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Irish Times
19-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Rebuilding the plane while flying it: How Liam Cahill turned Tipperary around after a dismal 2024
The fightback had to start somewhere. It's just that nobody saw it starting there. If you were in Nowlan Park that day, you weren't thinking that the Tipperary minors were about to change the way the county thought about itself. They were level with Kilkenny in last year's All-Ireland minor final but they were down to 13 men. Over the previous month, the Tipp seniors had limped out of Munster and the under-20s had faded out of the All-Ireland final. Why should this be any different? And yet it was. James Woodlock's young team wouldn't be beaten. In front of a Kilkenny crowd, through a second half and two periods of extra time, they fought on their backs and somehow came away with a 2-17 to 3-12 victory. They couldn't know it at the time but they brought more than a cup back to Tipp that day. [ Tipperary claim extra-time victory over Kilkenny to take minor title despite two red cards Opens in new window ] Liam Cahill was in the crowd, as he always is. Throughout his time as Tipp manager, he has made a point of making sure that the underage set-ups are connected to the seniors. Make them feel part of the whole, inspire them to want to reach elite standards. Except here, the whole thing was flipped around. READ MORE 'We came out of Nowlan Park last year on the back of such a huge performance,' Cahill said last week. 'Young players of 16 and 17 years of age, showing us what we try to ingrain in our players from a coaching and management perspective. 'The minor win gave us a great sense of pride. But also a great sense of realisation as a senior squad and senior management team, that we need to be doing that. Where we're at and the responsibility we have to the jersey – that has to come from the top down. We should be inspiring young fellas rather than they inspiring us.' Tipperary's Daire English and Owen O'Dwyer dive to stop a Kilkenny goal in the All-Ireland minor hurling championship final at Nowlan Park in June 2024. Photograph: Ken Sutton/Inpho So let's say it started there. Some of Cahill's players were in the crowd that day too – Jake Morris and others have referenced it as well. Tipp hurling needed something to lift it up from rock bottom. The fact that it gets mentioned at all gives a stark sense of where things were at the time. 'Liam was a broken man last year with the pressure he was under,' Woodlock says. 'Pressure was coming from Tipp supporters, like any county I suppose. We're hungry for success and Liam, unfairly, felt all of that and put it on himself. 'What the minors did in Nowlan Park lifted the entire county. Liam was hurt by the way the seniors went out of the championship. For the minors then to give the Tipp public a team to follow, I think that gave him inspiration. He went back and he worked with his group over the winter.' Deciding on who that group was going to consist of was the next step along the road. Sitting here now, on All-Ireland final weekend, it looks a no-brainer that Cahill would refresh the panel and flush it with youth. But there were flurries of resistance here and there when the 45-man training panel was announced in October. Cathal Barrett's omission raised some eyebrows, to say the least. Bonner Maher and Dan McCormack were finishing up but Barry Heffernan stepping away didn't feel like a vote of confidence. And while the likes of Darragh McCarthy, Sam O'Farrell and Andrew Ormond were expected to have big futures, nobody had them playing in a senior All-Ireland final any time soon. Galway's TJ Brennan and Tipperary's Andrew Ormond in the All-Ireland SHC quarter-final at Gaelic Grounds on June 21st. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho In all, the match day 26 this weekend contains just 18 of the squad named for Tipp's last game in 2024. That's a huge turnover for a top-tier county – Cork return to the final with 24 of the 26 that were named for this day last year. Cahill chose to rebuild the plane while flying the plane. And he didn't care who knew it. The next stage of the rebuild was that he had to sell it. If it was going to work, he was going to need to bring people with him. The gradual erosion of the connection between the Tipp team and its public was obvious to everyone, the manager most of all. He started dropping occasional mini-grenades into interviews, leaving phrases like 'impatient, less knowledgeable Tipperary hurling folk' hanging in the air for everybody to muse over . In February, he sat down for an interview with Shane Brophy , the sports editor of the Nenagh Guardian. In the wake of their dismal 2024 season, a clip had gone viral among Tipp supporters of Brophy asking Cahill if he had had any thoughts over whether he was the right man to take the team forward and Cahill getting in a snot about it, saying straight out that he took 'umbrage' at the question. It was the kind of testy exchange intercounty managers tend to have far more often with local journalists than with national ones. Family business, spilling out in public, both sides caring far more about the state of things than the rest of us rubbernecking from the outside. They sorted it out together later in the year when the dust had settled – at the Tipp press event last week, Cahill brought the incident up himself without anybody asking about it. Tipperary manager Liam Cahill at a media event in the Horse & Jockey Hotel on July 9th. