Tipperary unhinge Kilkenny full back line to book All-Ireland date with Cork

Irish Daily Mirror

18 hours ago

TIPPERARY 4-20 KILKENNY 0-30
Tipperary haven't forgotten how to perform at Croke Park - and even with 14 men they still have the hex over age old rivals Kilkenny.
It was six years, including a couple of covid seasons, since the Premier man had set foot out on the sod of GAA HQ, with Kilkenny hoovering up Leinster titles at the Jones' Road venue in every one of those years.
Not to mention numerous All-Ireland semi-finals and a couple of finals, but none of these deterred a Tipperary side that finished bottom of the pile in Munster last year as they made it three Championship wins on the bounce against Kilkenny.
The other two were both All-Ireland finals, 2016 and 2019, but those heady days seemed in the distant past.
Many were left wondering where Tipp were going at the end of a turbulent 2024 season - year two under Liam Cahill. This summer they've gotten an emphatic answer - to the All-Ireland final.
Buoyed by recent All-Ireland titles at minor and under-20 level, the Tipperary juggernaut is rolling again, steered by the redoubtable Noel McGrath - a triple Celtic Cross winner - and a raft of lads with two medals to their name.
Yesterday, they had heros all over the park as they toughed it out to set up an All-Ireland decider date with Cork in a fortnight - the first time the sides will ever meet in the final showdown of the season.
It looked though like Tipp's lack of big game experience at Croke Park, when the air is at its thinnest and the stakes at their highest, might cost them as they trailed 0-8 to 1-0 after 14 minutes.
Eight scores to one and Tipp were scrambling to find any sort of foothold. They'd also had four wides, but tellingly two of them were half goal chances. A portent of what was to follow.
And so they pawed away at each other for 58 minutes until Darragh McCarthy was red carded, as James Owens pulled out a second yellow for a slap on the hand of Kilkenny goalie Eoin Murphy.
Kilkenny were one point up at the time. A minute later Tipp carved out a one on one for Jake Morris, exactly the man they would have wanted in such a scenario with his electric pace.
When he elected to point rather than go at his man, it didn't seem like the right call and you wondered if Tipp would get another chance.
It was then that heroes in blue and gold stood up all over the park.
Jason Forde nailed three more pressure frees out of three, as well as landing a sensational point from play from under the Hogan Stand. to take his tally to 1-5, with 1-1 coming from play.
Then fearless powerhouse novice Oisin O'Donoghue crashed home a late goal on an advantage to put Tipperary three points clear in a gamebreaking play.
Next-up was Noel McGrath, the veteran winning a last gasp relieving free and giving it the full fist bump. Deservedly so too. It was ferocious stuff and it wasn't over yet.
How many times have we seen it before, a last gasp Kilkenny goal. They've left opposition bodies strewn across pitches in utter devastation for a couple of decades now, and they were agonisingly close here to doing it again.
Bryan O'Mara made an important tackle. Still, Kilkenny were relentlessly coming.
But this time round, John Donnelly's blasted effort for the goal that would have won the game was blocked on the line by Robert Doyle have beaten Tipp goalie Rhys Shelly.
The four minutes of stoppage time must have felt like an entire game for 14 man Tipperary as Kilkenny threw everything at it.
At the time the Cats were unaware that the scoreboard was wrong and might well have elected to pop over a point on a couple of occasions rather than try to work a goal. They can certainly feel hard done by here.
Kilkenny had just one wide in the entire second half from 16 shots for points, with coolness personified Rhys Shelly pulling a crucial Jordan Molloy point effort down late on and Richie Reid having a miss.
Every play in the final 10 minutes was massive. One chink in the armour and it was all over for Tipp. One ball they didn't compete for. One man they didn't track properly, as Kilkenny ramped it up.
Shelly was magnificent late on, and despite Tipp being down to 14 men he refused to launch the puck out long at Kilkenny's spare man and instead kept working the ball.
They call it sticking to the process, but Derek Lyng might wonder why his players didn't stop the short puck outs, particularly late on when they had an extra man.
Tipp also survived a bit of a freetaking meltdown with McCarthy missing twice and Eoghan Connolly, who shot three points from play and set up a couple more, also missing one in the second half.
With TJ Reid a perfect nine from nine from placed balls, it looked as if free taking might have been the difference in the end.
McCarthy, who was also sent off at the start of the Munster Championship game against Cork, will be a relieved man that it wasn't and neither was the red card.
Tipp boss Liam Cahill said: 'It's misfortune, the second yellow. By the rule book it's there as a second yellow. We had no complaints with it at all. Just disappointed for Darragh. He commits to everything. I suppose just before that we probably had discussed getting Oisín.
'Lo and behold, Darragh was coming off alright but we can't get Oisín in to replace him. It was a bit of a blow at the time but look, I think it really ignited the rest of the players on the field. Again, the impact of our bench coming in had a big bearing.
'I really thought they gave us huge energy. (Alan) Tynan in particular was superb when he came on. Obviously Oisín, and Noel as usual giving us that calming influence. Just happy that the job is done now.
'We try and turn the page as quickly as we can and look forward to two weeks' time.'
Another huge factor in Tipp's win was the way they exposed an unlikely weakness under the high ball in the Kilkenny full back line.
They were able to land it deep inside the Kilkenny defence thanks to the bravery of their goalie and defenders in taking short puck outs to the corners and between the lines of a zonal defence and working the ball further up the field.
The wily John McGrath caused Huw Lawlor all sorts of bother in hitting 1-2 in the first half.
He grabbed the first goal off a high ball on eight minutes, slamming to the net to lay down a real marker of intent and unsettling Kilkenny's last line. If they could do it once…..
The second goal arrived on 22 minutes and came from another well worked Tipp puck out.
This one was pinged to Bryan O'Mara, who delivered it inside and when Shane Murphy went up with team mate Mikey Butler, McCarthy stole inside. His shot was parried by Eoin Murphy but trickled across the line.
The third goal came on 25 minutes, a lovely lob to the net by Forde off a McCarthy hand pass to send Tipperary four points clear after Butler had over committed.
Conor Stakelum and Jake Morris, who finished with three and four points respectively, were right in the game at this stage, with Eoghan Connolly enjoying an outrageous first half, with three points from play out of defence.
But Kilkenny looked to have seized back control of affairs with Martin Keogan building a six point haul from play and with Cian Kenny powering into it at midfield, shooting two second half points to go with midfield partner Molloy's four.
Crucially though, Tipperary didn't concede a goal and barely gave up a goal chance, defending heroically to just about see another classic with Kilkenny.