The Rebels are the favourites for good reason as All-Ireland count-down draws to a close
At least not yet. Especially when you think that he has long since passed out, Christy Ring, one of the true titans of the game, as Cork's top Championship scorer.
He also remains just out in front of another of the game's 30-something figureheads in Kilkenny's TJ Reid as hurling's all-time top Championship scorer. Patrick Horgan. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
It's testament to Horgan's love for the game that he remains part of the most vaunted inside line trio in inter-county hurling right now.
Alan Connolly scooped the official Man of the Match award after the semi-final against Dublin. And it's hard to begrudge a player who scores a hat-trick in such a high-stakes game the honour.
But to this eye, Brian Hayes was the best Cork attacker on the pitch—the touchstone for the team's attacking ambitions. Alan Connolly. Pic: ©INPHO/Leah Scholes
It's his target-man presence that the other two feed off. What makes him so hard to mark is that he often doesn't even attempt to catch the ball. Instead, he has the height and then the added reach with those long arms to stun or deflect the ball into a teammate who is invariably coming at full tilt.
One example from early in the semi-final, where he tilted the hurley at an angle so the ball would slide off to a runner, was sublime.
And yet, again to this eye, Tim O'Mahony was the stand-out Cork player in the semi-final. The forward line benefited so much from his ability to drift into a pocket of space and pick up a puck-out or a defensive pass and send a long first-time delivery into the attack. Tim O'Mahony. Pic: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
One no-look switch pass in the second half just opened up Dublin completely. Thundering through for a couple of goals shows the threat that Tipperary have to manage, before they start with O'Mahony's midfield partner, Darragh Fitzgibbon, who is just hitting peak form at the right time.
Willie Connors and Conor Stakelum, in particular, did very well at times against Kilkenny and Tipperary, with Alan Tynan to come in and Sam O'Farrell, who is so comfortable working across the entire middle third from wing-forward, where he is named.
And Tipperary will learn so much from how Cork opened up Dublin. The latter's full-back line were left badly exposed by a halfback line who got suckered into following their men – the wandering Diarmuid Healy, Shane Barrett and Declan Dalton – out to midfield. At times, there was 40 or 50 metres of space for Cork to play the ball in front o f their inside line. Cork vs Tipperary. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
It's hard to see Liam Cahill allowing a similar situation to unfold. The likes of O'Farrell is a natural wing-back and will no doubt be working up and down the channels to squeeze the space.
Ronan Maher has the physical attributes to go to war with Brian Hayes, and Tipperary will be loath to shift Eoghan Connolly out of six after he was so solid defensively against Kilkenny and even stole forward to launch three quality points.
Connolly is equally comfortable in the full-back line, though, and Michael Breen has the legs for Alan Connolly if Tipperary want to go that way. So the match-ups when the ball is thrown in will be fascinating. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
And that's the thing. So many more questions surround how Tipperary will handle different elements of this Cork team. Cork are bidding to end a 20-year wait without an All-Ireland win, having last won in 2005. Their previous longest gap was 16 years between 1903 and 1919.
It's easy to forget that while Cork are league and Munster champions and go in search of a clean sweep of major honours this year, Tipperary have the All-Ireland medal winners within the respective squads. Ronan Maher. Michael Breen. The McGrath brothers. Jason Forde. Jake Morris. Willie Connors.
When you think back to 2013 and that All-Ireland final against Clare, it was Horgan's stunning point – all wrists in a tight space – that looked like it was destined to win the decider by a point.
Manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy could be spotted in the embrace of his management team as the final whistle looked set to blow. What nobody expected was Clare corner-back Domhnall O'Donovan to steal up and pop an equaliser and force a replay.
JBM is actually part of the BBC punditry panel for this afternoon's live coverage, having done a podcast with Thomas Niblock and the GAA Social earlier this summer. He won't be stuck for words.
The Munster champions are favourites for a reason. The 20-year wait to feel worth it in the end.
