Great rivalry in suspension as early Cork onslaught leaves Tipp reeling

Tipperary’s Darragh McCarthy is shown a red card by Johnny Murphy at the start of the Munster SHC game against Cork at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Munster SHC: Cork 4-27 Tipperary 0-24 

Tipperary handed back a portion of their ticket allocation in the middle of last week. The Limerick stalemate had not convinced everyone. The League final wounds of a fortnight earlier were still too fresh.

Those that did travel back down the M8 and were the minority amid a red sea of 42,231 braced themselves for fresh and deeper scars as early as the 53rd second. The League final hammering of 10 points was in immediate danger of being revised upward.

The majority of match reports will start at the end and work back. Begin with the conclusion and then deal with how the conclusion was arrived at. For this endeavour, there's nowhere else to start but at the very beginning. Or even before the beginning. Johnny Murphy hadn’t actually started the game when the game-deciding moment arrived.

The same as they did in Thurles seven days earlier, Tipp took the fight before a ball was thrown in. Their forwards were again the aggressors. This is how they announce themselves. This is part of reclaiming their identity. But was a line crossed during this latest setting of terms? Murphy’s linesman and umpires believed so.

The kid came for 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.

His last strike against Limerick had rescued them a point. His opening strike here ensured there’d be no adding to that point. His still-infant Tipp existence will eventually be the better for yesterday’s harsh learning.

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. On the afternoon of his record-breaking 74th championship appearance, McGrath wasn’t waiting for a second-half introduction to have his presence felt.

The scoreboard read 3-16 to 0-14 when he set a new benchmark for appearances in blue and gold. The blue and gold is not currently visible in this great rivalry. This great rivalry is in suspension.

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. 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 away to Limerick and home to a rejuvenated Waterford. Such is their rampant form, though, it is impossible not to see Cork amid the top three at the close of business on May 25.

That rampant form, going on recent evidence, is almost exclusive to the opening 35 minutes of a game. They lost the second half of the League decider and last weekend in Ennis, and would have endured similar here but for Declan Dalton’s out-of-nothing, superb individual goal on 64 minutes.

Cork were limpish and less than sharp after the restart. Of the numerous examples we could have picked, you had Ethan Twomey with a forward pass to nobody. You had Brian Hayes attempting to nonchalantly flick the ball over an opponent’s head and then collect on the far side. Gone was the earlier fluidity and connectivity.

They’re in full possession of all relevant jigsaw pieces. The question is can they piece them together for longer than 35 minutes?

“We can only go at one speed and that is flat out. We can’t be in third or fourth gear, it is not the way we play. We have to be in fifth gear,” said Pat Ryan. 

“We didn’t move the ball in quickly enough and gave them too many easy short puck-outs which didn't help us in any way.” 

They annihilated the Tipp puckout in the first half. They registered a first-half 2-3 off opposition restarts won.

The opening goal arrived on six minutes. Mark Coleman to Hayes to Tim O’Mahony. Liam Cahill said after the League final that O’Mahony had been involved in far too much of the play. The plan to negate him enjoyed no early success.

O’Mahony provided the assist for their second seven minutes later. Rob Downey - the idle Cork player - won a Tipp restart and played a short pass to the nearby Newtownshandrum specimen. There followed a sumptuous delivery to Patrick Horgan. One glorious sidestep later and bang.

Alan Connolly’s 17th minute major had all six forwards on the scoresheet. 3-6 to 0-2. Connolly's was the first Cork green flag that had not come from a Tipp restart. It had come from Craig Morgan being half-hooked by O’Donoghue as he wound up for goal at the far end.

3-15 to 0-12 was the interval difference. Tipp eventually left with a -15 score difference. If they don’t end a nine-game and two-year winless Munster streak in a fortnight, the Tipp rebuild will endure another early summer pause.

Scorers for Cork: 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).

Scorers for Tipperary: 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).

CORK: P Collins; S O’Donoghue, E Downey, N O’Leary; C Joyce, R Downey, M Coleman; T O’Mahony, E Twomey; D Dalton, D Fitzgibbon, S Harnedy; P Horgan, B Hayes, A Connolly.

SUBS: 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).

TIPPERARY: 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.

SUBS: 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).

REFEREE: J Murphy (Limerick).