Maurice Brosnan: The Rebel unravelling begins and ends with Premier poise

Irish Examiner

3 days ago

Wheeling away with both arms aloft, completely at ease. The long-awaited spark has ignited a red fire. There's a roar. Shane Barrett is still celebrating. Patrick Horgan is letting Rhys Shelly know all about it. Tipperary dash down the tunnel. Cork are cruising.
They are six points up and strong favourites in a showpiece that has arguably only had one significant upset in the 21st century. League champions. Munster champions. One foot on the steps. Little do they know it, but the whole structure is about to collapse from beneath their feet.
Yeats knew the score. 'Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.' By holding their nerve, Liam Cahill's outfit manufactured Cork's comprehensive collapse. They scored two points in the second half and conceded 3-14. It was a capitulation of staggering scale.
This is Tipperary's gift. To arrive in Croke Park on All-Ireland final day and know that they belong. To emerge after a sucker punch and stick to their gameplan. To understand that a league final and Munster round robin defeat are meaningless in a matchup like this.
In this extraordinary arena, bursting with colour and gripped by a strange, simmering tension, there are only two roles. One side gets to be the hammer. The other must become the nail.
Something was going to explode on this highly-charged Sunday. The cork couldn't stay in the bottle forever. All day long, the fermenting process held north Dublin in a fervour. The streets around Phibsborough became veins of red and blue, as cars with flags obscuring their rear number plates coiled through housing estates in search of that rarest prize, a parking space. Jones's Road was wedged three hours before throw-in.
Never before had the avenues around the ground borne so many signs pleading for tickets. They came in all shapes and sizes, handwritten and heartfelt, each a testament to longing.
Forget hallowed field. They were standing at the gates of ground zero. They just didn't know it yet. When Liam Gordon brought an end to an remarkable contest, what spilled across the turf was inevitable: golden confetti showers. Unimaginable joy. Absolute despair. A visceral outpour of it all.
Long after the final whistle, three Tipperary players emerged from under the Hogan Stand and pleaded with the stadium groundskeepers to be allowed back out on the pitch. Conor Stakelum, Brian McGrath and Craig Morgan won an U21 All-Ireland in 2018 with Dillon Quirke by their side. The trio walked to the centre of the grass, laid the bib that honours the Dillon Quirke Foundation on the 'Iomáint 2025' emblazoned logo and embraced.
How did they achieve this extraordinary feat? How did the second half slide so fast? Minutes before half-time, the volley of 'Rebels. Rebels. Rebels' was deafening. Minutes before the end, every Premier pass was being greeted by an Olé. This says everything about Tipperary. It also says so much about Cork.
A MOMENT OF GLORY: Tipperary's Craig Morgan and Conor Stakelum celebrate after the game
Hurling is a deeply emotional game. Hurling is also a numbers game. When you bring a player out of your full-forward line to create a sweeper at the other end, you accept being outnumbered at one end. This is a simple calculation. The opposition will win most of their puckouts as a result.
Tipperary knew this. They could not have known, but would have hoped, they still retain more puckouts than Cork did. Outside of a superb Shane Barrett goal, Rhys Shelly was scarcely troubled. He looked unerringly comfortable. It was almost unnerving. Goalkeepers aren't supposed to take off up the wing as an outlet, to drive out and score, to save well-struck penalties with poise.
Bryan O'Mara is coming off. To describe his facial expression as a grimace would be a grave injustice. It's a face contorted in torture. He can hardly open his eyes. This is the look a man bears when he is fully aware of how important his role is in a decider. So he pours everything into it. He hobbles over the line, having had a seismic impact on the shape of the game. There are 20 minutes left and Tipperary are two ahead.
O'Mara was freed up from the off. Later Craig Morgan would assume sweeping duties but early on, it was the number seven choking off the space where Cork's three-headed inside line beast tends to feed.
By doing that, Tipperary gained more than protection. They built a platform. Cork finished with a stunning 48 turnovers from which they conceded a crippling 3-15. Despite being six down, at half-time Cahill and co. would see that they had more shots than their opponents. Find their range, hope the same Hill 16 wind that impacted their shooting would also afflict Cork's and they had a serious chance.
Now O'Mara is gone, Seamus Kennedy has come in and the Rebels are stressing. In the end, they will have 15 second-half shots. Seamus Harnedy hits the crossbar. Alan Connolly's handpass to an onrushing Brian Hayes is an inch off. They keep forcing it.
Just look at how Tipperary sourced their second goal. Patrick Collins goes long with his puckout because this is what they do. Darragh Fitzgibbon wins the break and races for goal. This is their blueprint. When he tries to pick a pass across the square, there are six defenders inside the 21m line. Stock the zone that matters the most.
They lose it and Tipperary counter. It's not a long ball for long ball's sake. They work it. They work it until it's on. Now Eoghan Connolly can go long, John McGrath can nudge the already booked Eoin Downey, catch the sliotar with his left and spin into the small square. The Loughmore/Castleiney man who now has 22 goals in 45 championship appearances is closing in. The fox is in the henhouse.
Suddenly every red head in the big house is scrambling. Every single one. Damien Cahalane is being introduced, it takes some time for Diarmuid Healy to be informed he is the one being replaced and Liam Cahill is quick to remind Donal O'Rourke of their delay.
Healy glances to the screen to take in the seven-point deficit. Alan Connolly clips a wide and turns to look as another substitution is being announced. It's not him. It's Patrick Horgan. Cahalane urges for calm yet storms out and is penalised for barging.
The whole place is spinning. It's been 20 years of near misses and dashed dreams and heartbreak and sweet mother of mercy McGrath has just flicked another dropping Connolly ball over a charging Collins to make the gap 11 points. And Cork are going to boom the next puckout long again and Tipperary are going to capitalise again.
This highly-anticipated journey has become a debacle.
Fix the gaping leak in the hull while the engine is belching black smoke. Bail out water as torrential rain comes tumbling down. Quench the engine fire while the compass spins wild. Code red, the worst kind of chaos. Try to keep the ghosts of prior failed voyages and another long winter out of mind. Wait! Are you absolutely certain you didn't leave the oven on before you left? This is the headspace Cork found themselves in. This is how fast it all descended.
This is how an All-Ireland defeat becomes a hammering. This is how Tipperary secure their biggest All-Ireland final win since 1989. This is how the 2025 decider will be remembered. One team's composure is another team's unravelling.