Tipperary 7-19 Waterford 0-19:THE BIG bang that has left hurling a two-planet universe boomed again in yesterday's GAA Munster hurling final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Seven days after Kilkenny dismissed league holders Dublin by double digits in the Leinster final, All-Ireland champions Tipperary demolished provincial champions Waterford by the precise margin of seven goals.
As in last year’s All-Ireland final it was current Hurler of the Year Lar Corbett who performed the most lucrative banditry, this time ending with 4-4 from play, which betters the modern record set of 2-7 set by Mark Foley 21 years ago.
The now familiar bewildering movement and pace that has made the Tipp attack so terrifyingly productive, engineered insoluble riddles for the baffled opposition.
The seven yesterday means they now average four goals a match since last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final win over Galway.
The big Waterford defensive play that had been widely anticipated was the shift of All Star centre back Michael Walsh into the troublesome full-back role.
That duly took place, but all the consequent switching left the distinct impression the Waterford backs were being played out of their comfort zones – and not in a particularly constructive way.
Darragh Fives was moved to the half backs having played most of his debut season in the full backs and Kevin Moran was switched to the unfamiliar inter-county role of centre back. Only the ageless Tony Browne, moved to left wing back, could be said to not have had a positional issue from the start.
The winners were so much in control in the middle and the half backs Waterford weren’t going to be spared by a meagre supply going into the forwards. Pádraic Maher was again outstanding in his use of ball and Shane McGrath took some fine early catches.
From the moment Corbett sprinted on to Pádraic Maher’s delivery four minutes in and finished clinically for the opening goal, the contest, never mind Waterford, was on life support.
If the All-Ireland champions had a concern yesterday it was, as admitted by manager Declan Ryan, the amount of frees conceded and Waterford did succeed in making the opportunities count, with Pauric Mahony converting 12 out of 12, as well as adding a point from play and no wides.
One of Mahony’s frees cut the margin to four, 0-3 to 1-4, in the 10th minute but his team thereafter was just grappling with an ever-lengthening deficit.
By the time Waterford managed to string together a sequence of three scores it was in the 42nd minute by which stage they were still trailing by 18. It took 20 minutes for their first score from play, a point by Browne and even then it was just trimming the deficit to seven, 0-4 to 1-8.
Tipp were also commanding ball in the half forwards and putting it to good effect, Patrick Maher’s prodigious leap in the 26th minute captured the ball and even though he fell to earth, he managed to flip the pass to John O’Brien, who dispatched the point.
At the other end, Mahony’s points were the only lifeline.
Brian O’Sullivan got one good run on Michael Cahill, which yielded a free and John Mullane was being kept in a state of frustration – on limited rations and with Paddy Stapleton snapping at him. On the one occasion he did get free he shot weakly.
The sort of margins applying in the match were quickly demonstrated when from the clearance Noel McGrath fielded, off-loaded to Patrick Maher, who put Eoin Kelly in a lot of space and he let fly to the net.
The score up until half an hour was daunting for Waterford, but in the minutes before the break, the match entered the zone where boxing matches are stopped.
Corbett got in for his second, courtesy of another measured delivery, from Gearóid Ryan, and then in injury-time, Tipp added two more: Séamus Callanan, taking from Patrick Maher and detonating a shot past Hennessy and Corbett filing away his hat-trick for a 5-10 to 0-8 half-time lead.
Waterford adopted a more conventional line-up for the second half, but containment by now was the only realistic ambition.
Just after Waterford’s second sequence of three unanswered points, Kelly fed off Ryan for a sixth goal to annul the concession and although Mahony dutifully shot the frees and the rest of the forwards appeared to content to clip points, they still couldn’t seal themselves off from Tipperary’s intermittent bouts of engagement, which included Corbett’s fourth goal in the 66th minute.
Having snacked on their respective provinces the big beasts of Kilkenny and Tipp have progressed directly into next month’s semi-finals and it will be with trepidation opponents enter the Croke Park coliseum in the weeks ahead.
TIPPERARY: 1 B Cummins; 2 P Stapleton, 3 P Curran, 4 M Cahill; 5 J O’Keeffe, 6 C O’Mahony, 7 Pádraic Maher; 9 S McGrath, 8 G Ryan (0-1); 11 N McGrath (0-2, one sl), 10 S Callanan (1-0), 12 Patrick Maher; 13 E Kelly (2-6, 0-3 frees), 14 J O’Brien (0-3), 15 L Corbett (4-4). Subs: 17 P Bourke (0-2) for Callanan (50 mins), 19 B Dunne (0-1) for Ryan (54 mins), 18 S Bourke (0-1) for N McGrath (61 mins), 21 B Maher for P Maher (63 mins), 16 D Gleeson for Cummins (64 mins). Yellow cards: O’Brien (13 mins), P Maher (55 mins).
WATERFORD: 1 C Hennessy; 3 J Maher, 6 M Walsh, 4 N Connors; 2 D Fives, 7 K Moran, 5 T Browne (0-1); 8 R Foley, 9 S Molumphy (0-1); 22 E McGrath, 11 S O’Sullivan (0-1), 12 P Mahony (0-13, 12 frees); 13 J Mullane (0-1), 14 S Walsh (0-1), 15 B O’Sullivan. Subs: 18 J Nagle for Maher (28 mins), 17 L Lawlor for Fives (half-time), 20 D O’Sullivan for Foley (half-time), 10 M Shanahan (0-1) for McGrath (half-time), 25 E Kelly for O’Sullivan (67 mins).
Yellow card: M Walsh (5 mins).
Attendance: 36,654.
Referee: B Gavin (Offaly).
