All-Ireland SHC final: Cork v Tipperary, Croke Park, Sunday, 3.30
A consensus has been settling that while Cork should win, they will more than likely be pegged back from the extravagant margins of April and May. The same consensus informs us that if Tipperary have a genuine outside chance, we should consider the wise words of the late writer Damon Runyon, who cautioned: “The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.”
Swiftness is an issue in this, as Cork’s pace has troubled most opponents but especially this Sunday’s old rivals.
It is difficult to diverge too far from the opening position, although Cork themselves have been in the same position. Having been blown out of it in the Munster round-robin by Limerick, the best they could apparently hope for was to lose by a smaller margin when then teams met again in the provincial final.
Instead, they responded brilliantly and actually won, albeit on penalties. Untroubled – or at least less troubled than would be ideal in an All-Ireland semi-final – by Dublin, Pat Ryan’s team arrive with a slightly uneven CV.
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It could be critically reduced to big wins over Tipp in quick succession – one against 14 men – followed by stuttering displays against Clare and Waterford and a meltdown in Limerick before redemption came in the Munster final.
A fairer summation might be that Cork have ticked every box so far, from their first league title in a generation to the provincial championship.
Since that lambent evening in Limerick, they have played just once. If gutting Dublin isn’t the most compelling credential, pillaging seven goals is certainly nourishment for the full forwards who scored five of them.
Tipperary have their own story to tell. It is based on one of the modern game’s recurrent phenomena: the reset. Remove powerhouse, generational outfits like Kiely’s Limerick and Cody’s Kilkenny and for others, the road to Liam MacCarthy frequently takes a team through a redefining setback.
Even Limerick got a walloping in 2018 from Clare on the way to the team’s first All-Ireland. Tipp themselves were taken to the chopping house by Limerick in the 2019 Munster final before resiliently turning up in an All-Ireland final that the champions failed to reach.
This season, there is no need for scrutiny. Ground zero was Páirc Uí Chaoimh in April and May. Since those painful experiences, it has been onwards and upwards for Liam Cahill’s team.
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Even the league final, on review, was a match they were leading around the end of the first quarter. They were well in it going into the 23rd minute when the roof fell in and Cork grabbed three goals before half-time.
Brian Hayes and Alan Connolly were busy, but the zoom of Darragh Fitzgibbon, Diarmuid Healy and Tim O’Mahony coming through the middle also exerted pressure that Tipp struggled to contain.
Nonetheless, Ryan was sufficiently annoyed by the lassitude shown in “losing” the second half to make a point of it afterwards. It appeared a mere footnote at the time, a corrective to excessive enthusiasm, but some of the team’s subsequent performances meant the reservation didn’t die.
If Cork can call on the agonies of losing an All-Ireland final 12 months ago to further fuel their fire. Equally, Cahill also has his own powers of motivation to stir up a big performance in his players. That much was in evidence against Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Consider this: “That win has given Liam Cahill’s side a shot at redemption, taking on their Munster . . . tormentors with the incentive of doing considerably better if not quite completely upsetting the apple cart.”
That was a preview from seven years ago before his under-21 team went on to clip Cork with a late Conor Stakelum goal just weeks after being beaten by the same opponents by 13 points in the Munster final. Stakelum is joined by several other survivors on both sides from that Sunday in August.
Their full forwards can match Cork for goals. John McGrath has been in sublime form, extending to his masterclass against Kilkenny’s unrivalled full back Huw Lawlor. Jason Forde’s steel-nerved assumption of free-taking duty in the same match was a key influence.
Back-up behind them has immense quality in Hurler of the Year candidate Jake Morris and the revelatory Andrew Ormond. They’re also facing the same defence that has creaked at times over the past two years.
Put simply, there is enough going on in the noises surrounding the final for Tipperary to believe that turning the tables is no more fanciful for them than it was for Cork in the Gaelic Grounds.
Is that actually the case, though? From the almost unfathomable depths of Tipp’s defeat in Thurles last year through the league final and the admittedly contaminated round-robin last May, Cork have scored 11 goals in the three fixtures.
The pace of that attack makes defending really challenging. It’s not that Ronan Maher and Eoghan Connolly can’t succeed in man marking faster players, but they can’t succeed on their own, placing a stern demand on everyone to block space and inhibit those runs.
It is hard not to conclude that Ryan’s team, who have ignited the last two championships, are well placed to burn brightly on this, the biggest day, fuelled by the high-octane disappointment of 12 months ago.
Tipperary’s day will come but Cork’s has arrived.
CORK: P Collins; N O’Leary, E Downey, S O’Donoghue; C Joyce, R Downey (capt), M Coleman; T O’Mahony, D Fitzgibbon; D Healy, S Barrett, D Dalton; P Horgan, A Connolly, B Hayes. Subs: B Saunderson, D Cahalane, G Millerick, C O’Brien, T O’Connell, L Meade, B Roche, S Harnedy, R O’Flynn, C Lehane, S Kingston.
TIPPERARY: R Shelly; R Doyle, E Connolly, M Breen; C Morgan, R Maher (capt), B O’Mara; W Connors, C Stakelum; J Morris, A Ormond, S O’Farrell; D McCarthy, J McGrath, J Forde. Subs: B Hogan, J Caesar, S Kennedy, P McCormack, B McGrath, N McGrath, P McGarry, O O’Donoghue, J Ryan, D Stakelum, A Tynan.
Referee: Liam Gordon (Galway).
