Tony Leen: Tipperary and Cavan give All-Ireland semi-finals a sprinkle of something special

Mon, 23 Nov, 2020 - 07:20

Tony Leen, Pairc Ui Chaoimh

The coincidence of arriving at All-Ireland football semi-final stage with the same four counties the championship produced in 1920 is too rich a storyline to ignore. But yesterday’s stunning results in Ulster and Munster finals deserve greater interrogation. They must be categorised differently.

To defer to the lure of fate, hope and history is a romantic narrative for sure, but it tells nothing of the craft, graft, and performances delivered in the face of stacked odds by Cavan against favoured Donegal and Tipperary in Cork’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Tipp, in particular, bore the weight of wearing, literally, Bloody Sunday history on their selves, but in delivering a spectacular first provincial football title in 85 years, it was a yoke they carried lightly.

Cavan’s defeat of Donegal projects them into a semi-final against the rampaging Dubs and was it not for yesterday’s obliteration of ‘presumption’ from the 2020 championship lexicon, one would be inclined to say their second Ulster title in 51 years will be, as Jack Nicholson used say, as good as it gets.

No-one can be quite sure where Tipperary’s ambitions sit after their 10t Munster football title success, but a first since 1935. They will face Mayo in the last four, as they did in 2016, with their Sunday best well-advertised and an opponent with a more durable crust than Cork. But there’s precious little rhyme or reason to recent results in this outlier of a campaign. It’s a reasonable assumption to make that the final four would look nothing like so were the championship structured with second chances. But here’s the thing: both Cavan and Tipp are 70 minutes away from a December 19th All-Ireland final.

Go figure.

For Tipp’s emotional manager David Power, not yet 38, there is the joy of honouring history and creating it. The quieter gratification for his management and players, though, is the performance in Cork yesterday.

Just as Cork players were reminded of their Jekyll and Hyde personality all week, Tipp were assured the stars were aligning for them this weekend. But talk of a bloodied field carried limited ballast into Sunday. They had a robust, well-prepped plan to ensure their pointy edge, aka Conor Sweeney and Michael Quinlivan, kept Cork honest.

If Meath looked pale and drawn at the sight of Dublin Saturday night, Tipperary showed their intent early and often yesterday. No fear. In the cold emptiness of Páirc Ui Chaoimh, the Tipp tactic of ‘Up the middle’ was as noteworthy as it was audible.

Kerry might be taking notes.

“We always believed we could beat Cork and I didn’t have to say that, the players knew it,” a joyous Power pointed out afterwards.

The new Munster champions – the first outside Cork and Kerry since Clare forgot to milk the cows in 1992 – donned the tribute white-and-green garb of their Bloody Sunday compatriots and a fast three-point start ensured whatever mojo was on offer from the weekend’s centenary commemoration would be theirs.

More importantly, it wouldn’t be Cork’s.

Save for a minute early on, Tipp were never headed and by half-time were 0-11 to 0-7 to the good.

A hunted Cork looked hesitant, ponderous. Manager Ronan McCarthy has given youth its head and done so with gusto. Following up the performance against Kerry with something of the same voltage was a big ask. In its absence, there is a premium on leadership, players to arrest opposition momentum and shift the dynamic. That was not there yesterday.

To say Cork fell flat on their face after the Kerry heroics is harsh but only from an internal perspective.

“We never got to the pitch of the game,” manager Ronan McCarthy repeated afterwards, and in that he said a mouthful. Cork’s defence was sprinkled with young promise and if that’s an easy target in hindsight, it is no less relevant for that fact. They were far, way too far, off their respective Tipperary attacker in the first period, and whoever was tracking possible man of the match, Steven O’Brien, abdicated his responsibility as the Tipp man overlapped into attack.

Cork’s inquest will take its own course – but the provincial final loss has all sorts of damaging ramifications. If it doesn’t undo the progress made over the past 12 months, it opens again the charge of frustrating inconsistency. Unless the administrative arm moves fast, it could also be Ronan McCarthy’s managerial swansong, which would be a disappointing and retrograde step.

And as the manager himself pointed out, the defeat robs Cork of an All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park against a top four team in Mayo, precisely the type of game McCarthy, Cian O’Neill et al have been building this project towards.

In all, an abysmal afternoon for Cork.

Afterwards, Tipp manager David Power wanted to namecheck the greater extent of Tipp’s football family but his anxiety over omitting any of yesterday’s heroes was understandable. Keeper Evan Comerford hadn’t a single shot to save with his defenders combining time and again to deny Cork any clear sight of goal. Midfielders O’Brien and Liam Casey coupled defensive duties with tireless availability for the outlet out from the back. Casey finished with two points.

Captain Conor Sweeney claimed seven points, his gunslinging partner Micheal Quinlivan five, and put his name on assists for two more with marvellous vision and passes. Power wouldn’t hear talk of Mayo on Sunday, but one needn’t be a sleuth to figure who the Connacht champions will frame their defensive shape around in a fortnight.

Cork manager McCarthy still felt his side could dig an undeserved result out of the situation when Sean White made it a two-point game (0-14 to 0-12) on 64 minutes, but two atypical goalkeeping interventions pointed Tipp for home – first Comerford pointed from a long rage free, then Cork keeper Micheal A Martin had an attempted short kickout intercepted by Quinlivan for a point.

Cork threw Mark Keane into the game and his midfield work was eye-catching but Tipp weren’t getting undone like Kerry and double-teamed the young Mitchelstown man any time he drifted inside the full back line in search of a saving goal.

Part of that defensive insurance was Colin O’Riordan, another of the AFL loanees, who played every minute and provided important presence in the third quarter when Tipp appeared to be fading. Expect the phone lines between Thurles and Sydney to be humming this week.

Had they converted a glorious goal chance just after the break, Tipp might have eased to a more comprehensive success. O’Brien fisted his point-blank effort against the crossbar at a stage when Tipp led 0-12 to 0-7. The let-off fired Cork to their best spell in the piece. Tipp’s attacking legs were weakening – they failed to score for 17 minutes in the third quarter – but Cork couldn’t find the thrust or the combinations to capitalise. Brian Hurley was held, the bulk of Mark Collins’ work was out the field, and Ruairi Deane’s penetrating runs were repeatedly bottled up.

In that regard, the loss of Sean Powter can’t be overlooked but Tipp’s thrifty use of limited possession in the last quarter was admirable given the scale of what was on offer.

“This is great for the team but it’s great for Tipp football in general going forward,” Power explained. “I think young people watching today saw we played with a style that will attract them. Yes, hurling will be always number one in Tipp but now people will want to play football for Tipperary.”

Eighty-five years after their ninth Munster football title, the players bounced, hugged and cheered the final call of Maurice Deegan’s whistle. As his colleagues savoured Sweeney’s speech, his cradling of the cup in a kit borrowed from a bloody Sunday, it can’t have been lost on Tipperary that they were celebrating a moment in GAA history by creating an altogether more joyous new one.