Anthony Daly: After being in the horrors Cork are now a dangerous animal again
Early on in Thurles yesterday, when Tipperary were four points ahead, I glanced at the second TV and spotted that Clare were seven points up in Ennis. ‘Hi,’ I said to Donal Óg Cusack and Liam Sheedy, ‘we could be getting fairly excited here yet.’ Sheedy looked at me. ‘Wha?’ I told him to look at the other TV. The matches weren’t long on but you could see Sheedy doing the maths in his head. When Noel McGrath stood over his penalty shortly afterwards, which would have put Tipp seven points ahead, the outlandish and impossible somehow suddenly seemed possible.
It wasn’t. Noel’s penalty crashing off the post gave Cork the reprieve they needed to drive on and make sure they weren’t going to blow the golden opportunity they’d been given after beating Waterford. Alan Connolly’s goal shortly afterwards proved as much.
