Tipperary 0-17 Cork 0-14
“Too good to be true,” was how a Tipperary victory was dismissed in the build-up. Too perfect. Too appropriate. On Bloody Sunday weekend, too much on the nose.
But as it turned out, David Power’s men were able to fulfil Seamus Heaney’s prediction and make hope and history rhyme.
The fear had been the poignancy of Michael Hogan’s anniversary would load them down with expectation and under it they would buckle. But there was little indication of that in the close to 80 minutes of football here. From the outset, they looked comfortable. The lead they fashioned in the 27th minute was never surrendered.
“I made sure from two weeks ago, I had a word with the boys at the first training session back to re-emphasise the importance to us, what was really important to us as players which was the match,” captain Conor Sweeney told RTÉ afterwards. “It’s an emotional year and you don’t want to be too disrespectful but as a player you need to park everything that has gone on.
“The new jersey, the 100 years, the emotion with it, it’s fantastic to be part of it today but for us as players we had a job to do first and foremost and only now can we reflect on the history of it all, which we will do over the next day or so.”
If anything, Cork seemed the team that felt history’s hands pressing down on their shoulders. They looked nothing like the patient, pragmatic team that haunted Kerry 14 days earlier. Turned over time after time in the third quarter, their attacks were so often forced and the respect they paid to the Kingdom was nothing like what they showed their opponents.
Maybe the emotion of that extra-time encounter sapped them but to concentrate too much on their failings would be to detract from Tipperary who hadn’t been given enough credit in the lead-up.
Sure, Seán Powter’s injury would have made people reconsider their original assessments but only by how much Cork would win. Sure, Cork had won seven games on the trot, eight if you include the walkover against Longford, yet Tipperary had been flawless upon the league’s resumption last month.
With former U21 footballer of the year Colin O’Riordan drafted in before throw-in, their challenge was fortified. To think that he and Michael Quinlivan and Liam Casey, who were supposed to be travelling, would have been nowhere near the Tipperary team had this game taken place this past summer.
A less-heralded full-back line would have been available to Power and how proud their manager was of their tenacity here, Brian Hurley and Luke Connolly not given a hint of a goal opportunity. Keeping a clean sheet, at least in the opening quarter, had been an objective, Power admitted. “I suppose we would have seen the last two championship matches and we were really basing it on, I think Cork hit us for early goals in both matches. So look we had our homework done but the backs were outstanding.
“Alan Campbell was outstanding, Jimmy Feehan, like Jimmy would have been taken off in the last two matches against Cork because things hadn’t gone right, but he’s a different animal now. He’s really playing with confidence. Colm O’Shaughnessy, look, they were all great, very hard to pick out, they were really good there today.”
Cork’s tally of three first-half points from play was an indication of just how mean the Tipperary backs were. Connolly’s long-range radar ensured fouls further out the field were punished but Tipperary’s attacks were flowing easier.
Five points apiece at the first water break, Tipperary powered into that advantage they retained until the end with four consecutive scores between the 27th and 34th minutes. Quinlivan delivered a couple of them but the last, a Kevin Fahey effort after Tipperary swept forward after Colm O’Callaghan was dispossessed, was the most emphatic.
John O’Rourke and Quinlivan exchanged scores to leave it 0-11 to 0-7 at the break, a margin which was only reduced by one point the next water break. As he did in the first half, Sweeney opened the scoring in the second with a mark, although it appeared Tipperary would live to rue Casey’s goal being disallowed for a square ball.
Sweeney’s point was Tipp’s only score of the quarter but Cork’s profligacy meant they weren’t punished sufficiently. Seán White and Ruairí Deane kicked poor wides and the confidence visibly left Cork with those errant shots. The accuracy of Connolly, who had to leave the fray at half-time with a hamstring injury, was sorely missed.
Tipperary ended 17 minutes without a score when Casey pointed his second and when Sweeney followed up with another the sense of inevitability was palpable. Two Mark Collins frees and a White point threatened a robbery but then Evan Comerford stepped up to punt over a free and Quinlivan poached the resultant kick-out to lob Micheál Martin for a point that threatened the goal before bouncing on the top of the crossbar.