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho 'You can't get too sensitive over these things. You have to understand that these questions have to be asked too when the performances aren't there. Referencing Shane's question after the Clare game, it probably was warranted at the time but it's a tougher question when it comes from one of your own. 'The reality of it is, the County Board had given me a three-year term to try and fix this thing the best I could. Yes, there was not much of a ship sticking out of the water, and it didn't look like it was going to come back up any time soon. But I had huge belief in my ability to turn it around.' He franked that belief in the February interview, which lasted the guts of two hours and ran to more than 6,000 words in the Nenagh Guardian. Nothing was off the table and the pair of them got deep in the weeds of everything to do with Tipperary hurling. It's by a distance the most extensive interview given by any intercounty manager in football or hurling all year. Bonus: will Tipperary or Cork triumph in this weekend's All Ireland hurling final? Listen | 25:58 The All-Ireland senior men's hurling final takes place on mark the occasion, The Irish Times sports department takes over our podcast feed to bring you a conversation between sports writer Malachy Clerkin and columnists (and legends of the game) Nicky English and Joe look at the teams and tactics they expect to see on Sunday, and make some big predictions. Whether you are a die-hard fan, or simply want to jump on the hurling bandwagon before kick-off, we hope you enjoy this conversation. At this remove, maybe the most interesting thing about it is that it was Cahill's idea. It was he who rang Brophy to suggest it, rather than the other way around, as would be the norm. He did an extended radio sit-down with Tipp FM around the same time. Somewhere along the way, he had clearly decided that it was a good time to make a full-court press and get the word out among the Tipp public. None of which would have mattered a damn without results. Of all the things that had to change, nothing was more crucial. Tipp had won three of their first four league games when the interview appeared. They followed it up by going to Nowlan Park and beating Kilkenny, topping the table and making the league final. That it ended in a shelling from Cork was easily waved away . All-Ireland hurling final: Cork v Tipperary by the numbers — Irish Times Sport (@IrishTimesSport) There were a couple of reasons for that. One, Cork were understandably further down the road and, in the right mood, were liable to give anyone a hammering. Two, and more importantly, the campaign as a whole had provided Tipperary people with a team to get behind, one filled with new, young players who didn't look out of place. 'They got their opportunity and they took it,' says Woodlock, who had all of them through his minor teams. 'They're old beyond their years and they've had formative experiences that a lot of other players didn't have. They won a Munster minor final in 2022 on penalties. They went to an All-Ireland final that year against an Offaly team that were on a roll and beat them by a point in front of 27,000 people. 'But the other thing that stood to them and stood to Liam is that we were in a position to try them. Given where Tipperary were, you could take a chance on them. Limerick wouldn't have done it, for example. They wouldn't have had to do it. We were rebuilding and these lads were there, they'd had a good grounding, proper values right the way up through the system. And we've more coming, too.' Tipperary's Ronan Maher celebrates after their All-Ireland semi-final victory over Kilkenny on July 6th. Photograph: Leah Scholes/Inpho If it was just a load of young colts, it wouldn't be enough. The final piece of the rebuild was to empower and embolden the senior players that were already there. Ronan Maher was always going to be the foundation stone of the defence , with Mikey Breen, Bryan O'Mara and Eoghan Connolly given their head around him. Once Willie Connors got into the team, he proved incredibly hard to shift out of it, which hasn't always been the case during his Tipp career. Jake Morris has spent the summer looking like the middle child all grown up. But the true late summer harvest has been reaped up front, where Jason Forde (debut 2013) and John McGrath (2015) have been revived. Cahill didn't overwork them in the spring – Forde sat out a couple of games altogether and McGrath didn't start one until the Kilkenny game in March. Come the championship, they have been reborn. For all their longevity, they have one All Star between them – McGrath in 2016. You'd imagine that will change this year. Joe Canning: Tipperary need a performance for the ages to have any chance of stopping Cork juggernaut — Irish Times Sport (@IrishTimesSport) The job isn't done yet. Cahill has a slightly rueful smile at the press day when it was put to him that Tipp were in bonus territory here, that a semi-final would have been enough on its own, given where they were last year. He's been telling people all along that success is a process – and not a quick process at that. All it took was getting to an All-Ireland final for them to listen. 'There's a sense of relief that people were starting to understand the job of work that needed to be done and continues to be done,' he said. 'But now I think it will switch to, 'We're in a final, we're huge underdogs, but there's still a little chance there that we might just get something that will help us in our continuous progression into the next couple of years.'' The fightback continues.
