There for the taking for Kilkenny - Reid and Murphy may not get another shot

Irish Daily Mirror

06-07-2025

The scene at the end was like the morning after Glastonbury.
There were bodies stretched out on the grass, dead to the world. Above them Tipp players embraced, smiling amongst themselves. Congratulating one another. Celebrating.
As they did so, men dressed in black and amber, stared into the distance looking for something they knew they would never get.
And to their left young Darragh McCarthy cried tears of joy mixed with relief. TJ Reid was mere yards away from him, staring in disbelief.
Robbed. Deflated.
At 37, Reid may never get back here. Nor may 35-year-old Eoin Murphy.
They know they let this one slip. Two points up with a man advantage and four minutes of regulation-time remaining, the deal was waiting to be sealed. But Kilkenny couldn't find a pen to sign the contract.
Tipp, on the other hand, had the ink ready to go.
All the key moments belonged to them. Four goals arrived when they were needed most.
The inevitable roar which followed each strike got increasingly louder as the game wore on.
The noise accompanying John McGrath's opener was ear-splitting; the sounds which followed Jason Forde's and Darragh McCarthy's strikes even more powerful.
But they all came in the first-half when there was time left on the clock and didn't compare to the escalating sounds as the second-half wore on.
First there was the gasp when it dawned on the Tipp fans, who formed the bulk of the support, that McCarthy was getting a red card for his loose tackle on Eoin Murphy.
Then there were the cheers from the minority Cats fans when Mullen and Cian Kenny put them two in front.
But that didn't compare to decibel levels reached when Jason Forde landed back-to-back frees to level affairs nor when Forde landed a point from just inside the sideline to put Tipp ahead with three minutes left on the clock.
'Tipp! Tipp! Tipp!' sang their fans.
They were only getting going; more drama was on the way. First came Oisin O'Donoghue's lobbed goal, Tipp making a mockery of their numerical disadvantage to go further in front.
When the new kid on the block was followed by the oldest stager in town - Noel McGrath - getting credited by the scoreboard operator for a point that never was, you could have sworn the cheers from Croke Park were heard in neighbouring postcodes.
Controversy followed. Was McGrath's effort wide? The scoreboard changed to suggest it was legitimate. But no white flag was raised. So the scoreboard should have stayed static. Instead it moved to 4-21. And it was not until 7.47pm when the GAA announced that the final Tipp score was 4-20.
So Kilkenny mistakenly thought they were four points down when in fact they were only three.
Accordindly they went for goals. First Eoin Cody did so. Then John Donnelly. Had the scoreboard not changed, would their actions have been different? Would they have tried for points? Had they done so, had they nailed those scores, could there have been a draw? Would they have won it in extra-time?
A gasp could be heard among the journalists when this issue became clear. There was a burst of flashlights as Derek Lyng took his place in the press room to answer the question of whether he knew they were down by three points rather than four.
Journalists shook his hand as if he was a grieving father mourning the loss of a son.
He had a long face to accompany his long afternoon.
Graciously he didn't make an issue of the disputed McGrath point.
Hurting, yet courteous, he wished Tipp good luck.
And they'll need it because whatever about the dark clouds which opened in the first half, the darkest shadow hanging over both these teams yesterday was Cork.
The Rebels had 3-5 on the board after 15 minutes against Dublin; by contrast these two teams had 1-7 between them at the same juncture.
Gradually both improved as the afternoon wore on.
And so did the spectacle reaching that incredible crescendo at the end Tipp 'got smarter' according to their corner back, Michael Breen, when reduced to 14 men.
The O'Donoghue goal on 69 minutes put them 4-20 to 0-29 ahead - a three point cushion with four minutes to play.
Would it be enough? It didn't seem that way when John Donnelly slalomed his way into position to unleash a shot.
There was 73 minutes and 48 seconds on the clock when the sliotar left his hurl, 73:49 when it whizzed past Rhys Shelly, the Tipp keeper.
But the reason John Donnelly's name isn't in the headlines this morning is because Robert Doyle had sneaked in behind his goalkeeper, the nightwatchman doing his job. His save kept Tipp in the Championship; seconds later the final whistle beeped.
And that was when we had our Glastonbury reconstruction.
Doyle hugged Breen and Eoghan Connolly, his henchmen.
At the other end of the field, Murphy leaned on his hurl for emotional support, a queue of Tipp players coming over to him to shake hands and offer their condolences.
And right across the pitch, there were bodies strewn, Tipp players crashing to the floor with their heads in their hands, like orthodox Jews praying at the Wailing Wall.
Kilkenny's crew, meanwhile, were flattened by the emotional turmoil of defeat. 'I get that,' said Breen, 'because I'm wrecked emotionally as well as physically. That was some game.'
It was.
The sequel in a fortnight's time against Cork could be even better.