ALLIANZ NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE/Tipperary 1-14 Kilkenny 0-13:A CROWD of 20,254 turned up for yesterday's Allianz NHL Division One match in Thurles, testament to both the bright, sunny conditions – albeit with a stubbornly Arctic ambient temperature – and, maybe more significantly, free admission on the turnstiles.
The attendance was served up a fairly ring-rusty performance by both of last year’s finalists. But the intensity of the commitment occasionally reached summertime levels and, after a brief fracas in which JJ Delaney was yellow- carded in the 70th minute, the managers squared up to each other with Tipperary boss Liam Sheedy at one stage pushing his counterpart, Brian Cody.
They shook hands at the end and normal service was resumed in the post-match interviews.
“Bit of a battle on the sideline at one stage?” the Kilkenny manager was asked. Cody, deadpan, didn’t miss a beat. “Battle of wits. As ever. No, no, there was no battle on the sideline. There was a battle alright for anyone out there. It was a flat-out game and huge commitment from both teams. It is early in March, so ’twas decent stuff.”
Sheedy ventured a little more: “When the match is close like that, it’s high-tempo stuff. We’re managers. Maybe they watch our body language, but, for us, it’s Tipp and Kilkenny, the second round of the league. If we lost today it probably finished our involvement in the league – it would be out of our hands.”
As the crowd shuffled through the exits, the consensus was that whereas this was a good win for Tipperary, especially since they had lost badly to Dublin in round one, Kilkenny had been competitive despite missing a good few first-team players with Ballyhale preparing for next week’s All-Ireland club final and former Hurler of the Year Eoin Larkin returning for a first outing of the season.
Tipp, on the other hand, had been much nearer full strength.
Despite an exciting second half and some good scores, the match was dominated by defences.
Tipperary’s, in particular, was excellent.
“They set the standard for the forwards,” said Sheedy, “in terms of ball-winning ability and composure on the ball. They really attacked the ball. It’s unbelievable for us and the forwards to look in and see a corner back bursting out first to the ball and winning it. Nobody’s getting carried away – it’s only the beginning of March. Galway next Sunday – another very tough match.”
All Star full back Pádraic Maher was outstanding, winning ball and using his strength and agility to make space for clearances.
Tipp were economical up front, shooting fewer than half of Kilkenny’s wides’ total but they had great difficulty in creating chances. One of the problems for the winners, however, was that the quality of the distribution from the back was poor, particularly in the first half.
This waywardness frequently ended up with two of the most acquisitive paws in the game, Tommy Walsh and JJ Delaney happily plucking down the sliotar and returning it in the other direction. Between them, Jackie Tyrrell was also commanding and little got through to the Tipp full-forwards.
The game’s vital score came just before half-time. Eoin Kelly delivered it, grabbing a hand pass from Noel McGrath and turning dextrously before top-spinning his shot into the corner of the net. That established a three-point lead, 1-6 to 0-6, a cheerier state of affairs for the home side given the stiff breeze they would face in the second half.
Kelly was very impressive given the time of year and ended with 1-7, 1-1 from play, and no wides.Kilkenny handicapped their prospects with a litany of inaccuracies in the second half.John Mulhall, one of the younger cohort given a chance, shot three points and earned the commendation of his manager.
The holders edged closer at various stages of the second half – Tommy Walsh hitting a monster 42nd-minute point for 0-9 to 1-7 – but Tipp always managed to pull farther away, as their attack improved its ball-winning, with Micheál Webster doing a lot better on the 40 than in his starting position of full forward.
In the dying moments, Kilkenny sub Michael Grace had a narrow-angle chance, but it was blocked out and Brendan Cummins – whose save one-on-one from Aidan Fogarty on the half-hour had been the most significant of the match – caught the 65.
The home crowd was greatly cheered by two points in injury-time from replacement Jody Brennan and Noel McGrath, which wrapped up the points.
l There was a minute’s silence before the match as a mark of respect for GAA historian, Marcus de Búrca, author of the definitive history of the association, who passed away at the weekend.
TIPPERARY: B Cummins; B Maher, P Maher, P Curran; D Fanning, C O’Mahony, S Maher; T Stapleton, S McGrath (0-2); N McGrath (0-1), B Dunne, J O’Brien (0-1); E Kelly (1-7, six frees), M Webster, L Corbett (0-2). Subs: H Maloney for Dunne (44 mins), J Brennan (0-1) for T Stapleton (53), S Callanan for OBrien (60), P Kelly for Webster (66 mins).
KILKENNY: PJ Ryan; C Hickey, B Hogan, J Dalton; T Walsh, J Tyrrell (0-1), JJ Delaney; J Tennyson (0-3), PJ Delaney (0-1); J Mulhall (0-3), M Rice (0-1), W O’Dwyer; R Hogan (0-3, all frees), E Larkin (0-1), A Fogarty. Subs: M Grace for Rice (46 mins), P Hogan for R Hogan (61 mins).
Referee: B Kelly (Westmeath).