RTÉ News
06-07-2025
- Sport
- RTÉ News
Old foes Kilkenny and Tipperary set for tight tussle
For most of the previous decade, it felt like Kilkenny and Tipperary had Croke Park booked as a time-share. The neighbours met in exactly half the finals of the 2010s, Tipp winning three (2010, '16 and '19) to the Cats' two (2011 and the '14 replay). Though Brian Cody's men had won the four-in-a-row in 2009 and also prevailed in a semi-final at headquarters in 2012 and Nowlan Park qualifier the following year. The Premier made hay in the absence of red-carded Richie Hogan to win 3-25 to 0-20 six years ago but haven't been back to Jones' Road until today. Where the old enemy await. To see who will play a potent Cork, the last and longest-waiting member of the 'Big Three' in the All-Ireland final, who eviscerated Dublin in Saturday's first semi-final. It might not be 20 years but 10 is Kilkenny's joint-longest title drought (with 1922-32 and 1947-57) since claiming their first in 1904. So falling at the semi-final stage for the second successive season would set an unwelcome record, one that would have seemed laughably pessimistic when Cody's juggernaut secured an eighth All-Ireland title in 10 campaigns in 2015. They have lost four finals since, those two to Tipp and their hurling superpower successors Limerick in 2022 and '23, the latter in Derek Lyng's first campaign in charge. Last year, they were beaten by Clare despite leading by five points at half-time and for almost the entire game. Watching the Banner go on to pip Cork in the final while the Treaty were out of the picture must have particularly stung. . @MartyMofficial was in Callan, County Kilkenny near the Tipperary border to hear from Willie Maher and Aidan Fogarty ahead of the neighbours' All-Ireland SHC semi-final clash on Sunday #GAA — RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) July 4, 2025 Kilkenny have bounced back in the only way they could have, by cruising to a sixth Leinster title in a row. The lack of provincial competition is concerning at this point - the second half against Dublin and ten minutes against Galway in the provincial final the only time they have seemed under any real pressure this summer so far. Taking the foot off the gas when in a winning position is a slight concern, going back to that semi-final exit. Whether the four weeks off will prove a positive against opponents who have played twice since will only be confirmed today - it certainly didn't seem to hinder Cork - but at least it has allowed key forward Eoin Cody time to recover from a leg injury sustained in the late-April win over Antrim. Shane Murphy comes in for Tommy Walsh in the corner while Tipp are unchanged. Cody will likely be marked by pacy corner-back Robert Doyle, who has nailed down a starting position in his debut season. As have U-20 All-Ireland winners Darragh McCarthy and Sam O'Farrell, and Peter McGarry, who only made his championship debut in the preliminary quarter-final win over Laois. After two years of seeing his team gradually run out of steam, Tipperary manager Liam Cahill put his faith in youth this year and it paid off. Following a miserable 2024, when the 28-time champions finished bottom of Munster with just one point from four games, they only lost to Cork in the round-robin this year – having played the entire match with 14 men when McCarthy was dismissed – and the heavy nature of that defeat was all that kept them out of the provincial decider. Comfortable wins over the O'Moore men and long-time bogey team