Cork take positives but goal-shy Tipperary give Liam Sheedy much to ponder

Again Cork manufactured all the game's goal chances

Patrick Horgan slices through the Tipperary defence to score Cork's seventh goal in two games. Picture: INPHO/Tommy Dickson

Allianz HL: Tipperary 0-22 Cork 2-16

Habits or trends, call them what you want but they are already beginning to form for Cork and Tipperary.

Three of Cork’s five goals in the Waterford game came in hurling’s equivalent of garbage time but here they manufactured all the game’s goal chances, nailing two of them.

“That’s pleasing and it’s something we’re obviously trying to work on,” glowed Kieran Kingston. “Tipp set up with an extra defender so obviously you’re not going to have as many opportunities as you would when it’s six on six but at the same time we created a good few, got two, and that was very pleasing.

“It’s probably frustrating that you don’t bring it home when you get two goals and not concede anything; you feel it’s probably a game you should win.”

Still, Kingston had more reason to be happy than Liam Sheedy. Again, Alan Connolly came up trumps coming off the bench and is surely deserving of a start against Westmeath. His contribution was goals against Waterford but here he was a focal point, winning a late free against two Tipperary defenders and was about to win another in additional time but used the advantage to split the posts.

Kingston was offered the chance to praise the young Blackrock man afterwards but in choosing not to he is clearly keen to exert as little pressure as possible on a starlet who helped make light of Seamus Harnedy and Shane Kingston’s absences with hamstring injuries.

Those setbacks didn’t seem to concern the Cork manager, compared to what Sheedy has to chew on. For the second weekend in succession, Tipperary came away with a draw but once again the opposition would have been happier with their performance. Against Limerick, just 35% of Tipp’s scores came from play and while it increased to 50% here once more they surrendered a second-half lead to fall behind before recovering.

More worryingly, they have now gone over 220 minutes without scoring a goal, going back to Seamus Callanan’s early goal against Galway last November. The wide count of 17 can be forgiven but Sheedy didn’t shy away from highlighting it or the lack of green flags. “The match could have gone either way but we’d be disappointed we didn’t threaten the goal again. Normally, this team has a knack of finding the back of the net and we haven’t really threatened the back of the net let alone shaken the back of the net. That’s an area of our game we have to work on. We remain a work in progress but the spirit is strong.”

That much was evident in the way they earned this point, defenders Barry Heffernan and Cathal Barrett claiming late points. Jason Force’s monster free was the ultimate equaliser but while Patrick Horgan hit the post at the death, Seamus Kennedy and Ronan Maher also struck wides.

Those stray shots were symptomatic of Tipperary’s profligacy, and also in keeping with most of their score attempts coming from distance — Cork’s full-back line had one of their easier outings.

“We were happy with that because we were up against a serious, serious forward line there,” said Kingston. “When Tipp set up with an extra man (back), we were obviously going to have one by default as well and that helps but we didn’t give them a goal chance.”

Contrast that to how Cork’s two goals illustrated an ability to vary their attacks. Tim O’Mahony’s 10th-minute goal was initiated by him catching a diagonal ball from the exceptional Mark Coleman and then combining with Horgan. The Cork captain’s batted finish in the 43rd minute came courtesy of a slick passing sequence involving Darragh Fitzgibbon, first dispossessing Cathal Barrett, and Luke Meade that referee Johnny Murphy allowed to develop after Fitzgibbon had been fouled.

Last week, Sheedy described the draw with Limerick as a game of four quarters and to a lesser degree it was the same here, Cork winning the first and third and Tipperary claiming the others. The home side also led at the break, 0-12 to 1-8.

Cork’s determination to play short for the most part in difficult conditions saw them pinged for overcarrying and contributed to Forde bringing his free total to double digits for the second week in a row. While “baffled” about some of the decisions against his team, Kingston accepted they often took too much out of the ball. “Those conditions, playing that game is obviously going to be more difficult because there is a risk of being turned over especially in the middle third and we saw that. There were times when we could have moved the ball a bit quicker and that’s something we have to look at and bring a bit more of a mix.”

