Tipp are deserving champions

KILLINAN END

While it is true to say that hindsight is the ultimate purveyor of wisdom there is much we can look at in retrospect which hinted at Sunday's outcome. When the clock stopped ticking on the 2025 championship, Tipperary were sitting on a record of six successive victories. Cork played seven matches in the championship and won just three if we ignore the randomness of the Munster Final penalties.

That evidence suggests a Tipperary team on a decent run of form and with winning habits. In contrast Cork’s record looks like that of proverbial flat-track bullies. If you're struggling, are defensively naïve – hello Dublin – no better men to go through you. No beating is quite big enough in that situation. However, when it has been put up to Cork, by Limerick, by Clare for a half in Ennis, or by Tipp last Sunday a different team profile emerges.

The most shocking element of last Sunday was not that Tipp won. Once Tipp got traction in the match, they seemed capable of coping with Cork. It was not even Cork’s wholesale defeat – Limerick also went through them like a dose of salts back in May. It was how bad Cork actually looked when they struggled. Executing the basic skills became a chore. Fumbling and foostering was the order of the day, and even a team as adept at picking pockets as this Tipp team found the whole art of turnovers easier than they could reasonably have expected.

This may have broader implications for Cork. Despite the expectations of their bloated support and the instinctive exaggeration of media punditry it might well be that the jig is up for this Cork team, at least in its current form.

Perhaps last Sunday’s debacle was something more sinister for them than a mere deferral of their coronation as hurling kings. What happens when counties who have the wherewithal - not you Dublin - to go toe to toe with Cork realise that there is no moral obligation to afford them the world of space and opportunity to run at your defence? What if all future opponents figure out that every time Cork found themselves in a serious game on a level playing field during this year's championship they were either unable to dominate or they folded like a house of cards?

A change of approach and personnel may be required. Is Pat Horgan really going to make the difference for Cork in a serious championship game now? Damien Cahalane’s charge at Darragh McCarthy when he could have effected a simple clearance made the Cork guy who got the ‘All-Ireland Champions 2025’ tattoo actually look relatively intelligent. Anyway, enough of Cork and their false promises.

There was understandable shock at the failure of Cork to register more than two points in the second-half, and people scrambled for parallels across the history of hurling. Many would be surprised at how relatively recently there are similar examples.

Back in 2004 Kilkenny turned over for the second-half defending a lead of 0-7 to 0-6. A forward line including Shefflin, DJ Carey, and Eddie Brennan subsequently managed just two points in the second period, both from placed balls by Shefflin.

It was, to be fair, a different type of gritty affair – even Cork who won by eight points in the end, did not score from play until the 31st minute.

Back in 1981 Galway gave a display which would have sent Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde back to the drawing board. They led by 0-13 to 1-4 at half-time and appeared as certain to sail to the title as many Cork supporters were that they would do in 2025. Playing against the wind in the second-half, Galway managed just two points - one of them from play - and went the last 22 minutes without a score as Offaly claimed a first title. Cork will not die of statistical loneliness but theirs is worse in an era when scores come thick and fast. Look at the father and mother of a beating Dublin took in the semi-final and they still scored 2-21.

And what of Tipp’s display? It was as comprehensive a second-half performance as the showpiece occasion has ever seen. In 2019 Tipp also scored 3-14 in the second-half against Kilkenny but this year’s one saw the final opponents reduced to rubble in the scoring stakes. The skill, trickery, and sheer character of Tipp has few parallels.

Many players deserve mention but at the risk of North Tipp bias we must mention Willie Connors, Michael Breen, and Darragh McCarthy, who stood out on this day to add to Sam’s surges and Jake’s japers around Cork defenders.

And what of John McGrath – King Goal himself? A member of the 2001 Tipp All-Ireland winning team said over the weekend that he would take Noel McGrath ahead of any player from any county in his lifetime. He could nearly take the whole family.

Ronan Maher will take his place on the Thurles Sarsfields’ captains’ mural alongside Jim Stapleton, Tom Semple, Joby Callanan, Jim Lanigan, John Maher, Tony Wall, Jimmy Doyle, and Michael Murphy. Ronan will fit very comfortably into this or any hurling company.

The beauty of the printed word is that Liam Cahill cannot jump in and immediately deflect credit to the players as he does. He and his partner in industry and ingenuity, Michael Bevans, are due enormous gratitude. They and their players have done a sacred and precious jersey some service.

Once more the blood of old Tubberadora flows proudly.