Galway, who had ended Cahill's maiden campaign in 2023, mean the year is already one of progress and the pressure is off Tipp. For a county whose confidence is easily restored once they get to Croke Park, that makes them dangerous. The Cats looked to have barely 10,000 fans at last year's semi-final so Tipperary could have the majority of the stadium behind them as well, not always the case in Semple. Kilkenny look closer to the finished article overall but nine of the Tipp panel were All-Ireland winners six years ago, including captain Ronan Maher, Michael Breen, Jake Morris (now a key man in a swift and strong half-forward line) and the rejuvenated duo of John McGrath (4-12 from play) and Jason Forde (2-12, plus 26 placed balls) in the starting XV today. Kilkenny have TJ Reid but the Premier have their own magician on the bench in the shape of Noel McGrath, just over three years younger at 34. Reid is among seven Kilkenny players who featured in the last meeting - Eoin Murphy, Huw Lawlor (in his first season terrifying forwards), Paddy Deegan, Adrian Mullen (fully fit and flying this year), John Donnelly and Billy Ryan (a sub that day) are the others. The feeling was that the Cahill-managed U21/20-winning sides of 2018/19 hadn't really delivered the senior dividend they promised but there are eight players from those two finals on the panel today, including late bloomer Andrew Ormond, who has shone at centre-forward since his first start in the season-sparking victory over Clare and scored 0-05 in the quarter-final. The likes of Gearóid O'Connor and Conor Bowe have also featured this year but find themselves outside the 26 today. Tipperary's victory over Galway was a tough watch at times, conditions in Limerick making for a lot of slipping and handling errors. Further showers are expected today but a wet surface can lead to goal chances as well. Tipp coughed up several of those last day out but the Tribesmen only converted two, one of which came far too late to make a difference. Giving the same opportunities to Cody, TJ Reid (5 goals from play) or Martin Keoghan (6) could be fatal today. Rain may lead both sides to go more direct and could also lead to more mistimed tackles, but hopefully there won't be a flurry of red cards like in the bizarre league meeting in March when four players (three Kilkenny and one from Tipp) saw the line. Funnily enough, James Owens, who (correctly) sent off Hogan in '19, is the man in the middle again today. This one looks evenly poised. Kilkenny have more experience of Croke Park and perhaps an edge in the inside lines. But then Tipperary have come through tougher tests this season and look to have more game-changers in reserve. It might be a year too soon for Tipp unless they can strike goals. Kilkenny: Eoin Murphy; Mikey Butler, Huw Lawlor, Shane Murphy; Michael Carey, Richie Reid, Paddy Deegan; Cian Kenny, Jordan Molloy; Adrian Mullen, John Donnelly, Billy Ryan; Mossy Keoghan, TJ Reid, Eoin Cody. Subs: Aidan Tallis, David Blanchfield, Tommy Walsh, Pádraic Moylan, Killian Doyle, Zach Bay Hammond, Fionan Mackessy, Stephen Donnelly, Luke Hogan, Luke Connellan, Billy Drennan. Tipperary: Rhys Shelly; Robert Doyle, Eoghan Connolly, Michael Breen; Craig Morgan, Ronan Maher, Bryan O'Mara; Willie Connors, Peter McGarry; Jake Morris, Andrew Ormond, Sam O'Farrell; Darragh McCarthy, John McGrath, Jason Forde. Subs: Brian Hogan, Joe Caesar, Sean Kenneally, Seamus Kennedy, Brian McGrath, Noel McGrath, Oisín O'Donoghue, J Ryan, Conor Stakelum, Darragh Stakelum, Alan Tynan.