Pleased with the intensity of his team on Cork’s restarts in the first half, Sheedy bemoaned that his players were unable to maintain that pressure and again felt his team “ran out of a bit of juice”.

Whereas his midfield bested Limerick last week, they were poorer on this occasion, Sheedy explaining that Dan McCormack’s late withdrawal was down to him still feeling the effects of the game in LIT Gaelic Grounds. Alan Flynn, who did start, may also have suffered.

The 60-second report

IT MATTERED

Barry Hogan’s left-hand post keeping out Patrick Horgan’s attempt at a match-winner in the dying embers of additional time. A draw was fair but a Cork win might have been marginally fairer.

CAN’T IGNORE

But for Tipperary’s second-half profligacy, Cork’s own wastefulness would have been a talking point especially as they gave up plenty in taking so much out of the ball. But adding two more goals to their collection points to a team learning to be ruthless.

GOOD DAY

Apart from injury concerns, Kieran Kingston will have been the happier manager given his team offered more from play and the defence kept Tipp’s starting forward line to four points from play.

BAD DAY

Jason Forde was the only starting forward to finish for Tipperary when once more there was an over-reliance on the free-taking skills of the Silvermines man.

PHYSIO ROOM

Robbie O’Flynn tweaked his hamstring while scoring his first-half point, calling for attention immediately. He is now expected to miss the Westmeath game along with Shane Kingston and Seamus Harnedy who also have hamstring issues.

SIDELINE SMARTS

As Kieran Kingston said afterwards, Tipperary played with an extra defender and dictated the terms that way although Cork were able to bypass him on occasions, Tipperary’s intensity against the opposition’s puckouts dropped after earlier encouraging signs. Pádraic Maher was solid at full-back but we don’t expect to see him there again in the championship.

BEST ON SHOW

There is definitely a nod to Limerick in how Cork are shaping their half-back line, putting the most skilful player in the centre and Mark Coleman shone there. Tim O’Mahony impressed in midfield too, as did Brian McGrath and Barry Heffernan.

MAN IN THE MIDDLE

Johnny Murphy got a considerable amount of things right here. For all the focus on the overcarries he whistled, there were a few others he could have penalised.

NEXT UP

A third Saturday fixture for Tipperary next weekend as Galway visit Thurles. Cork entertain Westmeath in Páirc Uí Chaoimh the following afternoon.

Scorers for Tipperary: J. Forde (0-10, frees); J. McGrath, N. McGrath, B Heffernan (0-2 each); J. O’Dwyer, J. Morris, P. Flynn, R. Maher (free), B. McGrath, C. Barrett (0-1 each).

Scorers for Cork: P. Horgan (1-6, 0-5 frees); T. O’Mahony (1-1); A. Cadogan (0-3); C. Cahalane (0-2): R. O’Flynn, D. Connery, D. Fitzgibbon, A. Connolly (0-1 each).

TIPPERARY: Barry Hogan; C. Barrett, Pádraic Maher, B. McGrath; B Heffernan, S. Kennedy, R. Maher; A. Flynn, N. McGrath (c); J. Forde, W. Connors, J. Morris; J. McGrath, J. O’Dwyer, N. O’Meara.

Subs for Tipperary: M. Breen for A. Flynn (40); P. Flynn for N. O’Meara (44); P. Cadell for N. McGrath, Patrick Maher for J. O’Dwyer (both 55); B. Maher for W. Connors (59); D. Quirke for J. Morris (65).

CORK: P. Collins; N. O’Leary, D. Cahalane, S. O’Leary-Hayes; R. Downey, M. Coleman, N. Cashman; B. Hennessy, T. O’Mahony; R. O’Flynn, D. Fitzgibbon, L. Meade; A. Cadogan, P. Horgan (c), J. O’Connor.

Subs for Cork: C. Cahalane for R. O’Flynn (inj 28); D. Connery for N. Cashman (45); E. Cadogan for R. Downey, T. Deasy for J. O’Connor (55); A. Connolly for A. Cadogan (both 59); S. Twomey for L. Meade (70+5).

Referee: J. Murphy (Limerick).