Long-awaited Cork-Tipperary final stirs old memories – and offers underdogs a chance

Irish Times

19-07-2025

The team I played with in the 1980s and '90s were all reared on the lore of
Cork
and
Tipp
hurling
from back in the 1950s and '60s and the exploits of Ring and Doyle. I've been through it as a kid, watching for the first time in 1972, to my championship debut a decade later and even as manager in 2000.
For me, there's a magic to the fixture and I've always hoped to see it in
Croke Park
in an All-Ireland final. We got to see a semi-final between them in 2014, but it didn't live up to those hopes and Tipp steamrolled to an easy win.
To watch it finally take place with Cork and Tipp parading before an All-Ireland final will be special. I say that with no disrespect to any other counties, but more because this has been a constant throughout my life and watching it on the biggest stage will mean a lot to me, my generation and many others.
Traditionally, the matches have been played in a very good spirit, considering there has always been an unforgiving aspect to them. They start and you get stuck in but if it starts to pass you by, nobody's going to wait. Frequently, they have been high scoring and often close but typically exciting, which I am also hoping for this weekend.
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The balance between the teams should favour Cork. They are waiting 20 years now for an All-Ireland and have lost four finals in that time. Tipperary have won three titles since Cork's last – something that hasn't happened since the 1960s.
My career 'take' on the rivalry is that anything can happen in this fixture and any individual match can take on a life of its own. That wasn't so much the case at the very beginning. In 1982, they had a good few of their three-in-a-row team still playing and Jimmy Barry-Murphy was captain. We were built on a strong group of under-21s, a similarity with this weekend.
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It took a while, five years, to get any traction, though. A dissimilarity with the current Tipp team is that they have a number of All-Ireland medallists. In our day, Theo English and Donie Nealon always said from their experience in the 1950s and '60s that it's easier to win an All-Ireland when you have someone within the set-up who has already got over the line.
For us it was 1971 and counting since the last silverware and there was nobody still around with a Munster, let alone an All-Ireland, medal at that stage.
Cork's Denis Walsh and Tipperary's Nicky English during the 1990 Munster hurling final, in Thurles. Photograph: James Meehan/Inpho
Well beaten in '82, we came close in '84 even though we had no form whatsoever and were constantly playing in Division 2. For all intents and purposes, we had that game won before spilling late scores – that would have been some centenary year for us.
It was back to losing comprehensively in 1985 when JBM was outstanding in the final. Our time came eventually in 1987 but even then there were two hard years, losing to Galway before we regained the All-Ireland in '89.
A year later in the Munster final, Cork were 4/1 outsiders and inevitably, they won. Twelve months later, they were All-Ireland champions and nine up in the replay with 50 minutes gone. I was out with a torn hamstring. We won. Anything could – and does – happen in this fixture.
Despite the weight of expectation, I still believe that's true of Sunday as well.
Cork have played Tipperary twice already in the League final and the Munster championship in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. They've won by 15 and 10, with an asterisk over the second one because Tipp were down to 14 men from the start after Darragh McCarthy's red card.
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Red card for Tipperary's Darragh McCarthy was justified but it broke an unwritten rule
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Tipperary's Noel McGrath concoles Darragh McCarthy after he was red-carded at the start of the game at Pairc Ui Chaoimh in April. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
It should be an open and shut case, really.
They haven't had any problem with Tipperary in 2024 or 2025 in big matches. Why should they have one now in Croke Park? All the more so because they lost last year's All-Ireland after extra time. There may be plenty of confidence in Cork but I doubt that there's as many assumptions around this year as there was before the Clare final.
With Séamus Harnedy and Cormac O'Brien back, they have a very strong bench, experienced management and on the basis of all that, they are justifiably strong favourites.
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All-Ireland hurling final: Cork v Tipperary by the numbers
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Tipp's vulnerability in the Páirc Uí Chaoimh matches was largely down to Cork's pace and running game. In Ennis, Clare showed up that as well in the second half when they got Shane O'Donnell, Mark Rodgers and Ryan Taylor motoring but not for the last time, Tipp showed plenty of resilience to finish well.
Liam Cahill has made changes as well, which have improved the team since the last matches with Cork. Rhys Shelly's puckouts have greater range. Ronan Maher has become a man marker rather than a centre back, taking care of TJ Reid and Peter Duggan. Brian Hayes looks his likely dance partner.
Tipperary's Eoghan Connolly has shone at wing back. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Eoghan Connolly, who suffered at full back when marking Alan Connolly, has switched to wing back where his aerial strength and ability to strike from distance, has been put to good use.
John McGrath and Jason Forde have come into form and their goal scoring has been impressive – as Kilkenny found out. Andrew Ormond has been a great addition and he and Jake Morris and many others have experience playing a lot of these Cork players at under-age and winning in All-Ireland finals.
Tipperary though really need to shut down the middle of the field where Cork ruthlessly exploited space in both of the other matches. They needed to drop Darragh McCarthy and Sam O'Farrell back a bit in the championship but down to 14, that wasn't possible.
That would help resist the early onslaught that's likely to come. Tim O'Mahony, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Shane Barrett and Diarmuid Healy with Connolly and Hayes in the full forward line, all have done damage.
Cork's Shane Barrett is chased by Dublin's Conor McHugh in the Senior Hurling Championship semi-final, Croke Park, in July. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho
Tipperary can't afford to have all those players having good days on Sunday. It just can't happen because their best chance lies in getting to the last quarter within touching distance where their ability to finish out hard is well proven.
So, they have to shut it down through a combination of closing the space around the Cork half-back line and midfield by competing hard there and also having more success in the individual man-to-man battles against those players, which is easier said than done, although Cahill has configured things better since April.
Above all, they need to unsettle Cork and not allow them into a rhythm with the distinct possibility of those explosive goalscoring episodes.
They also have a decision to make. Do they go one-on-one for the Cork puckouts, or do they concede them? If you do, you're closing up around the middle of the field and if you don't, they can then work it up the field.
Tipperary are dangerous opponents for Cork, particularly as underdogs and all the more so now that they have the crowd back engaged. Based on the traditions of the fixture, they definitely have a chance but Cork are at a more advanced stage.
They have been here more often in recent years and carry the bitter disappointment of getting hammered by Limerick in '21 and just not getting over the line against Clare. I know that feeling from 1988 and the following year, nothing was going to stop us.
I believe the evidence is there that the same applies to Cork.