Liam Cahill weighs in on the point controversy as Tipp 'move on' to All-Ireland
The game was influenced by a huge mistake by the scoreboard operator on 70 minutes when a score for Noel McGrath was incorrectly credited to Tipp on the scoreboard inside Croke Park.
However, neither ref Barry Owens nor either of his umpires signalled a point - leading to a mistaken belief that Tipp had moved four points ahead.
That clearly influenced Kilkenny's decisions in the closing stages when first Eoin Cody and then John Donnelly opted to go for a goal rather than a point.
Had both men taken a different choice, the game conceivably could have ended level and moved into extra-time.
However, neither player knew that Tipp trailed by just three rather than four points when Cody lined up his shot, and by two rather than three points, when Donnelly's goalbound effort was cleared off the line by Tipp's Robert Doyle.
While there are no grounds for appeal from within the rulebook, Kilkenny could still have made a case for a replay to be ordered on the grounds of fair play.
Instead they have accepted defeat with dignity, drawing praise from Cahill and Morris for doing so.
Cahill stated: 'It was out of our control really, it's just unfortunate.'
When asked if he any concerns the match would be replayed, the Tipp manager replied: 'No. What can I say? It's human error, that's the bottom line. A mistake was made.
'Everybody in the GAA, we do our best. We do things voluntarily; it was just human error and we move on. What can be done now only we move on?'
And yet the Tipp manager has no shortage of sympathy for Kilkenny.
He said: 'It was out of our control, really. It is unfortunate (for the Cats).
'From the outset, these boys here were just concentrating on getting over the line. 'Look, you can go into all the ins and out of it, there were several other passages of play, decisions that work out throughout the 74-plus minutes.
'The reality is that's what big matches like that are made of and you just roll with the punches and you take the hits.
'We know Kilkenny from the start of time are a huge hurling county and I said that afterwards. Like ourselves, if Kilkenny don't win it on the field, they ain't going to bring it to the boardroom, that's for sure. That's one thing in Tipperary we were fully 100% sure of.'
And the manager's respect for Kilkenny was echoed by his vice captain, Jake Morris, who expressed respect for the way the Leinster champs reacted to the fiasco.
Morris said: 'They are a serious, proud hurling county with some serious hurlers. They are a really good team. Derek Lyng seems to be a really good operator. It is credit to them that they didn't make as much of a complaint out of it as they could have.
'As Liam said inside, it was a human error. It was unfortunate for them but it is just the way it goes sometimes. Sometimes you get the rub of the green and it fell our way last Sunday.'
Yet he too admitted he was unaware that Noel McGrath's shot ended wide.
Morris said: 'I didn't know what the story was when John Donnelly was hitting that shot. We would have been three up (in my head); but to be honest you don't even think about the score. You are just playing every ball as it comes to you.
'I suppose there was a bit of relief when the ball ended in Bryan O'Mara's path and he carried it out.'
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