A tale of two classics
DECLAN FANNING: “Going into the 2009 final, nobody was giving us a chance. We felt we had been hurling particularly well and were low key. On the day, we thought we performed well but the result needs to go your way. What that boiled down to, I’m not too sure. We kind of faded with 10 minutes to go. But overall, the experience stood to us for 2010.”
MARTIN COMERFORD: “I played in the 2009 Leinster final and had done fairly well. But I was poor against Waterford in the semi-final and got dropped for the final. Kilkenny were kept in the game by PJ Ryan’s saves. He made one in the first half and stopped two bullets in the second half. They were phenomenal reflex saves. He got man of the match and rightly so. I remember the Tipperary forwards, particularly Lar Corbett, were hurling fierce well in the first half and scoring points from distance and creating chances. At the other end, Eddie Brennan was taking a few points. We were barely in it. Henry was out of it, quiet.”
DF: “I thought the referee Diarmuid Kirwan was fine. There was a lot of talk about the penalty and whether it was one at all. Playing in the game, even when Henry scored it, I remember jogging back out to my position and I was still happy. I still felt we were going to win it and I know a lot of the boys were the same.”
MC: “The penalty was a big turning point. It could have easily have been a free out for over-carrying on Richie Power’s behalf. In my opinion, it wasn’t a penalty but the referee gave it. These things always balance out though. In last year’s final, Eoin Larkin was blown for over-carrying but had been fouled before it. But it went the other way and Brendan Cummins stuck it over the bar from long range. The pressure on Henry to score that penalty was immense. Cummins looked to have it covered but it hit Pádraic Maher’s hurl and directed it away from him.”
DF: “Really, it was when Martin got his goal that was the killer. You just knew it was gone from us then. Up to that, we would have been very confident. When Henry got the goal but the second goal killed us off.”
MC: “The ball went up the side and sure Brian Cody would have told us half-forwards to chase in after any time the ball came into the full-forward line. I was centre-forward at the time and ran through the middle, took a gamble and picked up a great ball. The goal was laid on a plate for me; anyone would have scored it. I got a goal in the 2003 final against Cork at an important time but scoring one with five or six minutes to go to put us four up in that epic was an unbelievable feeling. Japers, I felt like I was walking along on top of clouds running back out afterwards. ”
DF: “We emptied the tank. Maybe the little lack of experience when we were a few points ahead cost us, that we didn’t push on some more. Thinking back to 2009, we were doing that a lot – pulling away from teams and then letting them back into it. I suppose a bit of that crept in during that final. When did we get over it? I don’t think we got over it until we beat them in last year’s final. It was in the back of our head the whole time.”
MC: “Lar got a ball in the first half and scored a goal. I was talking to PJ at half-time and he showed me the mark on his thigh where the shot grazed him. The previous year it would have stayed out. Noel McGrath gave an unbelievable hand-pass for the second goal and Patrick Maher for another. Corbett got all the credit but the credit should go to the players who got him there. Brian Cody would always be of that opinion; that’s it not about the scorer but the guy who created the chance.”
DF: “Our heads were right. Richie Power’s goal before half-time didn’t really come as a blow. We had been four or five points ahead but we spoke in the dressing room about not letting them back into the game and maybe that goal refocused us. Who knows, we might have sat back a bit had it not gone in but it made us sit up and say it wasn’t going to happen again to us this year.”
MC: “Henry going off after 15 minutes had a major impact on Kilkenny. He really is the leader on and off the field for the Kilkenny team. It was deflating having to see him having to be substituted. He was hurling well up to when he had to go off. We had other injuries too. Brian Hogan was a big, big loss, John Tennyson would probably admit to you himself he wasn’t fully fit at centre-back. Tommy Walsh would admit the same, he wasn’t fully right. Michael Rice, who came on for Henry, wasn’t right either. I’m not many excuses but they are the facts of the matter. Players weren’t 100%.
There’s no point in glossing over those facts.
DF: “Looking back on the game, Kilkenny were still hurling. We were four, five and six points up but it was only when Lar got his third goal that we knew we had it. You can look at the score-line and say it was a nine-point win but Kilkenny hurled to the final whistle.”
MC: “I came on with about 10 or 15 minutes to go and Tipperary were on the crest of a wave. Pádraic Maher, Declan Fanning and Paul Curran were hurling fierce well and the Kilkenny forwards couldn’t get into the game in the second half at all. They were snuffed out. The hunger of the Tipperary players for the ball was massive. The atmosphere too was something I had never experienced before.
“The stadium seemed to be shaking when Tipperary were pulling away. I’ll never forget those last 15 minutes.”
DF: “It was a pure sense of relief for me that thank God finally I was after winning one. After being there the year before and in the losing dressing room and that awful feeling of going back to the Burlington Hotel after being bet... I didn’t want that again.”
MC: “I don’t tend to watch matches after I’ve played them. I haven’t seen either final but from my point of view 2009 was fantastic, doing the four in-a-row and playing an important role in it. I think last year’s final was unbelievable. We had something similar in 2006 when we stopped Cork doing the three in-a-row. You could see the Kilkenny supporters wanted it so badly.
“No matter what Kilkenny did last year, I just think Tipperary wanted to win so bad. The hurling in 2009 was probably better, the scores that were got and so forth.”
DF: “From talking to people who know their hurling, a lot of people would say 2009 was the better final. On the flipside, they say the atmosphere of last year was out of this world. They’d have been at All-Irelands for years and nothing came close to it. But a lot of people would say the hurling was greater in the 2009 final. It was a privilege to be a part in both of them.”
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