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Irish Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Redemption song for McCarthy and Cahill as Tipp rule again
REDEMPTION. That was the story of Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final. Twice this summer Darragh McCarthy left the field with red cards. On Sunday the 19-year-old left Croke Park with 1-13 to his name and the Liam MacCarthy cup after Tipp's 3-27 to 1-18 demolition of Cork. Redemption too for Liam Cahill. The season began with some critics questioning his methods. It ends with an All-Ireland after one of the greatest second half displays ever witnessed on Jones's Road. It was the first time Tipperary had beaten Cork in a senior Championship final since 1991. The famine is over, just not the one everyone expected. For Tipp a 29th All-Ireland, for Cork the pain goes on. They came into the game as unbackable favourites on the back of a seven-goal humbling of Dublin, looking to add Liam MacCarthy to League and Munster titles and end a 20 year wait. But this was never going to be a walkover. And there were clear warnings from the past. Brian Murphy wrote in the match programme about the 2018 Under-21 Championship when Cork dismantled Tipp in Munster only to come undone in the final against a Premier side managed by Cahill. Darragh Fitzgibbon, Shane Kingston, Mark Coleman, Declan Dalton, Tim O'Mahony and Niall O'Leary were among that Cork underage team. Eoghan Connolly and Conor Stakelum were in blue and gold. Once again they all faced each other in an All-Ireland decider. Once again Cork were expected to win. Once again Tipp took home the cup. Cork dejected (Image: Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne) The day began with a sea of red and white descending on the capital in expectation. It was the kind of day when newspaper editors send photographers out to capture the magic and mayhem of the fans. The kind of day the late Mick O'Neill when would've made hay with his camera on Jones's Road. Hats, flags, headbands were on sale from makeshift stalls. Ponchos too as the clouds gathered, but never burst. John Allen was Cork manager the last time Liam MacCarthy rested on Leeside in 2005. On Sunday morning he read a piece on RTÉ Radio One's Sunday Miscellany about the dressingroom energy in the moments before the players are called onto the pitch. 'Those moments of concentration just before the match begins, when all the preparation is done... The final words dispensed. Quiet. Deliberate. Nothing more to be said.' Cork were out first yesterday, hitting the turf right on the stroke of three o'clock, warming up at the Hill 16 end, ready to bare their souls for the ultimate prize. Tipp followed soon afterwards. Michael D Higgins got an almighty cheer as he met the teams ahead of his last hurling final as president. Next year it will be someone else on the red carpet. At 37 Patrick Horgan is just about old enough to run for the Áras and still young enough to run the show for Cork. Much of the pre-match talk had been about his and Cork's want and they got off to the better start. Horgan, the pride of Cork's northside chasing his first Celtic Cross at 37 years of age, settling any nerves with an early free. When the two sides met at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in April, the day ended in tears for McCarthy after an early red card tilted the balance heavily in Cork's favour. Sunday was different. Very different. McCarthy was moving freely and causing problems for the Rebels, while Cork's much-vaunted full-forward line of Horgan, Alan Connolly and Brian Hayes were not firing like before. Ronan Maher was depriving Hayes of primary ball, but Horgan kept the scoreboard ticking over for the favourites and the Rebels held the early advantage. We expected goals and they came, but the 82,000-plus at Croker yesterday had to wait until the stroke of half-time when Shane Barrett fired to the net for the first. Cork led by six at the break. The Promised Land was in sight. And then it wasn't. Tipp came out swinging, quickly reducing the six-point deficit, before John McGrath's goal sent a shockwave through the stadium. Cork goalkeeper Patrick Collins will not want to watch it back. RTÉ had 22 TV cameras at the game, many of them seemed to be trained on Pat Ryan and the Cork bench as the game slipped away from them to a chorus of 'Tipp, Tipp, Tipp'. A penalty from McCarthy in the 54th minute put Tipp six clear. An outrageous flick to the net from John McGrath six minutes later put them out of sight and a point from the veteran Noel McGrath in injury time put the cherry on top. Despair for Cork. Another year without Liam MacCarthy. Nothing more to be said. Tipperary's John McGrath scores his sides third goal (Image: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane) As he collected the cup, Ronan Maher paid tribute to the late Dillon Quirke, another from that 2018 Under-20 team saying: "You were in our hearts, we hope we did you and your family proud today." He paid tribute to Cahill too and shouted, "Liam MacCarthy is coming home" before Bruce Springsteen's Glory Days rang out. McCarthy admitted there was never any doubt in the Tipp dressingroom, even when Cork were leading by six at the break. 'The conversation was all positive. We kinda planned for that. We kinda said, 'If we're five, six down at half-time we're not going to panic. We know what we're capable of,' he said. 'We've come back from worse margins before. We won't panic. If we play our game the way we know we can play, we're capable of beating any team. Stick to the process.' They did. And then some. In the aftermath of his sending off against Cork earlier in the summer, McCarthy's phone was hopping with all 40 members of the panel texting the teenager that night to make sure he was okay. You can be sure his phone was hopping again last night.
