Tipp end their long wait for Munster glory with dominant performance

A day 85-years in the making as Tipperary finally claimed a tenth Munster senior football title in impressive fashion on Sunday.

By Shane Brophy

A day 85-years in the making as Tipperary finally claimed a tenth Munster senior football title in impressive fashion on Sunday.

As underdog successes go, this was no smash and grab raid as sometimes tends to be the case as Cork proved in the semi-final against Kerry. This was a pillar to post victory, bar a sixty second period between the 16th & 17th minute when Cork held a 0-5 to 0-4 lead, but apart from that it was the rebels who were on the back foot from an assured and confident Tipperary side.

Sometimes the weight of history can be a burden on a team but on the weekend of the centenary of Bloody Sunday, Tipperary played with a style, confidence and courage that great team from one hundred years ago would have been proud of, and wore those iconic white and green band jerseys with honour.

They did become tentative in the second half when the finish line come into view but that was only to be expected with what they were trying to achieve, but despite Cork dominating the ball at that time, they didn’t have the quality to break down an well-drilled and committed Tipperary side.

Coming into the game, we knew Tipperary wouldn’t have had any fear against this Cork side with players, many of whom had tasted defeat to the premier county before. However, on top of that, Tipperary had the better players with only Cork captain Ian Maguire and to a lesser extent Mark Collins and Ruairi Deane taking the fight to David Power’s men.

In Conor Sweeney and Michael Quinlivan, they had the two best forwards on the field with captain Sweeney setting the tone with two points inside the first two minutes which settled the whole team down.

Quinlivan once again proved himself to be a man for the big occasion and after four pretty lacklustre performances since the inter-county season resumed, he showed his class with three super points from play and his cheeky smile following his third just before half time showed he was in the groove. And he was inches away from a Mikey Sheehy moment when he almost punished a mis-placed Micheal Martin kickout, trying to lob the retreating keeper but hat to settle for a point, the least he deserved from his confident approach.

For Tipp to win, they needed their two best scorers to be on form and from there the rest of the team could do what they do best, work hard and make things difficult for Cork, although admittedly the home side made things easy for them.

It also needed certain players to play above themselves or play to a level they have the potential to, but we don’t see often enough. One of those was Liam Casey who was a horse in the middle of the field. With Colin O’Riordan and a fit again Steven O’Brien back in the team, it would have been easy to absolve responsibility but the Cahir man showed the ability he has when he is fully tuned in, and why he was a starter on the UCD Sigerson Cup winning team in 2016. The trick for him is to do it on a consistent basis.

With O’Riordan, Casey, O’Brien and Conal Kennedy in the starting line-up, it provided Tipperary with a physical presence in the middle of the field from where to contest the kickout which was a Cork strength and they certainly broke even in that regard, on their own and Cork’s restarts, and when they did win the ball, they were certainly eager to transition into attack quickly with plenty of runners coming from deep, particularly Robbie Kiely and Kevin Fahey, the latter finally showing his true ability at this level at the heart of the defence, not only on the ball but as an aggressive tackler in defence.

While Cork were undermined at half time with the loss of their best forward Luke Connolly through injury, at no stage did the Tipperary defence look under any real pressure. Their defensive shape was well-drilled and bar a couple of early forays, Cork never looked like penetrating them, making it a frustrating day for Brian Hurley who got little chance to show his ability inside.

The start to the game provided an insight into the Tipperary mindset, they wouldn’t die wondering. Winning the throw-in, they went on the offensive with an early ball into Conor Sweeney who claimed a mark and they never looked back from there.

It was a victory for style and substance as Tipperary played a vibrant brand of football, moving the ball quickly through the hand or the long ball, compared to Cork who were one dimensional and from an early stage became frustrated by the defensive wall Tipperary erected inside their own half.

One way of getting around that is via the offensive mark which Tipperary used superbly well, yielding three points from Conor Sweeney and Liam Casey, the latter from a delicious pass from Steven O’Brien right into the path of his midfield partner. This was one of the refreshing aspects of the performance where Tipperary weren’t afraid to take a risk whereas Cork were always looking for the perfect pass.

In terms of risk, starting Colin O’Riordan was one that really paid off. Firstly, bringing him back into the fold can have a negative effect on a panel if there are players who will lose out on a starting berth or on the matchday squad, the latter particularly in this Covid era with the likes of the injured Jack Kennedy and Kevin O’Halloran forced to watch the game from home.

There was always going to be a lot of focus on the former underage star but he settled into the game well, including sending in the pass for the first score of the game, however, it was the second half when we saw his real value to the team, claiming four kickouts, the key one coming the 64th minute when Cork had reduced the deficit to two points and where Tipp looked to be tiring and were struggling to get up the field. It was from this play he yielded the free which resulted in Evan Comerford landing a badly needed score and in added time it was his persistence which led to a 45 which ended up with Philip Austin scoring what proved to be the clinching score.

If Tipperary didn’t win a Munster title this year, it is hard to know when a better opportunity would come again and they deserve immense credit for taking it with both hands and shutting out the distraction of all the emotion surrounding the game.

And the brilliant thing is it isn’t over yet. Unlike 2016 when they were going into an All-Ireland semi-final as green horns against Mayo, they will go into Sunday weeks rematch against the Connacht champions knowing they deserve to be there as Munster’s best, plus the opportunity there is before them, to reach an All-Ireland Final in 2020, possibly against Dublin and unlike Bloody Sunday 1920, it won’t be a challenge match, it will be for the Sam Maguire Cup.