Irish Times
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Kilkenny v Tipperary 2009-19: The greatest decade in the bitterest rivalry in hurling
In Nowlan Park, on a scorching summer evening in 2013, all of the hard feelings between Kilkenny and Tipperary were distilled to the pure drop. A slump in form had landed them both in the qualifiers and, as it turned out, the All-Ireland would be decided without them. On that evening, though, there were no other worlds to conquer. Brian Hogan still remembers sitting in the Kilkenny dressingroom before the match, grilling slowly, like ribs on a barbecue. 'You can always hear a bit of noise when someone opens the door but sitting in your seat in the dressingroom there was a kind of energy emanating from the stands. It was probably the most surreal experience of my life. Word came in that the place was full for two hours before the match. 'This was shit or bust. It was just unthinkable to lose a championship match in Nowlan Park to Tipperary.' And that was the thing: it was only about each other. It was the deep-down essence of a Test match. In every rivalry, history keeps rolling and the mood changes colour, but nothing matters more than the latest score. READ MORE 'It was only the first round of the qualifiers, so the winner gets nothing,' says Richie Hogan. 'But it was all about not losing. It was so heavily weighed on not losing rather than winning. The consequences of losing to Tipperary were gigantic.' Brian Gavin had been pencilled in to referee the Leinster final a day later, but when the qualifier draw had paired two fighting cocks, he was rerouted to Nowlan Park. Gavin had refereed the 2011 All-Ireland final between them and would be the man in the middle for two other finals in 2014 and 2016; those games, though, were nothing like this. Kilkenny's Paul Murphy with Tipperary's Patrick Maher during the 2013 game at Nowlan Park. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho 'Refereeing Kilkenny-Tipperary championship in those years was like walking on a cliff edge,' Gavin said years later. 'There was the exhilaration of being so close to danger and the joy of the view, but you knew it was a match that could end you as a referee.' There was belting from the throw-in and after about 10 minutes Gavin could hear a rumble from the belly of the volcano. 'Something started with Eoin Larkin,' Gavin says now, 'so I went in and actually pushed him back. I shouldn't have done it, but I was just letting them know that I didn't want anything to start. Because of the atmosphere that night, something could have just ignited.' Kilkenny won a low-scoring game that was strangled with tension. 'If that Tipperary team were any good,' wrote Jackie Tyrrell in his autobiography, 'they would have beaten us in 2013. We were on the floor at the time.' Whatever Tyrrell said, losing was the ultimate insult. That match came dead in the middle of the greatest decade in hurling's bitterest rivalry. Between 2009 and 2019, Kilkenny and Tipperary met in nine championship matches, seven of which were All-Ireland finals, including a replay. For a salad on the side, there were four league finals too. Like in a game of skins, the stakes kept rising. Nothing was ever resolved. Neither of them scooped the pot. A settlement on the steps of the court was out of question. Neither party was innocent. Tipperary's Lar Corbett in action during the 2013 qualifier at Nowlan Park. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho The dynamics of the relationship were bound up with machismo and the over-arching past. Before 2009, Tipp and Kilkenny had only met four times in the championship in the previous half a century, but the long history between them was deposited in the soil, like minerals. There was an 80-year period in which Kilkenny only beat Tipperary once in the championship and Kilkenny's suffering was compounded by character assassination. 'Kilkenny for the hurlers, Tipp for the men,' ran the taunt. Though the phrase had fallen out of general circulation it hadn't been erased from Kilkenny's race memory. 'I was only made aware of that in Jackie Tyrrell's book,' says Paul Curran, the former Tipp captain, who spent 13 years on the panel. 'He references it a lot. That was obviously spoken about more in Kilkenny than we were aware of. That's probably where the dislike of Tipperary was bred into them.' Until Tipp and Kilkenny started meeting in Croke Park again, a lot of that stuff had lain dormant. The hostility, though, was an inheritance. 'You're talking to some of the older generation,' says Brian Hogan, 'and you're hearing stories about the 50s and 60s and Kilkenny getting butchered by Tipperary and Tommy Walsh losing the eye [in the 1967 League final] – it all came back to the surface.' 'That just became a lightning rod for us in that period,' says Richie Hogan. 'We weren't just going to beat Tipperary on the pitch, we were going to beat them in the battle as well. We might lose a couple of matches along the way, but it was unforgivable to be beaten in terms of the fight. That was definitely the attitude in our dressingroom.' In that decade, some of the matches were extraordinary. The All-Ireland finals of 2009 and 2010 and the drawn match in 2014 were among the greatest in living memory. 'If you were taking your last breath,' said Brendan Cummins, 'you would want to remember how you felt down on that field in those matches [the finals of '09 and '10]. You will never feel more alive than you were out there.' Tipperary's Brendan Cummins celebrates after the final whistle in the 2010 All-Ireland final. Photograph: Lorraine O'Sullivan/Inpho In the 2009 final both teams scored more than 20 times for the first time in the history of All-Ireland finals; in the drawn 2014 final there were 20 different scorers from play and more scores than in any 70-minute final, ever. They drove each other to it. 