Losing start for Cadogan as Tipp finally rock Rebels

Cork 1-9 Tipperary 2-9

Eoin Cadogan made his football season debut at full back following his decision to drop inter-county hurling from his CV for 2013. However he could do little to prevent Tipperary from earning their first competitive victory over Cork since a Munster championship game in Clonmel back in 1944.

Now that 69-year drought is over, in fairly emphatic fashion it must be said, it says much about the footballing aims and aspirations of the county that manager Peter Creedon was not reading much into the result.

“It’s a nice win for us in January,” he said, “we’ve been training hard since November.

“It was good to be able to have nine or 10 of our championship team to call on, but I wouldn’t read too much into the result. We weren’t going out trying mad for the win, we just wanted to go out and play a game of football and see what we could learn about the young players, some of them showed quite well.

“Cork kicked bad wides, it’s grand, we got what we wanted. We weren’t too bothered about the McGrath Cup at the start of the year. We just said we’d mix up the seniors and the U21s and see where we go.

“If Cork had upped the pace a bit, I think that we might have struggled.”

But it was Cork who struggled, as, despite naming a strong starting 15, they never led and would have lost by more but for a late revival as Tipp flagged.

Cadogan did relatively well tracking Philip Quirke and often found himself in the middle of the park where his driving runs achieved more than some team-mates in attacking positions.

Damien Cahalane, who played wing-back in the second half, also had his moments and Andrew O’Sullivan worked hard in midfield, but Cork struggled. 12 wides were registered and at times the forward division was too static.

While obviously pleased to have secured Cadogan’s exclusive services, Counihan was not happy with the performance and the manner of the defeat.

“It’s been a difficult decision for Eoin to make, but we’re happy to have him,” he said.

“We’re disappointed with the loss, there’s no point in saying otherwise. We shouldn’t have been complacent but can I really say yes to that? I’m not sure.

“Some of our lads will be very disappointed with the decisions they made. We all have to question ourselves, but I don’t want to take from Tipperary, they were fully deserving of their win.”

There can be no denying the last statement, for Tipp were far better. Full-back and captain Paddy Codd was outstanding, alongside him Andrew Morrissey worked incredibly hard, and in attack familiar names like Barry Grogan, scorer of 1-5, and Philip Austin had their good work augmented by Quirke.

He kicked two superb early frees, with Grogan also finding his range, and with Donncha O’Connor almost solely carrying the Cork scoring burden, the visitors led by 0-7 to 0-4 at half-time.

Cork attempted surgery at half-time, with Aidan Walsh, Pearse O’Neill and Paul Kerrigan introduced, and the opening minutes of the second half yielded points from Liam Shorten and Ciarán Sheehan, now at full-forward, as the gap was cut to a point.

Tipp got a break with a penalty for a foul on Austin. Grogan sent Ken O’Halloran the wrong way before adding a point and then Bill Maher nabbed a second goal, profiting from work by Austin and Liam McGrath to make it 2-8 to 0-6.

As the end neared, though, Tipp flagged and sub Fintan Goold kicked two Cork frees before Sheehan cut the gap to three points when he goaled in injury time.

Cork piled on the pressure in the search for an equalising goal, but had Tipp been denied it would have been an injustice. They had done enough.

Scorers for Tipperary: B Grogan 1-6 (0-4f), B Maher 1-0, P Quirke 0-2f, P Austin 0-1.

Scorers for Cork: C Sheehan 1-1, D O’Connor 0-3 (0-1f), L Shorten, F Goold (0-2f) 0-2 each, B O’Driscoll 0-1f.

TIPPERARY: P Fitzgerald; A Morrissey, P Codd, J Coghlan; A Campbell, S Kennedy, J O’Callaghan; G Hannigan, S O’Brien; P Austin, L McGrath, A Matassa; B Maher, P Quirke, B Grogan.

Subs: L Egan for Campbell (45), K Bergin for Matassa (inj. 53), B O’Brien for Maher (53), D Lowry for Austin (inj. 59), D Lynch for O’Callaghan (66).

CORK: K O’Halloran; J McLoughlin, E Cadogan, D Cahalane; M Shields, B Shanahan, N O’Leary; A O’Connor, A O’Sullivan; J Fitzpatrick, C Sheehan, O Mulrooney; B O’Driscoll, D O’Connor, L Shorten.

Subs: P Kerrigan for D O’Connor, P O’Neill for Mulrooney, A Walsh for Fitzpatrick (all ht), F Goold for O’Driscoll (65), S Kiely for O’Leary (70).

Referee: S Joy (Kerry).