Sunday World
3 hours ago
- Sunday World
Tipperary crowned All-Ireland hurling champions after stunning Cork
All-Ireland SHC final: Tipperary 3-27 Cork 1-18 If you were told there would be 15-point winners you could think back to Supervalu Páirc Ui Chaoimh and the Munster Championship in April when that was exactly the margin that Cork won by. Why wouldn't it happen again? Or something like it. If you thought at half-time, when Cork waltzed off on the back of a stunning Shane Barrett goal to give them a six-point lead, that the path ahead was forged for them to bridge a 20-year gap, you'd have been playing safe. It looked like the coronation was in hand. And yet Tipperary are All-Ireland hurling champions for a 29th time, not just champions but dominant champions. The very margin that they lost by in April they won by here, an amazing reversal that said everything about a second half in which there was only one team in it There will be plenty of recriminations in Cork as to how the wheels came off after taking such a dominant position in at half-time. But to score just two points really must register as a shocking collapse for a team of their talents. Tipperary boxed them into that corner however, forced them into mistakes they have rarely made all summer and left them with a bad case of Murphy's Law. Whatever could go wrong for them after the break, did go wrong. Tipp's backs dominated. Ronan Maher on Brian Hayes, Robert Doyle on Alan Connolly and Michael Breen on Patrick Horgan never gave an inch. Horgan came off in the 58th minute, replaced by Conor Lehane, and we may not see him again. Cork lost Eoin Downey to a red card, a second yellow, when he took down John McGrath in the 54th minute. McGrath got away with a nudge but already on a red card as they chased an Eoghan Connolly delivery, Downey was always vulnerable. Darragh McCarthy slotted the penalty for a 2-20 to 1-17 lead and really, there was no way back for Cork then. For McCarthy it was an amazing redemption story and a real act of faith from manager Liam Cahill after his second red card of the championship against Kilkenny in the semi-final. The young Toomevara man finished with 1-13 from 15 shots. A star has truly been born. McGrath had got the first Tipperary goal in the 46th minute when he hunted a rebound from a Jake Morris point attempt that came off an upright. Typical McGrath he looked in a time zone of his own as he botched the initial ground shot but picked up to calmly push a shot past Patrick Collins for Tipp to hit the front, 1-18 to 1-16. They had begun the second half with vigour and Cork only scored the first of their two points just after that, through Barrett. By then momentum was all with Tipp and every mistake possible was invented by a Cork team being drained of confidence. Willie Connors was a revelation throughout in a half-back role as Tipp opted to leave Bryan O'Mara as sweeper. It worked as they stemmed the tide of Cork goals that had been flowing all summer. Every battle was won by blue and gold as the second half progressed and their confidence soared. McGrath got a third Tipp goal, his second, on 60 minutes when he got the touch to a Connolly clearance to beat Collins and at 3-22 to 1-17 Tipp were in ecstasy. Cork's Shane Barrett in action against Craig Morgan of Tipperary during the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship final at Croke Park. Photo: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile Fittingly the game concluded with Noel McGrath, on the cusp of a fourth All-Ireland medal, swinging over a point from midfield. Early on both sides looked nervy and felt unsettled and by the 14th minute Tipperary had more wides (six) than points (four). Cork got ahead by 0-13 to 0-8 at one stage but Tipperary were persistent and kept their nerve when Cork looked to push on. Everything appeared to change in the closing few minutes before half-time however. Tipp looked to have closed the gap when Jason Forde ghosted into the Cork goalmouth to get a touch on a Connolly free that had held up in the air. But Forde was adjudged by referee Liam Gordon to have been in the square before the ball and the goal didn't stand. Cork looked a little jittery in this period, panicked almost as Declan Dalton scooped a wide from a good position after Maher had thwarted Hayes once more. John McGrath celebrates after scoring his second and Tipperary's third goal in their All-Ireland SHC final win. Photo: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile Fans react as Tipperary crowned