Cork v Tipperary: Kieran Hammersley expects Rebels to edge high-scoring clash

Given that this is his second year coaching Fr O’Neills and he did two years with Erin’s Own before that, Kieran Hammersley is well-placed to assess Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC final.

The Clonoulty-Rossmore clubman might not have expected his native Tipperary to go so far this year after a difficult 2024, but he has been impressed with how Liam Cahill has turned things around.

“I felt that they had made super progress since Pat Ryan has come in. They’re just more varied in how they play, they’re a lot more aggressive, they work a lot harder and he has brought in a different balance to the team.

“They have a physical presence down the middle – the two Downeys, Tim O’Mahony and Brian Hayes. So I’m not surprised to see Cork there; they’ve been super this year.

“Tipperary, then – it was a dark day for Tipp hurling against Cork in Thurles in May of last year and you’d have to give all credit to the management team.

“They’ve done a super job, they’ve stuck with them and they’ve built a really strong squad now.

“You see guys coming off the bench and contributing and I think that the young players have had a massive impact.”

In seven games to date, the Premier County have scored 15 goals and the sense is that they will to hit the net more than once if they are to deny Cork the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

“I think that Tipp will take that mindset,” Hammersley says.

“In 2019, Liam Cahill and Mikey Beavins were over the Tipp U20 team and they beat Cork in the All-Ireland final and got five goals.

“All through that year, they were goal-hunting and it really seemed like that against Kilkenny, as well.

“They got four and had two other chances – Eoin Murphy made a great save from Jake Morris and another one, Andrew Ormonde was through and could have passed it across.

“I think that they’ll a similar approach, because Cork can be vulnerable to that as they don’t flood men back.

“The other side of that is that Cork’s full-forward line is so lethal. I’m not sure how Tipperary are going to tackle trying to deal with them – are they going to get their half-back line to sit a bit deeper, how will the match-ups go, will they keep Ronan Maher full-back?

“There are few questions there to answer for them. Galway and Kilkenny are not teams that are blessed with pace and are going to break the lines, so you have a different proposition with Cork.

“They have real pace – Darragh Fitzgibbon can cause problems running from deep, Shane Barrett can cause problems. What do you do with Dalton? Do you step out on him, do you hold back, because he’s a great striker of the ball?

“It leaves Tipp with a few decisions about how they set up defensively but they know Cork well enough now and I know that they learned an awful lot from the league final.

“They were very confident of how they were shaping up going into the championship game and then having the man sent off upended all of that.”
Assuming a 15-v-15 game on Sunday, Hammersley thinks things will be closer, but would give Cork the edge.

“I think it’ll be a great game, a high-scoring one,” he says.

“If I had to call it – not blowing Cork up, but I think they are further down the road and you could arguably say it is their time. But it’ll be a tough game at the same time.”