Tearaway Tipp tear up the script to derail Cork train

By Michael Moynihan

In a parallel universe yesterday’s All-Ireland U21 hurling final topped off an unforgettable season with a dazzling flourish, with Tipperary and Cork swapping sixty-odd scores on a baking summer’s day, maybe, as happened a couple of times in this year’s senior championship.

The game in the Gaelic Grounds may not have hit those heights, but Tipperary will hardly be bothered by that this morning.

They beat the warmest of warm favourites, overturning a Cork side studded with inter-county seniors which had dished out a 13-point Munster final defeat to them.

If Cork came to Limerick for a coronation, Tipperary came for a contest.

In his new book, The Hurlers, Paul Rouse cites the deep-rooted admiration and belief Michael Cusack had, when founding the GAA, in Tipperary hurling. The essential elements Cusack recognised in Knocknagow the century before last - pugnacity, skill, belief - were all in evidence in the Gaelic Grounds.

The Premier County might have been beaten well in that Munster final meeting between the sides and outnumbered on the senior intercounty player front, with Jake Morris one of their few players to taste top-flight hurling, but they came with a plan and with purpose.

Tipperary had 1-5 on the board in the first quarter - Morris stitched a penalty in the rigging - with Cork hitting a solitary point in that period.

In the third quarter they outscored Cork five points to three and hit a fine Stephen Nolan goal with ten minutes left which gave the entire team a shot of adrenaline.

They added 1-1 late on to make the game safe, and while that last goal might have been a scrambled effort from sub Conor Stakelum, it was based in his fellow forwards’ endeavour - Tipp turned Cork over deep in their own half and reaped the rewards.

Manager Liam Cahill was typically open and honest after the game: “We know Cork are extremely good and fast hurlers that can play the ball fast through the lines.

They have laser type puckouts that if you stand off a wing forward or even a half back they will put the ball into his hand to create an overlap to cut you open. So we had to set ourselves up really well today and our concentration and communication had to be through the roof to nullify that.

“We didn’t nullify it for the full hour - or expect to nullify it for the full hour - but we nullified it enough to give us breathing space to be nipping at their heels coming down the home straight. We knew if we were in with a chance that we would throw everything at it.”

Tipp players celebrate at the final whistle

That they did. They began each half with a flourish, and on both occasions Cork were left playing catch-up. Retrospectively peering at what happened before the ball was even thrown in can be a mug’s game, but Cork were slow to join the pre-match parade and off the pace in those first and third quarters.

The favourites managed two points in the first twenty minutes of the second half and though they actually led, through a Tim O’Mahony point late on, Tipp’s late surge was both irresistible and a fair reflection of their quality over the hour.

“Early on they (Tipperary) probably made better use of the wind than we did during the corresponding period in the second-half,” said Cork boss Denis Ring afterwards.

There were nerves and they were anxious, but you are going to have that in an All-Ireland final. Both teams made mistakes, to be fair, so they probably balanced themselves out.

“Early on, a lot of ball went up to our forward line and didn’t stick. They were fast onto the break, they were hungrier on the breaks. Balls went into our forward line in the first-half where we thought we could cause a bit of trouble and create a bit of danger, but we didn’t, unfortunately.

“Our lads had a great second quarter and turned the game around, looked to be in a good position. Even in the second-half, they turned it around again when things weren’t going well. When you get hit with a sucker-punch like that during the game, it is very hard to respond.”

Cork may regret not going long with their puck-outs with the breeze yesterday - they had Tim O’Mahony stationed at the wing for deliveries, but persisted in working the ball out from the back. As Ring admitted, their opponents were sharper to the breaking ball all day, with Robert Byrne and Jerome Cahill in particular getting through a huge amount of work on the ground all day.

The defeat yesterday derails the growing narrative about Cork coming down the tracks like a train, even if the county impressed hugely in the underage intercounty competitions over the weekend.

It will also make for uncomfortable repeat viewing over the winter when placed on a double bill with the fading of the senior side late in their All-Ireland semi-final against Limerick.

Though Cork came with a late surge of four points in the closing stages of yesterday’s game they still couldn’t hold Tipperary at bay in the closing stages. With all apologies to Crowded House, a recurring dream can easily become a nightmare.

For Tipperary it shortens the winter and gives the county board something of a headache: Liam Cahill mused yesterday that staying with the underage sides might be the best thing for him next year, but he also said he’d be happy to meet those appointing the senior manager.

What to do? Few managers have the kind of remarkable turnaround Cahill managed as a bullet point on their CV: instilling the belief necessary in his side to forget about a 13-point dismantling in order to win an All-Ireland final is too impressive for any county board to ignore, surely.

Coupled with his remarks about a shake-up needed for the Tipperary senior team, he may be just what the blue and gold need as they plan for the future.

And what does that future hold?

Yesterday was the last post being played in autumnal Limerick for the 2017 intercounty hurling season. The heat which required water breaks in July was long gone as the evening closed in around the lines of cars stuck in and around the Jetland, making for points west and south.

Limerick flags are still flying high, which should come as no surprise after ending their famine, but was there cause for alarm in the game held in the All-Ireland champions’ back garden? They beat both counties at senior level this year, but they may find quite a few of yesterday’s dramatis personae figuring at that level next summer.

We’ll enjoy that when it rolls around.

Until then bask in an unforgettable summer. The poets down here don’t write nothing at all, Springsteen told us long ago - they just stand back and let it all be.

That was hurling, the 2018 vintage.