'For the 2010 final we were so tuned in that I didn't even know it was raining until the game was over,' says Curran. 'I didn't know Larry [Corbett] had scored three goals. The year before, I switched off, and I think we all switched off, for 30 seconds and it cost us. I promised that wasn't going to happen again.' In those years, the pendulum of imperatives kept swinging. One crowd or the other would draw a line in the sand, oblivious to the next tide. The laser focus that framed Tipp's performance in 2010 was reciprocated by Kilkenny a year later. The clinical fear of losing was exchanged, over and back. 'Of all the times we met in the championship [in that period] that's the only time we were underdogs,' says Richie Hogan. 'Everything about that game was different [for us]. We did a huge amount of video analysis. We wanted to cover everything off. That was brought about by the fear of losing.' Tipperary players from that era often refer to the 2009 league final in Thurles, which Kilkenny won after extra-time. For Tipp, though, it was a watershed. Only a few weeks earlier Kilkenny had beaten Tipp by 20 points in Nowlan Park, the kind of punishment beating that Cody's teams often administered to prospective challengers, as a twisted compliment. 'I remember going in at half-time,' said Curran years later, 'and their supporters were basically frothing at the mouth. It was a case of 'lock the gates'.' Kilkenny's Eddie Brennan and Tipperary's Conor O'Brien during the Division 1 league final in 2009. Photograph: Lorraine O'Sullivan/Inpho For the league final, though, Tipperary made a stand that would sustain their attitude for the next 10 years. 'Jesus, the hits,' says Curran. 'Séamie Callanan thundered into Brian Hogan and did his collar bone. Eddie Brennan caught me and if I had stayed down, he probably would have got sent off. But you didn't stay down, you just got up. You didn't want to show any bit of weakness.' And yet Kilkenny never stopped probing for weaknesses, convinced they would find some. Every game was like an interrogation by the secret police. 'We believed we could intimidate some of their forwards,' wrote Tyrrell in his autobiography. 'They had flaky lads over the years. '[In the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final] once we got a run on Tipp we mowed them down. It was the same old Tipp again – shaping and hiding behind their bullshit. They hadn't the balls to come out and take us on man for man.' Of all the games in that decade, the 2012 semi-final was the only crock. Tipp imploded and Kilkenny won by 18 points. 'We probably got our preparation wrong for that game,' says Eoin Kelly, the former Tipperary captain. 'We went on a training camp to Bere Island on a Friday and Saturday two or three weeks out from the game and then played important club matches on the Sunday. A lot of injuries came from that. It's not an excuse, but we had a lot of lads bandaged up that day. When the thing went wrong, it went absolutely wrong. The competitiveness to stay going just wasn't there, physically or mentally.' That was the day when Corbett insisted on marking Tommy Walsh and Tyrrell insisted on marking Corbett, while Pa Bourke struggled to make his insistence count for anything in the farcical merry-go-round. Tipperary's Brendan Maher and Kilkenny's Richie Hogan contest a high ball during the 2009 All-Ireland final. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho It was also the day when Michael Rice was injured by a wild pull from Pádraic Maher under the Hogan Stand. Through all those years, and all the flaking, there were very few false strokes or massive flare-ups. Gavin remembers a league game where a player from each side wrestled on the ground 'punching each other on the helmet', but that kind of madness was scarce enough. In the six All-Ireland finals they contested in that decade, two players were sent off: Benny Dunne in 2009 for a reckless swing under a dropping ball, and Richie Hogan 10 years later for the kind of challenge that caused Chris Crummey to miss this weekend's semi-final. 'During my time, and I often said it, we wanted Tipperary to be the best form of Tipperary,' says Richie Hogan. 'We wanted to test ourselves against the best. If it ever came up in a prematch meeting, 'They're going to bring it to us physically,' straight away somebody would say, 'We hope they do. Don't just expect it, hope for it. Let's hope that this is as hard as possible because that makes it worth it.' 'Brian Cody and Martin Fogarty and Michael Dempsey, they were trying to get us to think about the history of Tipperary and Kilkenny, probably thinking that it might arouse something different in us. But we were a team that wanted to make our own history. We didn't care about what happened in the 50s and 60s and Hell's Kitchen and all that. None of that stuff registered with us. It was just that it wasn't going to happen to us. 'We always felt, 'Do you know what? That's their problem.' We make our own history, and this is the way it's going to go.' The pain and the glory flowed back and forth. Kilkenny beat Tipp to win four All-Irelands in a row, and Tipp spiked their attempt at five. In the All-Ireland finals of 2016 and 2019, Tipperary inflicted two of the heaviest losses of Cody's reign. He grew up with the 50s and 60s stuff. Those defeats would have cut him to the bone. This weekend, two new teams will pick up the thread. All they need to know is what their gut tells them. Losing will be poison.
