So simple, so devastating
Galway beat Cork by 1-9, Limerick hammered Antrim by 3-10 but Tipperary top the lot with a seven-goal walloping of Waterford in the Munster final. Could anyone have predicted that? I doubt it. I didn’t anyway.
Tipperary didn’t give away a thing yesterday, did they? Not a goal conceded, not even a sniff of a goal, and only seven points from play.
In fact I would safely say the only man in Páirc Uí Chaoimh who got anything from a Tipperary man was myself. On my way into the ground I was stopped by a crew having their tae and sandwiches from the boot of the car (some traditions never die). Invited to join them, and I want to thank Dan Costigan and Dan Creed from Clonkenny for their hospitality.
Now, if only the Tipp team had been as hospitable we might have seen a contest.
Tipperary are All-Ireland champions. They looked like All-Ireland champions. They played like All-Ireland champions and everything they did was class. You can see the mark of manager Declan Ryan and coach Tommy Dunne in everything this team does.
Please, don’t let anyone talk to me anymore about tactics this was hurling as it is meant to be played. Direct ball, long ball, simple ball, cleared from their own danger area into the opposition danger area as fast as possible to men who have the strength to battle for it and the hurling ability to finish.
And that defence. Man-marking, every man taking his own man and fighting his own corner, every man able to win his own battle. Those, to me, are the only tactics we should ever talk about in hurling. Let no one talk anymore about managers being tactically shrewd, tactically aware.
Basically, hurling is the same game now as it was 70 years ago. The last time we saw seven goals scored in a Munster final was Mick Mackey’s Limerick putting eight past Tipperary. Mackey played it direct. He would have been at home on this Tipperary team.
What a display by Lar Corbett and Eoin Kelly, the two elder statesmen on this Tipp team — 6-10 between them, but it was more than that, it was the workrate. Waterford had to work like dogs even deep into the second half to try and get in a clearance. As I said at the top, no Tipp man was giving anything away for free yesterday, not on the field.
What Waterford needed wasn’t an experienced full-back, it wasn’t an extra defender, it was a carpenter and a half-dozen sheets of plywood to block up the goals. And even at that I think Tipp would still have goaled, such was the naivety shown by Waterford.
What were they at starting a rookie on the Hurler of the Year, Jerome Maher on Lar Corbett? And then, when they realised the mistake they had made, what did they do? Put another rookie on him, Darragh Fives.
A guy like Lar, you need someone with experience, and someone with legs. Are the experienced Waterford players all finished, the likes of the Prendergast brothers, neither of whom made an appearance yesterday?
Up front they were well beaten. Tipperary’s John O’Keeffe, Conor O’Mahony and Padraic Maher all well on top in the half-forward line. What was Eoin McGrath doing on Maher?
He was never going to be effective as a conventional wing-forward and wasn’t. He should have been roving, a third midfielder, which is what he’s best at. Inside they were also in trouble and once John Mullane was held by Paddy Stapleton, Waterford were always in trouble.
This is a second annihilation in three years for Waterford. The 2008 All-Ireland final was bad, 23 points, but the management team wasn’t long in place at the time. This was worse.
‘Only’ 21 points, I know, but they had plenty of time to prepare for this game, they knew where the danger lay — they weren’t ready.
Last word — I want to congratulate the Clare minors. A superb outfit, well coached by Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor, that’s back-to-back Munster minor titles for Clare. Could these two now be front-runners for the Clare senior job, which is vacant at the moment?
They definitely know what they’re at.
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