Cork v Tipperary: Expect high-scoring All-Ireland final as both counties are loaded with scorers

With Cork having scored 17 goals in six championship games so far and Tipperary registering 15 in seven, it’s not unreasonable to think that the green flags will get a good airing at Croke Park tomorrow afternoon.

The Rebels’ tally is bumped up by the seven they got in the semi-final against Dublin and the likelihood of a repeat of that is remote. However, it is worth bearing in mind that they got three against Tipp in the Allianz HL Division 1A final and then four in the Munster SHC re-match three weeks later, even allowing for the fact that Liam Cahill’s side had to play that game with 14 players.

Tipp didn’t find the net in either match – the league game against Clare was the only other one where they drew a blank on the goalscoring front – but their four-goal haul against Kilkenny in the semi-final showed just how menacing they’ve become.

The problem for each team, such as it is, is that their respective approaches in attack mean that chances will be allowed in defence. As a Corkman who coached St Joseph’s CBS of Nenagh to win the Dr Harty Cup in 2024, Mallow native Donach O’Donnell is in a good position to assess both and he feels that, even if either county wanted to go more defensively, the schedule wouldn’t allow it.

ADAPT

“It’s very difficult to change the way you play in two weeks,” he says.

“Tipp have been playing very traditionally and it’s not easy to switch to a zone defence or to hang back in the space of a fortnight, certainly to do so to a high degree.

“I’d imagine that it’ll be very free-flowing and high-scoring, at both ends.”

That Nenagh team was of course powered by Darragh McCarthy and O’Donnell has been impressed with how the Toomevara man has stepped up to senior level.

“He’s a really mature kid,” he says. “He’s the kind of character that, he wants to do well but, more so, do well for the team.

When he was with us, he was very unselfish. He’s the kind of fella that wants the guys around him to be the best they can be.

“He’s a true leader.”

McCarthy has been the poster boy for a revival for the county after the disappointment of 2024. O’Donnell feels All-Ireland success at minor (2022) and U20 (2024 and 2025), as well as Harty wins for Nenagh and Cashel CS have provided a strong conveyor belt for the blue and gold.

“Last year, things didn’t look good for Tipp,” he says, “but looking at the guys that have come through, like Darragh and Sam O’Farrell, they’ve had an impact.

“There’s a good bunch that have played with the U20s or else won the Harty with us or with Cashel Community School and they’re pushing all the time.

FEARLESS

“I don’t think that they’ll have any great fears because they’ve won underage All-Irelands over the last few years and Hartys – even though it’s a Munster competition, it’s a knockout competition with a lot of pressure involved.

“You might have said that they’d struggled on the experience front the last day against Kilkenny as well but the fact that you have the few experienced guys who have been there before, they can help the younger guys along.”