Cork in control as latest instalment in Tipp rivalry never gets started
Brian Hayes of Cork in action against Michael Breen of Tipperary during the Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 2 match between Cork and Tipperary at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
A great rivalry in suspension. A great rivalry in which only the red hand is visible.
The second successive Cork-Tipp meeting to end in a double-digit hammering. The second successive Cork-Tipp championship clash to end in a double-digit hammering. The second-successive Cork-Tipp championship clash where the dominant red hand ran in four goals.
Remove the League round-robin fixture of little consequence in late February and what you have is a three-in-a-row of Cork wallopings 15, 10, and 18-points strong.
The first set of back-to-back championship wins over the old enemy since 2006. A run of four championship games unbeaten against the old enemy.
The same as Pat Ryan’s debut summer, Cork have three points accumulated from their opening two Munster bouts. That debut summer finished with back-to-back defeats and elimination. There’s no guarantee of points in a program of games that has them away to Limerick and home to a rejuvenated Waterford. Still, though, such is their rampant form, it is impossible not to see Cork amid the top three at the close of business on May 25.
The same as they did in Thurles seven days ago, Tipp took the fight and started the fight before a ball was thrown in. Their forwards were again the aggressors. This is how they announce themselves. This is part of them reclaiming their identity. But was a line crossed during this latest setting of terms? Johnny Murphy’s umpires believed so.
The kid came from redemption. The kid went too far. Darragh McCarthy had endured a non-existent afternoon at the grip of Seán O’Donoghue three weeks ago. Fifty-three seconds in, O’Donoghue was on the deck and McCarthy sent off.
Noel McGrath, 15 years McCarthy’s senior, leapt from his seat and entered the field to console the teenager as he departed distraught. At half-time, McGrath leapt from his seat and entered the field a second time to have a word with O’Donoghue. This was no exchanging of pleasantries.
Further down the line, a Tipp hurley carrier and a backroom member of Pat Ryan’s sideline set-up got stuck in one another . Tipp still unwilling to take a step backward.
On the scoreboard, they were several steps back. 10 points to be exact. 3-13 to 0-12. The second successive meeting where Cork rattled Tipp for three first-half goals. The second successive meeting where Cork devoured the Tipp restart. Cork registered 2-4 off the Tipp puckout in the opening half of the League final, here it was 2-3.
The opening goal arrived on six minutes. Mark Coleman to Alan Connolly to Tim O’Mahony. Liam Cahill had said after the League final that O’Mahony had been involved in far too much of the play. Whatever the plan was to negate him on this occasion, it enjoyed little early success.
O’Mahony provided the assist for their second seven minutes later. It began with Rob Downey - the idle Cork player - winning a Cork restart and playing a short pass to the nearby Newtownshandrum specimen. There followed a most beautiful delivery to Patrick Hogran. One glorious sidestep later and Cork were 2-3 to 0-2 in front.
Seamus Harnedy’s 16th minute point had all six Cork forwards on the scoresheet. A minute later, another goal. Darragh Fitzgibbon’s penetrating run, the offload to Connolly. 3-6 to 0-2.
Connolly's was the first Cork green flag that had not come from a lost Tipp restart. It had come from Craig Morgan being half-hooked by O’Donoghue as he wound up for goal. The play finished with a goal. O’Donoghue ensured that goal was at the City End, not his Blackrock End.
The sole Cork negative of the opening half was Rob Downey’s knee injury in the course of repelling another Tipp goal assault. Downey, worryingly, had to be helped from the field by two medical staff. Mark Coleman, in his absence, assumed the free centre-back role, Ger Millerick entering the fray in Coleman’s left half-back space.
The same as the League final, Cork were limpish and less than sharp in the second period. They were again unable to maintain their opening half fluency amid the knowledge that the two points were long stashed.
Jason Forde’s dead-ball accuracy and the odd contribution from Jake Morris brought Tipp within nine - 3-19 to 0-19 - on 53 minutes. That was as close as they came in a second half where the Tipp supporters headed for home when Cork responded with three unanswered points through Patrick Horgan and Declan Dalton.
The latter pair finished as the leading contributors. Horgan with 1-9, Dalton 1-5. The Fr O’Neill’s clubman, starting in place of the suspended Shane Barrett, magicked a fourth goal out of nothing on 64 minutes. The concrete solid Ciarán Joyce provided the delivery.
Noel McGrath’s 74th and record championship appearance was not a memorable one for his county. Opening day optimism has been replaced by a -15 score difference and a likely suspension coming for McCarthy. Cork, after a brief interruption in Ennis, are coming again.
P Horgan (1-9, 0-6 frees); D Dalton (1-6, 0-2 frees); S Harnedy (0-5); T O'Mahony, A Connolly (1-0 each); D Fitzgibbon, B Hayes, R O’Flynn (0-2 each); T O’Connell (0-1).
J Forde (0-15, 0-12 frees); J Morris (0-3); W Connors (0-2); E Connolly, C Morgan, D Stakelum, A Ormond (0-1 each).
P Collins; S O’Donoghue, E Downey, N O’Leary; C Joyce, R Downey, M Coleman; E T O’Mahony, E Twomey; D Dalton, D Fitzgibbon, S Harnedy; P Horgan, B Hayes, A Connolly.
G Millerick for R Downey (20, inj); L Meade for Twomey (47); B Roche for Connolly (52); R O’Flynn for O’Mahony (57); T O’Connell for Joyce (66).
B Hogan; R Doyle, E Connolly, M Breen; S O’Farrell, R Maher, B O’Mara; C Morgan, A Tynan; C Bowe, J Morris, D Stakelum; J Forde, J McGrath, D McCarthy.
A Ormond for Bowe, N McGrath for Stakelum (both 42); S Kennedy for Tynan (46); G O’Connor for J McGrath (50); W Connors for O’Farrell (66).
J Murphy (Limerick).
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