All-Ireland hurling champions McCarthy clipped a point to reduce the gap to three after Breen had beaten Horgan at the other end. But then came what felt like a pivotal moment. With great control Rob Downey and Mark Coleman combined to put Barrett away and making a better angle for himself Barrett offloaded on his left to beat Rhys Shelly. Gordon and his officials at Davin End consulted but the goal stood and as they made their way off at half-time there were exchanges in the tunnel that didn't appear to come to anything. Few could have envisaged what was to come however. But then Tipp had picked themselves up off the floor last year after a championship campaign in which they could only muster a draw against Waterford and a somewhat fortunate one at that. For Cahill to be able to turn this around as he has done represents one of the great managerial achievements. And there'll be more to come. Afterwards there was a rich tribute paid from the Hogan Stand podium by Tipp captain Maher to the late Dillon Quirke, once a teammate of so many of these players, who died almost three years ago. Cork: Patrick Collins; Niall O'Leary (0-01), Eoin Downey, Sean O'Donoghue; Ciarán Joyce, Rob Downey (capt), Mark Coleman; Tim O'Mahony, Darragh Fitzgibbon (0-02); Diarmuid Healy (0-03), Shane Barrett (1-04), Declan Dalton (0-01f); Patrick Horgan (0-04, 3fs), Alan Connolly (0-01), Brian Hayes (0-01). Subs: Séamus Harnedy (0-01)for Dalton (44), Damien Cahalane for Healy (56), , Conor Lehane for Horgan (58), Shane Kingston for Connolly 64), Tommy O'Connell for O'Mahony (67). Tipperary: Rhys Shelly (0-01); Robert Doyle (0-01), Eoghan Connolly (0-01), Michael Breen; Craig Morgan, Ronan Maher (capt), Bryan O'Mara; Willie Connors (0-01), Conor Stakelum (0-01); Jake Morris (0-01), Andrew Ormond (0-01), Sam O'Farrell; Darragh McCarthy (1-13, 0-09fs), John McGrath (2-02), Jason Forde (0-02). Subs: Seamus Kennedy for O'Mara (50), Alan Tynan for Morgan (56), Noel McGrath for O'Farrell (60), Oisin O'Donoghue for Ormond (66), Darragh Stakelum for C Stakelum (66). Referee: Liam Gordon (Galway) More to follow….
Irish Examiner
4 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
From day one this season, Bevans saw something 'different' about Tipperary
Tipperary coach Mikey Bevans believes the effort which players made to become "more connected" this season was a key factor in their All-Ireland winning campaign. "People were asking about what was different this year," Bevans said on The Sunday Game. "I think the effort the players made to get more connected to each other, to help each other out; we got that sense the very day we went back training, that there was something different about them. They made a huge effort to bond with each other a lot better." That connection was exemplified by the support which Darragh McCarthy received after he was sent off against Cork in the Munster SHC and against Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final. "Even after the first sending off against Cork, I'd say that the 40 men on the panel texted me to after," McCarthy said after the game, "meeting up with Jake Morris, he texted me the following morning, 'Here, we'll go for a coffee', just to get back around the lads again. They're all just so good. "What they've done for me there the last day again, they looked after me there. Oisín (O'Donoghue), one of my good friends, looked after me there as well with that goal. I have no words for him." Bevans said it wasn't just McCarthy who received that type of support. "Mikey Corcoran got a bad injury during the week and everybody had his back," he said, "just so many examples of it that they just came together off the pitch. When you're doing that off the pitch then it just transfers to the game you're playing." Bryan O'Mara playing as a sweeper was another key to Tipp's victory. Bevans thought his side played their own version of that plus one tune. "We were speaking about that during the week," said Bevans, "it's really just about numbers, whether you have an extra player at the back or whether you have a player running forward it doesn't really matter. It's just the way you play the game after that so we'd like to think we just put our own stamp on it, especially in the second half the players just kind of let it flow and came up with their own style of a plus one if you like. "They really just showed what good hurlers they are first of all, how connected they are to each other. They were supporting each other all the time which is a sign of a really good hurling team."