Irish Times
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Paddy McCormack goals inspire Tipperary to All-Ireland under-20 hurling title
All-Ireland Under-20 Hurling Final: Kilkenny 1-16 Tipperary 3-19 After the heartbreak of missing their All-Ireland Under-20 final defeat last year, Paddy McCormack was Tipperary's goalscoring hero to bring silverware back to the Premier county with a nine-point victory over Kilkenny . In a game dictated by the wind, all four goals arrived in the second half. McCormack blasted 2-01 before Conor Martin's clincher completed his 1-04 tally in front of 14,455 fans at Nowlan Park. Marty Murphy bagged a consolation goal in stoppage time for Kilkenny. Tipperary's first under-20 success since 2019, and 12th in total, moves them level with Kilkenny in second on the roll of honour. Thirty years after he first lifted the trophy as a player, Brendan Cummins was reunited with the James Nowlan Cup, this time as a winning manager. READ MORE Nowlan Park has become a happy hunting ground for Tipperary teams, adding this under-20 crown to the minor titles won at the venue in 2022 and '24. The wind strength was emphasised by Kilkenny's first two pointed frees. Both times, Tipp were penalised for thrown passes. Michael Brennan came back inside his own half and converted each one. He would end with 0-11 to his credit. Tipperary's Oisin O'Donoghue with Kilkenny's Darragh Vereker. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho But even with the conditions, the Cats were set up to contain Tipp rather than build a score. The Premier puckout wasn't stressed as they retained 100 per cent. Martin scored the first point from play to level. When Kilkenny did get back into Murphy, he caused trouble. He caught one high ball for a point and in the next play, lost his marker for a shot at goal, which Eoin Horgan saved. Oisín O'Donoghue and Brennan traded points before Tipp threaded together five on the spin. O'Donoghue was fouled for 1-04 in the Munster final and he won two quick-fire frees for Darragh McCarthy points. In between, the Cashel targetman notched a point of his own. When Cathal English and McCormack arrowed over, they led 0-08 to 0-04 after 22 minutes. Kilkenny picked their way back into the contest with four of the next five points, including three Brennan frees. Jeff Neary had picked up plenty of ball in a sweeping role, but he got further upfield to split the posts. They sought a leveller, but Adam Daly sent Tipp in with a 0-10 to 0-08 advantage. Tipperary's Aaron O'Halloran and Kilkenny's Marty Murphy. Photograph: Tom O'Hanlon/Inpho Martin got them up and running with the second-half breeze straight from the throw-in. Brennan and Murphy kept Kilkenny in contact either side of an O'Donoghue sideline cut and Sam O'Farrell's long-range effort. In the 38th minute, Tipp couldn't be contained any further. In the battle for possession under a long puckout, McCormack swept on to the loose sliotar, sidestepped towards goal, and bounced his finish to the net. A long-range Daly point made it 1-14 to 0-10. Four Brennan points kept Kilkenny's faint hopes alive as far as the 51st minute. Then, O'Donoghue turned over Neary and fed McCormack for a low finish to lead by 2-17 to 0-14. And in the 56th minute, Martin secured a turnover before finishing off the move after taking the final pass from McCarthy. Kilkenny went for goal in stoppage time, netting one when Murphy grabbed a high ball and drove it to the net, but the cup was already in Tipperary hands. KILKENNY: S Manogue; D Vereker, R Garrett, I Bolger; E Lyng, T Kelly, C Hickey; T McPhillips, J Neary (0-1); E Lauhoff, A McEvoy, M Brennan (0-11, 0-8f); E McDermott (0-1), M Murphy (1-2), R Glynn. Subs: J Dollard for McPhillips (14-20 mins, temp), A Ireland Wall for McEvoy (40), Dollard for McPhillips (50), G Kelly (0-1) for Hickey (51), S Hunt for McDermott (54), J Hughes for Glynn (58). TIPPERARY: E Horgan; C O'Reilly, A O'Halloran, S O'Farrell (0-2); A Ryan, P O'Dwyer, J Ryan; J Egan, A Daly (0-2); C English (0-2), C Martin (1-4), D Costigan; D McCarthy (0-5f), P McCormack (2-1), O O'Donoghue (0-3, 0-1slc). Subs: C Fitzpatrick for Costigan (50 mins), M Cawley for Egan (54), J Ormond for Martin (57), S Butler for McCormack (59), P Phelan for Daly (60). Referee: S Hynes (Galway).
