Scoreboard malfunction colours the close of remarkable Tipperary victory

The 42

6 days ago

WE MIGHT NEVER get to the bottom of The Great Scoreline Mystery of the All-Ireland hurling semi-final of 2025.
Shortly after the end of the game, GAA officials were adamant that Tipperary had scored 4-21 to Kilkenny's 0-30.
The press box in Croke Park, those that weren't lost in nose-picking distraction, had a late Noel McGrath shot marked down as a wide. No white flag was raised. A few eagle-eyed observers insist that an umpire waved it wide.
However, the scoreboard in Croke Park ticked it up.
What odds, you might say?
But there is a very important principle at play here. Because the margin was three points, that meant Kilkenny had to go looking for a goal in a game in which they barely got a sniff of one.
With four minutes added on, Kilkenny could have gone hunting for two points to level the game and bring it to extra-time.
As it happens, they did get a sight of goal.
A few wriggles here from TJ Reid, a shimmy there and John Donnelly was handed the ball in enough space to get a good slap at it. He caught the ball right on the meat and it flew past Tipperary goalkeeper Rhys Shelly.
But not past Robert Doyle of Clonoulty Rossmore, who had retreated to a yard off the line and controlled a rocket of a shot. The whistle blew shortly after. Tipperary's first game in Croke Park in six years brought victory.
It's only a little thing, granted, but the panic spread to the press box where reporters desperately beseeched each other on what the Tipperary score was.
In the media centre, GAA employee Jamie Ó Tuama confirmed that the score would remain as 4-21 to Tipperary.
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It's an unsatisfactory end to a game that falls slightly short of a classic – there was too much loose play – but one that was typically packed with incident between these two.
The shorthand version first; the underdogs, who were priced 13/8 before the ball was thrown in, hadn't played on this pitch since the 2019 All-Ireland final when they beat Kilkenny by 14 points.
We dredge up someone else's phrase here, but there has always been something of the Old Testament about Tipperary and Kilkenny that makes those involved nervous of each other.
Huw Lawlor catches. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
That seemed to spread pitchside prior to the game. As the Artane Band led the teams around in the pre-match parade, Kilkenny's Shane Murphy and Adrian Mullen emerged out of the tunnel to belatedly take up their spots, followed later again by TJ Reid.
Given these players are lorrying water into themselves for days prior to a game, we hereby launch a campaign for a comfort break for all players in the space between warm-up and parade. These lads aren't camels.
The first three scores arrived from Reid, Billy Ryan and Martin Keogan. It took eight minutes for 0-3; in today's money that's slow scoring.
Jake Morris charged through the centre of the Cats defence to offload a shot that was blocked. The ball squirted out to John McGrath who placed it in the roof of the Kilkenny net.
That was answered by five Kilkenny points. Tipperary were being pegged back. The full-forward line of Keogan, Reid and Eoin Cody was functioning well against a full-back line that many in Tipp were saying Novenas for.
But they got to grips with it. Conor Stakelum got their second score on 14 minutes. He got their third two minutes later. Eoghan Connolly produced a burst of three points from play from full-back.
Then, a long ball into the corner evaded Jason Forde and Mikey Carey. It broke for Darragh McCarthy who made for goal with Huw Lawlor flaking away, but he squeezed his shot to the net on 22 minutes.
Three minutes later, another break in that corner of the Canal End and Cusack Stand. This time McCarthy was able to scoop a handpass towards Jason Forde on his way to goal and he produced a delicate flick over Eoin Murphy to the net.
For the first quarter, there was an element of 'After the Lord Mayor's Show' to the game. Now it was alive. The crowd were invested. A block anywhere near the stands always gets a good reaction, but when Alan Tynan came on for two minutes as a temporary sub for Andrew Ormond, he got a full-length block on Paddy Deegan that put the Premier support delirious.
Kilkenny kept chipping away but the Tipp attack still looked lethal. Shelly worked a give and go from a puckout that he landed in front of John McGrath and Lawlor. A good old-fashioned wrestle played out but once McGrath got free he got his head down to drive the ball, but it flew over the bar.
Now to Darragh McCarthy. The promising young man from Toomevara is a rare talent and reminiscent of Noel McGrath in his senior infancy. He converted Tipp's first free on 38 minutes.
But free-taking is a merciless business and on a wet and windy Croke Park it's brutal. That was becoming apparent as McCarthy, followed by full-back Eoghan Connolly, put frees wide.
Putting a free wide is one thing. Doing so with an elaborate free-taking routine such as McCarthy's feels like missing two in one go. Standing side on to the ball, then approaching it face-on. Throwing up a few blades of grass, all that stuff just serves to produce a louder guffaw of mockery from the opposition support if and when it drifts wide.
Four wides from Tipp from the 40th to 42nd minutes felt like a mini-meltdown. McCarthy missing another one on 47th minutes was self-harm.
After 50 minutes, a Reid free drew Kilkenny level. Another put them ahead.
Instant surgery was required and Tipp manager Liam Cahill put Jason Forde on the frees. He knocked over two that were high up on the difficulty scale.
But it was Kilkenny in the lead when McCarthy was sent off for his second yellow card on 59 minutes. A tap on the hand of Kilkenny goalkeeper Eoin Murphy. A yellow by the book. But the sort of offence that would cause no alarm in the middle of a crowded midfield.
Liam Cahill meets Darragh McCarthy after being sent off. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Tipp would go on to outscored Kilkenny 1-5 to 0-4 for the remainder of the game.
Jake Morris hit a special. Forde converted a free that should have brought a second yellow for Paddy Deegan but instead Mikey Carey got it.
Another free from Forde after Ormond was fouled brought them level.
Oisín O'Donoghue entered the fray on 63 minutes. The Cashel man had a spectacular impact as he disposed Richie Reid who was making a rather, well, 'relaxed' clearance and the play ended with a bullet of a point from Forde to take the lead.
It's all subjective whims and thoughts of course. But if it had been Brian Cody on the nearby sideline, you'd be tempted to think that ball might have been launched by Reid.
The climax was fitting and maybe unexpected as O'Donoghue picked up a scrap of possession and, despite being surrounded by Kilkenny defenders, got a shot off that hit the top corner of Eoin Murphy's net.
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It wasn't quite a knockout blow. But the next 'score' from Noel McGrath felt it as it was chalked up on the scoreboard.
Jordon Molloy got a point for Kilkenny. If the scoreboard at that point was right, then Kilkenny might have gone about things differently.
Long after the game, Michael Verney of the Irish Independent texted the referee James Owens to enquire about the scoreline.
'4-20 to 30 points' was his reply.
Some calls were put through to the GAA media department. The same calls rang out.
Eventually, Cian Murphy of the Communications Department appeared to inform all left in the Micheál O'Hehir suite that the scoreline, as suspected, was 4-20 to 0-30.
The excitement and fervour of a Cork-Tipperary All-Ireland final will drown out any controversy from today.
Lucky for some.
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