Not tipping Tipp to overcome Cork a risky business for pundits

Irish Times

21-07-2025

We journos, you'll be amazed to discover, don't always get it right – even
the Schemozzle
has been wrong on occasion. We trawled the print coverage and airwaves but while some were on the fence, we could not unearth one neutral pundit or writer calling
Tipperary
to win.
As Michael Duignan stated post-match: 'Everybody went for
Cork
, on form, you had to go for them.'
Even
Babs Keating
thought the Rebels would do it ('I have to say I favour Cork mainly because of the bench they have,' he wrote in the Irish Sun).
A case in point: in the 100-page match programme, five scribes were asked for their predictions and all plumped for Cork.
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Martin Breheny made what seemed a salient point that across the League final and Munster games, Cork defeated Tipperary by 7-51 to 0-47.
Michael Verney, again not unreasonably, argued, 'styles make fights and Cork do not match up well at all for Liam Cahill's men'.
Enda McEvoy agreed: 'I fancied Cork at the beginning of the year and nothing they've done in the meantime has served to sway me.'
Dermot Crowe did cite the fact that Liam Cahill 'has a history of overturning earlier season defeats against Cork and ending up celebrating', but still fancied Cork, while Christy O'Connor, an All-Ireland winner himself at club level, theorised that the game would be closer than the previous meeting but Cork would win it.
Michael John Murphy decided to go early with a Cork victory tattoo. Photograph: Skint Tattoo Studio Facebook
Cork wears art on his sleeve
Spare a thought for Cork fan Michael John Murphy, who was so confident in the Rebels' chances that he wore it on his sleeve.
Murphy – a Waterford native resident in Mayfield, Co Cork and whose father came from Youghal – got the words 'Cork All-Ireland Senior Hurling Champions 2025' tattooed on his forearm.
'I won't need to change it,' he told the Irish Examiner.
A 37-year-old member of the Irish Defence Forces, the dad-of-two had several tattoos previously, including one of a hurler, but was determined to mark Cork's impending success this season.
'We're 20 years without an All-Ireland title, so I was always going to get something to commemorate the win this year,' he said.
The ink was provided free of charge by Skint Tattoo Studio, with tattoo artist Darragh Murphy stating: 'I can see Cork winning, but we can never be too cocky.'
'There won't be any hiding the tattoo if the unthinkable happens, I won't be changing it. I'd have no interest in changing it, to be honest. And I'll have a funny story to tell about it.'
It may not feel so funny this morning …
Tipperary's goalkeeper Rhys Shelly celebrates silverware at the end of the All-Ireland against Cork. Photograph: Inpho
Shelly shows he's no Romantic
The game was already up when Brian Hayes was taken down in injury time. Little did Conor Lehane realise, though (we're presuming) that his subsequent penalty had a little bit of history riding on it.
As the Twitter account @GaelicGamesStats (GGS) noted before the final, coming into the big day, there had been more goals in the 2025 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship (122) than in any renewal since 1946.
That final produced 10 goals, which brought the combined total for the 1946 championship to 126. That tally was matched on Sunday and had Lehane's penalty found the net, it would have been surpassed, but Rhys Shelly stopped it.
Among the other belters GGS came up with yesterday were Noel McGrath having scored in All-Ireland finals 16 years apart and the fact that only three sides in the previous 60 years had scored 0-2 or less in the second half of an All-Ireland final.
Consolation prize for dual star Cahill
Traditionally, the All-Ireland Senior Softball Doubles handball championship is held on the eve of the hurling final, with many famous nights at Croke Park back in the day when the late Michael Ducksy Walsh of Kilkenny was in his pomp and the handball final was seen as a lucky omen of sorts for the Cats hurling supporters.
The decider was back on that date this year and Saturday marked Meath pair Gary McConnell and Brian Carroll winning their third title in succession with a straight-games win over Westmeath's Robbie McCarthy and Colm Jordan at the new National Handball Centre at Croker.
There was a handball link, too. Beaten in the early rounds of the championship was Jerome Cahill, who was part of the Tipperary panel in 2019, when he won young hurler of the year.
Quote
Hurling is a game for the gods and gods play it.
The official GAA social media accounts quoted from Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh in their promotional posts in advance of the final.
Number: 3
Times the Open Championship was staged in Portrush (1951, 2019 and 2025). In all three years, Tipperary won the All-Ireland by double-figure margins.