Future promise as young Tipp stars sparkle
Held at Liam MacCarthy Park in Ballygarvan, Co Cork, the blitz saw the five Munster ‘hurling’ counties play a round-robin series, with the top two advancing to the final, where Tipp avenged their earlier loss to Cork in recording a 0-15 to 1-6 win.
For manager Damien Young, a former reserve goalkeeper to Brendan Cummins, the win was pleasing, but at the same time he was focusing on the bigger picture of preparing his youngsters for minor combat in three years.
“It’s a great opportunity for lads to represent their county and work through up to minor grade,” he said afterwards.
“It’s great exposure to play in a Munster competition. The hope is that they can continue up through the age-groups and be ready to represent Tipperary in three years’ time at minor.”
The league nature of the competition meant that the defeat by Cork in the first game, when Michael O’Halloran’s last-minute goal gave the Rebels a 1-5 to 0-7 win, was not fatal for Tipperary.
With a 24-man squad, rotation was the order of the day over the course of five games and Young was pleased to give opportunities to as many players as possible.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Everybody gets a game, and our second team were involved in Clare on Saturday as well. It’s important that everybody plays, and that they’re all given a chance to come through the system.”
Cork followed the Tipp win with triumphs over Clare and Limerick, with midfielder Shane Kingston (son of senior selector Kieran), wing-back Donal English and attackers Brendan McCarthy, Billy Dunne and John O’Sullivan all shining.The Banner, for whom Davy Fitzgerald’s son Colm, Padraic McNamara, Ronan Monaghan and Conor O’Halloran impressed, threatened to make a surge but fell to Cork when playing into a stiff second-half wind and then suffered a similar fate against Tipperary. The breeze was a factor all day, so much so that Cork took to alternating goalkeeper Declan Dalton between the number 1 spot and full-forward, aiming to maximise his shooting power, and Young admitted the pre-match toss took on extra significance.
“Every match in the tournament was nearly a game of two halves,” he said, “the wind was straight down the field.
“You were trying to get to half-time if you could and then see what could do in the second half.
“In the final it was great, our lads really turned it on. We got a couple of breaks, maybe a few Cork puckouts went wrong and we got a few points from them.”
A tense first half saw points traded, free-takers Dalton and Tipp’s Michael Connors exchanging points as Cork turned with a 0-5 to 0-4 lead.
They were absolutely blitzed upon the resumption, however. Connors, Shane Hennessy, Dean Fitzgerald and Alan Tynan all scored as six points in five minutes put Tipp five clear, before Dunne’s goal, a rebound following yet another super save from Darragh Carey, gave Cork hope.
The home county would only score once more though as Tipp closed the game out in impressive fashion, good value for the six-point win while Waterford won the plate, beating Clare.
In its 16th year now, the competition was again run well by the Carrigdhoun division. PRO Jim Forbes, a former Cork County Board chairman and Munster Council PRO, outlined the process behind its origination.
“The U14 and U16 intercounty competitions were there originally, so there was a void at U15,” he said.
“We filled that back in 1996 and it has been going every year since. The idea originated here in the division, we saw an opening and approached the Munster Council and they gave us the permission to organise it.”
Typical of his own hardworking approach, Forbes didn’t want to take too much credit for the running of the tournament.
“It’s very simple, because you have development squads in each county now, they’re all geared towards this and all the competitions are played on this particular weekend.
“All you do is issue an invitation and the teams come along. Now that it’s established it’s far easier, there’s no work at all involved really.
Scorers for Tipperary: M Connors 0-7 (0-5f, 0-1 65), A Tynan, S Hennessy, S Quirke 0-2 each, R Peters, D Fitzgerald 0-1 each.
Scorers for Cork: B Dunne 1-1, D Dalton 0-3f, M O’Halloran 0-2.
TIPPERARY: D Carey; T Lowry, E Moloney, J Bergin; E Fanning, D Peters, E Heffernan; J Skehan, L Fahy; A Tynan, R Peters, S Hennessy; M Connors, S Quirke, D Fitzgerald.
Subs: M Hogan for Fitzgerald (28), T Nolan (30).
CORK: T Ryan; D English, I Cahill, S Smith; S Walsh, S Kingston, D Lowney; D O’Brien, D Butler; M O’Halloran, C Cormack, J Barry; B McCarthy, D Dalton, B Dunne.
Subs: S Howard for Ryan (half-time), D Landers for Cormack (28).
Referee: D Hughes (Carlow).
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