A monkey off Cork backs in contest that never delivered

Celebrations for Cork players will be muted with All-Ireland champions Clare awaiting in the opening round of the Munster SHC a week on Sunday. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Allianz HL Division 1A final: Cork 3-24 Tipperary 0-23 

The champagne corks won’t be popping just yet – even if winning this competition the past two seasons has augured well for its champions three months down the line. But vanquishing the ghosts of the past is surely worth some cheer. And with a national cup to toast, Pat Ryan sent his charges into a fine spring evening to imbibe and acknowledge a job well done.

Jubilations will be muted with Clare awaiting them on Sunday week. Lose in Ennis and a lot of good work done here will be undone but this achievement, if not the performance, should do much to lighten Cork.

Baggage has been lifted. Albatrosses and monkeys removed. This was Patrick Horgan’s ninth senior national final and first success. Seamus Harnedy’s wait is slightly less. For Mark Coleman, Tim O’Mahony and Shane Kingston, this title came in their 10th seasons, Darragh Fitzgibbon and Luke Meade’s ninth.

For Cork as a county and entity, it will feel liberating and a sizeable corner of a jigsaw solved. Not that a league title is a rite of passage for those with All-Ireland aspirations but it sure doesn’t hurt.

To the delight of most of the 43,243 crowd in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Tipperary were blown away by three second-quarter goals, outscored 3-8 to 0-4 from the 20th minute until half-time.

Flat for the most part, the game as a contest never lived up to its billing although some of the giant attendance had come anticipating a home coronation and they left satisfied.

The attention of both counties appeared to be two weeks ahead to the start of the Munster championship and the clash between them here on April 27 is sure to be a far more frenetic version.

Intensity was noticeably absent in a first half dominated by a Cork team who pile-drived forward when turning over Tipperary. Sure, they had a strong breeze blowing from the Blackrock End but it could hardly justify the 3-16 to 0-12 half-time scoreline.

The teams had been level four times in the first 19 minutes with the only goal opening an Alan Connolly chance, which he flicked over onto the top of the net one-handed in the 14th minute.

But the goals rained in the second quarter as Cork hounded Tipp. They hit them with a string of three points prior to Connolly’s 22nd minute. Taking a low, diagonal ball into the D from O’Mahony, he turned and proved to be the thorn in the blue and gold defence yet again to put Cork six up.

Tipperary came back with a couple of points but their play was sloppy. An awful Bryan O’Mara pass was gathered by Ciarán Joyce and sent back over the bar.

The margin had returned to six points when Fitzgibbon added a second goal in the 27th minute. Brian Hayes lost his hurley in a scramble for the ball but was able to retrieve it and roll it up to hand-pass over three Tipperary defenders to find Fitzgibbon in space.

Horgan’s third point, his first from a free, then pushed Cork 10 points ahead and Cork delivered another goal blow in the last minute of normal time in the half. Eoghan Connolly lost the ball and Diarmuid Healy provided for Ethan Twomey to strike low and beyond Barry Hogan.

A chastening half for Tipperary came to an end with O’Mahony’s second point in additional time. They needed green flags to stand a chance of a first Division 1 title since 2008 but none were forthcoming.

Again, Cork’s goal prowess will be discussed but a few words of praise for their defensive unit. For the third game in a row their goal remained virgin. Giving up just 23 points to Clare, 22 to Galway and 23 again here, those are winning concessions.

In total, their last line of defence was breached just five times across their seven league games. “Look, that's something we'll be working on,” said Ryan. “Obviously, Donal O'Rourke our coach and Wayne Sherlock and Fergal Condon, they can look after the back side of things. They've been doing a good job.

“The players themselves are driving that standard. We probably wouldn't have been happy with some of the goals we gave away last year. But look, a lot of those goals we gave away against very, very good teams.” 

Liam Cahill all but emptied the bench by the 47th minute while Ryan had the comfort of taking off some of his leading players with Clare in mind. Cork posted just seven points in the second half as Tipperary brought some respectability to the scoreboard but that’s all they could muster when they were so very second best.

Expecting to beat Cork in Cork once, never mind twice in the space of three weeks is not in the bandwidth of this Tipperary team at the current time. There was little doubt Cork were holding something back but then their opponents were too more of necessity than anything else.

“I'm not sure will anybody come away from today saying Tipp are excellent in one or two certain areas,” said Cahill. “We went at it from effort and tenacity and honesty. I think creation-wise there is an area to improve there and we will be coming here and we'll have to come here with something different in three weeks’s time.” 

The problem for Tipp is Cork could too, their branding even hotter.

Scorers for Cork: P. Horgan (0-7, 5 frees); D. Fitzgibbon (1-4); A. Connolly, E. Twomey (1-2 each); D. Healy, T. O’Mahony, S. Barrett (0-2 each); C. Joyce, B. Hayes, T. O’Connell (0-1 each).

Scorers for Tipperary: J. Forde (0-7, 2 65s, 1 free); D. McCarthy (0-4, frees); J. Morris (0-3); S. O’Farrell, D. Stakelum, S. Kenneally (0-2 each); A. Tynan, G. O’Connor, A. Ormond (0-1 each).

CORK: P. Collins; N. O’Leary, E. Downey, S. O’Donoghue; C. Joyce, R. Downey (c), C. O’Brien; T. O’Mahony, E. Twomey; S. Barrett, D. Fitzgibbon, D. Healy; A. Connolly, B. Hayes, P. Horgan.

Subs for Cork: S. Harnedy for D. Healy (48); M. Coleman for C. O’Brien (51); D. Dalton for B. Hayes (53); T. O’Connell for E. Twomey (56); L. Meade for D. Fitzgibbon (temp 57-ft); S. Kingston for S. Barrett (66).

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

Subs for Tipperary: D. Stakelum for W. Connors (23); S. Kenneally for J. Caesar (h-t); D. Walsh for G. O’Connor (44); A. Ormond for D. McCarthy (47); S. Kennedy for A. Tynan (57).

Referee: S. Stack (Dublin)