively. "Delighted, we came up to achieve exactly that," was Ryan's assessment.

"The winners here got a great prize, they get to go forward to play again next week. We are getting to the climax of the League and we certainly wanted to be involved. They showed plenty of desire out there and they want to get something out of this League.

"I have to temper our start with how well Dublin started, and on balance, credit should go to them rather than us being flat.

"They got some start and if they had got another point or two at that time, they might have tipped us over the edge. But they were full value for the lead at that time and they really came at us. It was a desperate-looking scoreline."

Following Maher's dismissal Ryan was encouraged by how Tipperary dealt with the situation.

'Number one you have to re-structure it as best you can, but in fairness to our lads, it was a great challenge for us in the second-half," Ryan remarked. "And I was very happy with how they applied themselves, our work-rate and use of the ball was better.

"We did catch a few breaks, and we did hit the jugular with the second goal and it did give us a bit of comfort but our lads were hurling well within themselves at that stage.

"We have had it before and it was a case of what you do next and I was really happy with their attitude after the sending-off."

Now Ryan is relishing 'a massive challenge' against a rapidly improving Limerick outfit. "It is a brand new game for us next week, we haven’t crossed swords with Limerick in some time. I saw them play them last week, cracking game between themselves and Clare. There is a massive challenge coming, Na Piarsaigh lads to come back in aswell.

"We all have the same challenge come May, but this is the here and now and there is a league semi-final to be competed for  - the prize is to get to a final, we haven’t won the National League since 2008 and in last year’s Final we gave a right poor account of ourselves and it is something that if we can play again to put right, to give a better account."