Cork would add a couple more points but there was something appropriate about a stalwart like Philip Austin, with his first touch, reacting to Comerford’s 45 hitting the post with the most reassuring of points. A poetic final score for a team in dreamland.
Afterwards, Cork manager Ronan McCarthy reserved a decision on his future. After such a high earlier this month, this low will feel bottomless. Self-aware as he is, he might have been keen not to take away from Tipperary’s day.
We’ve been told time and time again that sport doesn’t do sentiment, that it laughs at serendipity but maybe on Sunday, in this silliest of years, it made an exception.
The 60-second report
IT MATTERED
Cork’s challenge was broken by back-to-back Tipperary scores in the 65th and 66th minutes. After Evan Comerford sent over a 45, Michael Quinlivan seized on a bad restart and lobbed a point to put Tipperary four points clear. It could have been a goal but it was enough to decide the contest.
CAN’T IGNORE
“The stars are aligned,” said former Tipperary manager and Bloody Sunday commemoration committee chairman Seamus McCarthy earlier this week about the county featuring in a Munster final on this weekend of all weekends. In a momentous time for GAA in the county, the senior footballers delivered a performance fitting of the occasion.
GOOD DAY
Tipperary football diehards. Many of them are involved in the management and backroom team and then there are the likes of McCarthy and officials down through the years such as Barry O’Brien and Noel Morris.
BAD DAY
After beating Kerry, former Kingdom selector Ger O’Keeffe wondered if Cork would hibernate after such a big feast. They did here. Their aggression and intensity levels just weren’t at where they should have been.
PHYSIO ROOM
Luke Connolly limped off the field at the end of the first half with a suspected hamstring problem. He had been Cork’s best forward up to then. Following on from Seán Powter’s injury, it was a massive blow for the hosts.
SIDELINE SMARTS
Cork didn’t utilise their sweeper all that well in the first half and when Tipperary broke from turnovers around their half back line they were able to do so with intent through the middle. They weren’t as patient as they had been against Kerry and it cost them dearly.
BEST ON SHOW
Conor Sweeney led like a captain, opening up each half with a mark and producing seven points. Quinlivan and Colin O’Riordan were immense too. The Tipperary full-back unit gave a tremendous collective performance, Comerford hardly being troubled behind them. Mark Collins raged against the dying of the light for Cork.
MAN IN THE MIDDLE
Borderline black card moments for Kevin Fahey and Conor Sweeney in the first and second half respectively were deemed bookable offences by Maurice Deegan. Some frees seemed to be sold to the Laois official but he had a solid outing.
NEXT UP
A repeat of the 2016 All-Ireland semi-final as Tipperary face Mayo on Sunday week (3.30pm throw-in).
Scorers for Cork: L Connolly (2 frees, 1 45), M Collins (all frees) (0-4 each); J O’Rourke (0-2); C O’Callaghan, B Hurley, S White, C O’Mahony (free) (0-1 each).
Scorers for Tipperary: C Sweeney (0-7, 2 frees, 2 marks); M Quinlivan (0-5, 1 free); L Casey (0-2 1 free); K Fahey, E Comerford (free), P Austin (0-1 each).
CORK: M Martin; M Shanley, P Ring, K O’Donovan; T Corkery, S Meehan, M Taylor; I Maguire (c), K O’Hanlon; R Deane, C O’Callaghan, J O’Rourke; L Connolly, B Hurley, M Collins.
Subs for Cork: C O’Mahony for L Connolly (inj h-t); S Ryan for P Ring (40); S White for C O’Callaghan (44); M Keane for K O’Hanlon (59); M Hurley for M Taylor (inj 65).
TIPPERARY: E Comerford; C O’Shaughnessy, A Campbell, J Feehan; B Maher, K Fahey, R Kiely; S O’Brien, L Casey; B Fox, M Quinlivan, C O’Riordan; Colman Kennedy, C Sweeney (c), Conal Kennedy.
Subs for Tipperary: L Boland for Colman Kennedy (52); P Feehan for K Fahey (54); E Moloney for B Fox (61); P Looram for R Kiely (65); P Austin for L Casey (70+1).
Referee: M Deegan (Laois).
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