Message received? Four reds cards as Tipp beat 12-man Cats

There were plaudits for how the referee handed out four red cards in less than 10 second-half minutes, three of them straight dismissals for head-high fouls.

RED MIST: Jordan Molloy of Kilkenny is shown a red card by referee Sean Stack. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

KILKENNY 1-19 TIPPERARY 2-25 

Many in the 9,563 crowd in Kilkenny on Sunday would beg to differ but official GAA’s reaction to Seán Stack’s refereeing of this game was hugely positive.

From those assessing in the grounds to administrators elsewhere, there were plaudits for how he handed out four red cards in less than 10 second-half minutes, three of them straight dismissals for head-high fouls.

After Alan Tynan’s mistimed shoulder on Cian Kenny prompted Stack to show him the line, an infringement reminiscent of Richie Hogan’s against Cathal Barrett in the 2019 All-Ireland final, David Blanchfield joined him off the field less than two minutes later when he caught Andrew Ormond.

From one up, Kilkenny went one down in the space of six minutes as Mikey Carey, who had been booked for an incident following Blanchfield’s sending off, was shown a straight red for a foul on Darragh McCarthy.

Kilkenny’s afternoon deteriorated in the 53rd minute when Jordan Molloy picked up a second yellow card for a late hit on Eoghan Connolly. Any chance of a comeback died with his departure, although they summoned some character to cut the gap to four before Tipperary made their superior numbers count.

The result and another fine Tipperary performance which brings them closer to a first Division 1 final appearance in seven years not to mention Kilkenny’s gathering relegation woes will all take a backseat to how Stack’s handling of this game contrasted other recent league fixtures.

If he was doing the right thing here, then his colleagues in Limerick and Cork these past two weekends clearly weren’t. The truth possibly lies somewhere in between but if his colleagues had taken a dimmer view of similar infringements, perhaps the chaos that ensued here might never have happened.

If Conor Cooney had been red carded for his dangerous blow on Mike Casey on Saturday, if Casey and Tony Kelly and Kenny had suffered the same fate for high hits the weekend before, maybe, just maybe, the two Kilkenny half-backs and Tipperary forward would have behaved accordingly.

Players mightn’t have been warned but referees certainly were at their online meeting on Thursday night. The message was clear – get tougher on head-high fouls or face the consequences. Stack had clearly read the memo. Liam Gordon in Ennis later in the afternoon appeared to have got it too.

For Derek Lyng, there was deep frustration as Kilkenny were within five points after Tynan’s exit from the game but they had been the architects of their own troubles before the red cards. A triple half-time substitution said plenty about their first-half offering.

“I felt we got to the pitch of it in the second half and over a spell of five or six minutes it was just chaos. I thought our effort was excellent after that for a good spell but towards the end Tipp were able to pick off scores and there was only so much… look, the lads ran themselves into the ground whoever was left on the pitch and that stage and that’s all I could have asked for.” 

Aside from the half-time scoreline which read 2-13 to 1-10 in Tipperary’s favour, the other stand-out statistics from the opening period were a wind-assisted Kilkenny not scoring from play until the 15th minute and Tipperary registering the first of only two first-half wides in the 31st minute.

Tipperary were much the slicker team, regularly finding space to exploit and were ahead for all of the 36 minutes save for a few seconds when Kilkenny strung together three points to level matters in the 18th minute.

Tipperary responded with the next five scores, the fourth of them a Craig Morgan goal in the 25th minute. Taking receipt of a Gearóid O’Connor sideline cut, Morgan’s pace was too much for Tommy Walsh to handle and his shot foiled Eoin Murphy.

Sam O’Farrell landed a point soon after to send the visitors seven ahead although Barry Hogan then had to react sharp to prevent Martin Keoghan a goal in the 29th minute.

Keoghan, who posted three first-half points, was one of the few bright sparks for Kilkenny at the time. The third of those was quickly followed by a Oisín O’Donoghue three-pointer in the 33rd minute. McCarthy, whose 12 scoring attempts all split the posts, showed his strength to hold off Walsh and fed O’Donoghue for the strike.

It restored Tipperary’s seven-point stretch and a Joe Caesar point from distance extended it prior to Gearóid Dunne’s 34th minute goal for Kilkenny. Kenny supplied Billy Ryan whose driving run was pivotal to the attack and Dunne did the rest.

A fifth McCarthy free finished out the half for a Tipperary team who could be forgiven for thinking they would have it tougher but their movement caused Kilkenny no end of problems.

“It's something we've obviously been working on and it's important to us, this league,” said Liam Cahill. “Today it has been reasonably good to us. We've kept a lot of consistency in our team, but tried one or two players each day. So today was a good test again for one or two newbies. Young Oisín [O’Donoghue] making his debut in the Tipperary jersey. He did really well for 30 minutes there.

“Younger fellas again that performed well at the start of the league. The likes of young Sam O'Farrell and obviously young Darren McCarthy. All them boys are going to be an integral part of Tipperary going into the future, not just in 2025.” 

Scorers for Kilkenny: T.J. Reid (0-13, 11 frees, 2 65s); G. Dunne (1-1); M. Keoghan (0-4); D. Blanchfield (0-1).

Scorers for Tipperary: D. McCarthy (0-12, 11 frees); S. O’Farrell (0-3); C. Morgan, O. O’Donoghue (1-0 each); J. McGrath, R. Maher, N. McGrath (0-2 each); A. Tynan, B. O’Mara, J. Caesar, W. Connors (0-1 each).

KILKENNY: E. Murphy; T. Walsh, M. Butler, P. Moylan; D. Blanchfield, M. Carey, P. Deegan; P. Donnelly (c), J. Molloy; M. Keoghan, C. Kenny, B. Ryan; G. Dunne, B. Drennan, T.J. Reid.

Subs for Kilkenny: J. Donnelly for B. Drennan, S. Murphy for T. Walsh, R. Reid for P. McDonald (all h-t); F. Mackessy for G. Dunne (58); Z. Bay-Hammon for C. Kenny (66).

Red cards: D. Blanchfield (straight, 45), M. Carey (straight, 49); J. Molloy (second yellow, 53).

TIPPERARY: B. Hogan; M. Breen, E. Connolly, R. Doyle; J. Caesar, R. Maher (c), B. O’Mara; C. Morgan, S. O’Farrell; O. O’Donoghue, A. Tynan, G. O’Connor; J. McGrath, J. Morris, D. McCarthy.

Subs for Tipperary: A. Ormond for O. O’Donoghue (inj h-t); D. Walsh for J. McGrath (52); W. Connors for J. Caesar (57); N. McGrath for G. O’Connor (64); S. Kennedy for J. Morris (70).

Red card: A. Tynan (straight, 43).

Referee: S. Stack (Dublin).