The match that never was

Tipperary and Cork met for the 92nd time in championship hurling on Sunday in front of 42,231 people at SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh with Cork winning 4-27 to 0-24. A match was played and will be recorded in the record books as such, but it was a game that never was.

From the moment Darragh McCarthy was issued with a red card after 53 seconds, the game was over as contest. Even the most optimistic Tipperary supporter would have been drawn back to last years All-Ireland Minor decider when the Premier cubs won with thirteen players for over three quarters of the game, for some kind of hope.

However, modern senior inter-county hurling is such that having a numerical advantage or disadvantage on the field is a game-changer, with the emphasis on holding onto the ball and finding the open man in space.Inside a minute, Tipperary’s gameplan was rendered useless.

Off the back of the National League final contest earlier in the month, much of the focus was on how could Tipperary be more competitive and bridge the significant gap there appeared to be between the sides.

Key among that was the puckout, both in an attacking and defensive sense. On the Cork puckout, an already tough challenge was now impossible as the home side always had a free man somewhere on the field.

If Tipp sat back on the puckout to one of the players in the full-back line, Cork’s pace and skill level is such they can comfortably work the ball up the field. If Tipp pushed up and forced Cork to go long, it would leave acres of space in front of the Tipp half back line to run onto possession. It was a case of pick your poison in this regard.

For Tipperary to have any chance in the circumstances, they needed to win dispossessions from the Cork deliveries into their attack, and that they couldn’t, as well as being to Cork’s credit as their first touch and ball control at top speed was incredibly good, it was made easier by Tipperary defenders not being touch tight to apply enough pressure.

While there are many aspects that can be disregarded from the contest from a Tipp point of view having played the entire game a man short, one of them isn’t the nature of the defending in one-on-one situations, particularly the goals for Patrick Horgan and Declan Dalton where it was too easy for them to turn and bear down on Barry Hogan in the Tipp goal.

There was some optimism that despite Tipp’s own puckout failings in the league final, they’d have something new to throw at Cork but that was gone out the window following the red card. The options presented to Barry Hogan were massively reduced and can been seen in the stats where Tipp won only 25 of their 43 puckouts whereas Cork lost five in total, that’s the ball-game in a modern sense.

Furthermore, Cork have also become one of the most cynical teams in the game, numerous times Tipp players looking to make runs into space to give Hogan a better option were blocked off or held, one such was Sam O’Farrell and Seamus Harnedy being booked when it was the Cork man stopping the Tipp player from making a play.

Cork were accused up to two years ago of being soft, not any more. They are now as good at the dark arts as anyone, which teams hell bent on winning an All-Ireland need to have.

They include corner back Sean O’Donoghue whose reaction to the blow from Darragh McCarthy was to hold his private parts rather than his chest which is where the contact was made, exacerbating the situation from which the red card followed.

This was a massive learning moment for Darragh McCarthy and one he will bounce back from. He was schooled physically by the veteran Cork defender in the league final and the nineteen-year-old was keen to show he was up for the battle this time round but he went a little too far.

He was unlucky in that all the skirmishes that were taking place at the throw-in, he was the one that was caught by the line-umpire and paid a costly price, effectively missing two games in being sent off so early on Sunday and will likely miss the next game with Clare.

And when Cork romped into 3-6 to 0-3 lead after sixteen minutes, the game had the potential to be a record defeat in championship hurling.

To that end, that Tipp only lost the rest of the game by three points is to their immense credit. At no stage did they allow the frustration of being a man short get to them, possibly leading to more red cards which can happen. They plugged on and the stats show that despite playing with fourteen men, Tipperary won the turnover battle, and only had one fewer scoring chance created than Cork.

Tipp still managed to score 24 points while recording fourteen wides, and still managed to create three decent goal chances with Craig Morgan, Sam O’Farrell (excellent save by Patrick Collins) and sub Andrew Ormond all getting into good positions.

Ordinarily, a fifteen point loss off the back of a record eighteen point defeat last year to the old rivals would signal panic stations but this game is largely a write-off as little can be gleaned because of the circumstances of 15v14 for 76 minutes.

It was going to be a tough ask anyway to win in Cork, the only real damage sustained is the suspension for Darragh McCarthy and the final margin now effectively removing score difference as an avenue Tipp could qualify with in a three-way tie come the end of the round-robin.

The Clare and Waterford games were always seen as the likely games where Tipp would glean the points required to progress beyond the group stage, that target hasn’t changed.