‘We’ll take a bit of beating’
Defeats of Offaly, Wexford and Antrim in 2012 shepherded the county into the last round of qualifiers before Down halted their ambitions with a five-point win in Mullingar, so this win against a side considered to be among the better ones in the second tier carries extra weight.
Tipp’s footballers have all too often played to paltry crowds in their own county, but the presence of Eamon O’Shea’s hurlers on the same Saturday bill here provided a more appropriate soundtrack to such a meaningful day.
They had plenty to shout about.
This was a game to make the head spin. A crazy match chock-a-block with incident and twists and turns. More fun than a circus and twice as mad.
Thirteen clear goalscoring chances were created over the 70-plus minutes and Tipp had at least half of them in a first-half which ended with them leading by ten points and still feeling aggrieved, for it could have been double that.
Laois’s defence was repeatedly opened, as it had been six days earlier by Wexford. Conor Sweeney pounced for two goals and Philip Austin and Michael Quinlivan were shooting points for fun.
Laois all but stood and watched as opponents streamed past them, runners off shoulders, defenders mingling with forwards. It was beautiful to watch and more than one long-time Tipperary observer claimed it was the best they had ever played.
Laois went over 20 minutes without a score at one point as Tipp hoovered up 1-9 and the Leinster side’s day looked done at half-time, especially with chief marksman Ross Munnelly limping off with an ankle injury.
And then it turned. Inexplicably. Like rain from a cloudless sky, it made no sense, but Laois were level by the 62ndminute, thanks in the main to goals from James Finn, Conor Meredith and David Conway and the spectre of Tipp’s agonising loss to Cork in Munster announced itself.
The extent of the turnaround was startling. Tipp shrank back into their shells and their half more and more as the second period went on and Laois chipped away at their advantage. A case of too big a lead too early, maybe?
“You can get a bit of stage fright if you are ten points up at half-time,” said Tipp manager Peter Creedon. “Like, what do you say to a team but keep going and at the back of your own mind you are saying that you should have the game won.
“Laois were always going to come back at us. There was a reasonable wind [in their favour] as well although we didn’t expect to concede four goals. We haven’t been doing that. That was through our own stupidity, but after a game like that you take the win.”
That they got it was down to that most consistent of trends in GAA, whereby teams that manage to reel in massive deficits find themselves emptied by the effort of drawing level and Tipp ultimately held their nerve.
Barry Grogan’s goal a minute from time finally made the game safe at the second time of asking and the import of the win after all that had happened was franked by Creedon, who admitted that defeat would have been a “disaster” for them.
Was he worried at any point?
“Ah jeez, I was. I’m not saying I wasn’t. When they got level it looked like they had all the momentum. It was one of those day where it was down to sheer heart and guts in that last quarter of an hour.”
No -one can say this wasn’t coming. Tipp’s underage success, like that of Laois in the late ’90s and early ’00s, was always going to deliver further up the food chain but the county’s next outing will tell us how far that process has come.
Wounded Connacht finalists Galway await in a fortnight’s time and that scalp would represent the most significant yet. Creedon was in Castlebar yesterday to run the rule over events at Elvery’s MacHale Park and with the promise that Tipp are far from done yet.
“We’re there now and we’re going to take a bit of beating,” he warned.
This could be big.
Scorers for Laois: D Kingston (0-4, 3fs), D Conway (1-1), C Meredith, J O’Loughlin (both 1-0), MJ Tierney, E Costello, B Sheehan, N Donoher (0-1 each).
Scorers for Tipperary: C Sweeney (2-2, 0-1 free), B Grogan (1-3, 0-1 free), P Austin (0-4), M Quinlivan (0-3), C O’Riordan, B Fox (0-2 each), P Acheson (0-1).
LAOIS: G Brody; P McMahon, P Begley, P O’Leary; D Strong, R Kehoe, C Begley; K Meaney, J O’Loughlin; C Meredith, B Sheehan, N Donoher; R Munnelly, D Kingston, D O’Connor.
Subs: J Finn for Munnelly (29), D Conway for O’Connor, S Attride for Meaney (both ht), MJ Tierney for Kehoe (45), E Costello for C Begley (52), K Meaney for McMahon (66).
TIPPERARY: P Fitzgerald; J Coghlan, P Codd, C McDonald; C O’Riordan, R Kiely, G Mulhair; S O’Brien, G Hannigan; M Quinlivan, B Fox, P Acheson; C Sweeney, P Austin, B Grogan.
Subs: I Fahy for Mulhair (48), C Kennedy for Austin (70), B Mulvihill for Grogan (72).
Referee: D Gough (Meath).
Barry Grogan’s free five minutes from time. Laois had just drawn level and another score for the home side then may have provided the foundation for victory. Instead Tipperary pulled clear again.
The sight of a Tipperary senior football being roared on and then mobbed by a good few thousand delirious supporters. Changed times, indeed.
So many to choose from, especially from Tipperary. Barry Grogan may just have edged it, if only because he stepped up and did the business in that last five minutes.
Laois saw three key players banished for black card offences: centre-back Robbie Kehoe, corner-back Padraig McMahon and wing-forward Conor Meredith.
Laois were opened like a cheap tin can down the middle in Wexford last week and Tipperary did even more damage on Saturday. Some change for a side built on defence under Justin McNulty.
David Gough managed to raise the ire of both sets of fans. Some poor decisions unquestionably, but the game was ultimately won by the better side.
Tippy meet Galway in the last round of qualifiers in two weeks’ time.
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