Eamon O’Shea finally gets right tune out of Tipperary

Experience won this absorbing provincial final for Tipperary, although it was a day of firsts for them.

Not only was this Eamon O’Shea’s first piece of silverware, at the third season of asking he has guided the team to a Munster crown. On top of that, it was done in tight and quite unpretty circumstances, a box that had not yet been ticked by Tipperary during O’Shea’s tenure.

In many ways, it was a victory perfect in its imperfections for a side so synonymous with blowing teams out of the water and being found wanting when the pressure gauge read deep into the red.