Cork v Tipperary: Rebels fight back to earn a draw in epic Munster hurling battle in Páirc Uí Chaoimh
Tempers flare between the two teams during the game at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture: INPHO/Ben Brady
THIS is why we love sport.
A crowd of 36,765 was present in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in the Saturday evening sun and they experienced mood whiplash more than once as the game’s path deviated wildly. Cork led by four points inside five minutes yet trailed by five before half-time.
With that deficit reduced to two by the break, they twice restored parity in the second half only to immediately concede a goal. The second of those, Mark Kehoe, left it 2-23 to 3-17 after 68 minutes and, after an exchange of points by Patrick Horgan and Séamus Kennedy, it looked like Tipp – without a championship win last year – would be the only Munster side with two from two.
On a night where Cork lacked the automatisms and telepathy of six days previously against Waterford, they still believed. Brian Hayes was brought on for his championship debut and his first touch was a pass to Darragh Fitzgibbon in the left corner. His second was to touch the ball to the net after Fitzgibbon, Tim O’Mahony and Shane Kingston had combined to create the opening.
And yet, for all that, Cork might have yet again allowed a goal straight after, only for a Nickie Quaid-esque block by Patrick Collins on Séamus Callanan. The veteran Callanan did point in the aftermath but Conor Lehane set up Kingston to level.
Cork might have even won it with Declan Dalton free at the death from his own 45. It had the legs but just lacked the direction. The upshot is that both counties are level at the top with three points.
The counties’ only previous Saturday championship meeting had come in 2004 and 2007. The first of those occasions was a back-door game in Killarney that got Cork back on track after a Munster final loss to Waterford; the second was a round-robin qualifier tie in Thurles that drew a tiny crowd. The setting for this was certainly closer to the former than the latter as the buzz built in the city and travelled down Centre Park Road, with the weather making for a superb atmosphere around Marina Park.
Cork had two changes from the team published, with Eoin Downey coming in for Luke Meade as Tommy O’Connell switched from wing-back to midfield, while Robbie O’Flynn replaced Conor Lehane.
From the off, it looked as if there were goals there for Cork. In the third minute, Eoin Downey’s super ball allowed his Glen Rovers clubmate Patrick Horgan to turn Michael Breen and give himself an avenue but his batted effort went across goal and wide. Soon after that, Shane Barrett found Brian Roche but his shot was blocked, however the home faithful didn’t have long to wait.
Immediately after Séamus Harnedy had put Cork 0-2 to 0-1 in front in the fifth minute, Barry Hogan’s puckout was intercepted by Declan Dalton, who cut a swathe through the Tipp defence before depositing the ball in the net.
A four-point lead should have been something to build on, but Cork only scored two of the next 11 points as Tipp gained a decisive foothold. Not even the loss of free-taker Jason Forde upset the Premier County as Gearóid O’Connor took over placed ball duties and landed three first-half frees while Alan Tynan and Jake Morris impressed too.
Cork suffered in this period from overplaying the ball while direct deliveries found a surfeit of Tipp bodies waiting to collect them. The wides tally was beginning to mount too but, on 34 minutes and with the scoreboard 0-13 to 1-6 in Tipp’s favour, Cork found a lifeline.
After a defensive sideline cut went wrong for Tipp, O’Flynn latched on to the loose ball and his mazy run ended with another goal – however, at the expense of an injury and his retirement.
O’Flynn’s replacement Shane Kingston looked to have levelled in injury time only to be pulled for over-carrying and instead Tipp went in leading by two, 0-14 to 2-6, following a point from sub Mark Kehoe.
Harnedy (two), Kingston and Dalton (free) were on target as Cork clawed their way back in the early stages of the second period – Dalton had also got back to make an important interception when Mark Kehoe nearly got in for a goal – and it was 2-10 to 0-16 after 45 minutes.
Tipp’s response was emphatic as Conor Stakelum and Noel McGrath combined to give O’Connor possession close to the Cork goal. While it looked as if he had been crowded out by the Cork defence, he kept his composure and fired home a lead goal, Jake Morris’s point making it 1-17 to 2-10.
With the clock showing 64 minutes, Cork trailed by 1-23 to 2-15 but Fitzgibbon’s goal, poking the ball home from Lehane’s centre, eroded some of that deficit and Tim O’Mahony’s long-range point was followed by a Dalton free from distance.
The hard work looked like it might have been for nought as Kehoe replied with another Tipp goal but Cork went again and did enough to avoid defeat.
P Horgan 0-8 (0-5 f, 0-2 65), D Dalton 1-2 (0-2f), D Fitzgibbon 1-1, S Harnedy, S Kingston 0-3 each, B Hayes, R O’Flynn 1-0 each, T O’Mahony, C Lehane 0-1 each.
M Kehoe 1-4, G O’Connor 1-3 (0-3 f), A Tynan, J Forde (0-3 f) 0-4 each, J Morris 0-3, S Kennedy 0-2, S Callanan, C Stakelum, S Ryan 0-1 each.
P Collins; G Millerick, D Cahalane, N O’Leary; R Downey, C Joyce, E Downey; T O’Connell, B Roche; D Dalton, S Barrett, D Fitzgibbon; R O’Flynn, P Horgan, S Harnedy.
S Kingston for O’Flynn (35, injured), C Lehane for Barrett (43), T O’Mahony for E Downey (48), L Meade for Roche (55), C Cahalane for Joyce (59-61, temporary), B Hayes for Harnedy (68).
B Hogan; J Ryan, M Breen, C Barrett; B O’Meara, R Maher, D McCormack; S Kennedy, C Stakelum; G O’Connor, N McGrath, A Tynan; J Forde, S Ryan, J Morris.
M Kehoe for Forde (16, injured), C Bowe for S Ryan (half-time), J McGrath for O’Connor (53), E Heffernan for Stakelum (62), S Callanan for Bowe (69).
P O’Dwyer (Carlow).
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