Harney goal seals the honours for Waterford
In splendid conditions, the Déise youngsters were merited victors but they had to withstand a ferocious late rally from a Tipperary team that trailed at one point in the second half by nine points.
Waterford’s performance levels dropped considerably in the second half and their anxiety grew as Tipperary chipped away at their advantage. Tipperary’s brilliant free-taker Liam McGrath landed his eighth point of the match in the 55th minute to trim the gap to a single point. But they could not draw level and Waterford kept their heads admirably to close out the game.
Their outstanding centre-forward Jake Dillon held his nerve under pressure to convert two frees that stretched Waterford’s lead to three points. They were forced to survive a barrage of Tipperary pressure before breaking up the field in injury-time when corner-forward Stephen Bennett combined to set up Harney who lashed his shot to the net.
It was fitting that Dillon was central to Waterford’s late rally as the De La Salle player provided great leadership throughout. In his third year in the inter-county minor ranks, Dillon justified his growing reputation with a superb 0-10 haul.
The majority of his scores were sourced from placed balls but he drew plenty of those fouls from the Tipperary defence with his surging runs forward. Dillon’s clubmate Adam O’Sullivan at wing-forward and corner-forward Cein Chester were others to make a vital input to the Waterford attacking cause.
The defeat has significant repercussions for Tipperary’s ambitions as they must now prepare for a play-off against Cork or Kerry on Saturday week to salvage their season. Ultimately, their poor shooting in front of goal proved extremely costly as they racked up 17 wides.
Ten of those misses arrived in the first half during a period where Tipperary enjoyed territorial dominance. In the second half they were grateful to the quality marksmanship of McGrath from placed balls and the major impact that captain Jason Forde made when shifted to midfield.
That helped ignite Tipperary’s comeback but they had left themselves with too much of a deficit to bridge. In an eight-minute period either side of the interval, Tipperary were outscored by 1-6 to 0-1 and that was a critical phase in shaping the eventual outcome.
Tipperary midfielder Eoin Fennelly and wing-forward Stephen Maher became more prominent influences while full-back John Meagher was a colossal presence at the back. By the 16th minute they had pulled level through a McGrath free but Waterford hit back to forge a 0-8 to 0-5 advantage. Tipp kept things tight on the scoreboard courtesy of points by McGrath and Cathal Horan yet Waterford pounced for a vital goal before the break.
Midfielder Shane Roche launched a long ball forward that slipped from the grasp of Tipperary netminder James Maher and fell perfectly for Cein Chester, who bundled his shot to the empty net.
Waterford’s position of supremacy was 1-9 to 0-7 at the break and they built on that early in the second half to power 1-14 to 0-8 ahead.
Tipperary faced a daunting challenge at that stage but they made an excellent attempt to get back into contention. They shut up shop at the back where Meagher was outstanding and prevented Waterford from scoring for 20 minutes during the second half. Forde kick-started their revival when he smashed a 20-yard free to the net in the 43rd minute and Tipperary maintained that initiative to only trail by a point during the finale. But Waterford overcame their second-half lethargy to generate a fine finish that saw them claim the honours.
Scorers for Waterford: J Dillon 0-10 (0-8f, 0-1 ‘65); C Chester 1-2; M Harney 1-0; A O’Sullivan 0-3; S Roche 0-1.
Scorers for Tipperary: L McGrath 0-8 (0-7f); J Forde 1-1 (1-0f); D McCormack 0-2; C Horan, S Maher 0-1 each.
WATERFORD: P Cooke; J Barron, D Ahern, C Walsh; S O’Neill, D Foley, J Power; R Barry, S Roche; D Flynn, J Dillon, A O’Sullivan; S Bennett, C Kervick, C Chester.
Subs: S McNulty for Roche (48), M Harney for Kervick (52),C Heffernan for O’Sullivan (58).
TIPPERARY: J Maher; J Bourke, J Meagher, J Peters; C Barrett, J Forde, T Hamill; C Hammersley, E Fennelly; S Maher, P Ralph, T Kirwan; L McGrath, D McCormack, C Horan.
Subs: B Heffernan for Ralph (39), B Maher for Hammersley (41), P Ryan for Horan (53).
Referee: Derek Mackessy (Limerick).
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