Irish Times
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Kilkenny outclass Offaly as TJ Reid makes magic return
Leinster SHC: Kilkenny 4-25 Offaly 2-16 Kilkenny wrapped up a third successive win in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship after claiming a 15-point victory over an outclassed Offaly side at Nowlan Park. TJ Reid was the star of the show as he notched 2-9 in his first appearance in this year's championship campaign and with Martin Keoghan and sub Adrian Mullen also finding the net, Derek Lyng's men were much too good for the Faithful County in a game that was practically over by the end of the first quarter. While well beaten in the windup, Offaly still had big displays from Oisin Kelly who got both their goals, Brian Duignan and Charlie Mitchell but when Kilkenny got going they had no real response. The Cats were in control from early on as they led 1-3 to 0-1 with Mossy Keoghan getting the goal after Stephen Donnelly claimed a long ball into the square. READ MORE Reid bagged a second goal for the home side in the 14th minute when he pounced on some defensive indecision and they were rampant at this point as Offaly struggled to keep pace with the defending Leinster champions. The Faithful County did have fleeting moments with the likes of Mitchell, Duignan and Dan Bourke adding to their tally but with Kilkenny registering points for fun the half-time difference was a big one as the Cats led 2-16 to 0-11. Kilkenny's Tommy Walsh. Photograph: Ken Sutton/Inpho Kilkenny continued to go through the gears in the second period with Reid and Adrian Mullen adding further goals to offset any opportunity of a Offaly comeback and while Oisin Kelly got a double himself it was very much only a consolation as Kilkenny ended the game in style. Reid's second major was very much in part due to Luke Hogan after the O'Loughlin Gaels man showed great pace before setting up the Kilkenny marksman. If that was impressive, Offaly could at least be content with Oisin Kelly's second goal proving a real highlight but they will need big improvement ahead of their final two games against Wexford and Antrim. Kilkenny even had the luxury of taking off Reid 10 minutes before the end and their attention will quickly turn to another home game with Dublin next Sunday, knowing that they now have one foot in the LeinsterFinal while Offaly are still chasing a maiden success on their return to competing at this level. KILKENNY: E Murphy; M Butler, H Lawlor, T Walsh; D Blanchfield, M Carey, P Deegan; C Kenny (0-3, 0-2fs), J Molloy; H Shine (0-1), J Donnelly (0-4), B Ryan (0-4); S Donnelly (0-3), M Keoghan (1-0), TJ Reid (2-9, 0-7fs). Subs: A Mullen (1-0) for Shine (34 mins); K Doyle for Blanchfield (49); L Hogan for S. Donnelly (52); B Drennan for Reid (59); F Mackessy (0-1) for Keoghan (62). OFFALY: M Troy; B Conneely, C Burke, J Mahon; R Ravenhill, D Shirley (0-2), J Sampson; C King, C Spain; K Sampson, D Bourke (0-1), O Kelly (2-2); D Ravenhill, C Mitchell (0-3), B Duignan (0-8, 0-8fs). Subs: E Burke for D Ravenhill (44 mins); D Nally for R Ravenhill (48); S Bourke for Sampson (48); P Cantwell for Conneely (59); B Kavanagh for Mahon (62). Referee: C McDonald (Antrim).
