Game of inches adds up to a thriller

Kilkenny 3-22 Tipperary 1-28: The finest of fares. The finest of margins.

There have been many pretenders but this was the quintessential game of inches.

Those pesky units denied John O’Dwyer a score so audacious it would have been an appropriate finish to settle such a spectacle. But them blasted inches were all that separated Brian Hogan from a legitimate exchange with Pádraic Maher which, instead of giving O’Dwyer his chance from 90-plus metres out, could have been given the other way.