Cork v Tipp: Where the All-Ireland hurling final will be won and lost

Back in 2009 and '10, when Tipperary were aiming to roadblock Kilkenny’s drive for four and then five, they weren’t quite as long odds as they are this weekend to stop Cork’s crusade.

The head-to-head record sets the scene with four double-digit defeats in their last five significant clashes.

The Rebels’ game-breaking pace has proved a stylistic nightmare. So any final preview must weigh up how much Tipp have improved against their scope for limiting Cork.

Pat Ryan and Liam Cahill are both in their third year at the helm, but there is a sense of a Cork team at their peak against a Premier team arriving ahead of schedule.

While that may be the case with some teenage talents blooded, the average age of the two semi-final starting teams was almost identical at 26 years of age.

They have come here by different routes, but the same opportunity presents itself. Ryan has been seeking to keep his foot on the accelerator with the same 15 from last year, barring occasional injuries and suspensions.

Cahill has been producing trial-and-error progress. He bedded in his preferred defence early, but major switches were undertaken after the Cork defeat with Rhys Shelly restored in goal and Andrew Ormond called in at centre-forward. 

Those two have started the same seven matches this season. They have won all seven. 

Ormond has pocketed two man-of-the-match awards. Shelly’s puck-outs have become a key platform.

Uniquely, Cahill has not started the same midfield pairing for any two games.

It was Craig Morgan and Willie Connors in the league final, Morgan and Sam O’Farrell for Limerick, Morgan and Alan Tynan for Cork, O’Farrell and Tynan for Clare, O’Farrell and Connors for Waterford, Connors and Joe Caesar for Laois, Connors and Peter McGarry for Galway, and Connors and Conor Stakelum for Kilkenny.

KRYPTONITE

Surely he will stick, rather than twist again, even if there is logic to deploying a man-marker on Darragh Fitzgibbon.

Those powerful runners have been Tipp’s kryptonite. That much is evident in the identity of Cork’s goalscorers since 2020.

Alan Connolly has six from four starts. Patrick Horgan has five in his last eight and was wrongly denied another for a square ball last year.

Midfielders Fitzgibbon and Tim O’Mahony have bagged three each, while Ethan Twomey notched one in the league final. Declan Dalton, Brian Hayes, and Robbie O’Flynn have netted two apiece.

Leaving aside the league game in Thurles, the last time Tipp out-goaled Cork in a major match was the 2020 Covid qualifier. 

Since then, the ledger reads 19 green flags to six.

Tipp have tested Michael Breen and Eoghan Connolly on Hayes this year, but this may be the turn of Ronan Maher. The Premier captain has tagged the opposition’s main aerial target in recent outings to good effect.

FORMIDIBLE

Hayes will present his toughest challenge yet. Of Cork’s 35 goals this season, the Hurler of the Year front-runner has scored 10 and assisted 10 more.

Dalton increasingly drops deep to pose another conundrum. Perhaps Eoghan Connolly will be detailed to follow and counter his long-range striking at the other end. That would place extra emphasis on Morgan and his midfielders to patrol the space left behind.

Tipp’s scramble defence has improved immeasurably, but it will be thoroughly stress-tested by Cork.

Both sides must guard against early concessions. 

Jake Morris netted after 38 seconds in 2022. Mark Kehoe goaled in 16 seconds last year. Dalton’s opener arrived in the fifth minute in ‘23. O’Mahony found the net within six minutes in April.

WEAK LINK

If Cork have any fallibility under long balls, Tipp will seek to exploit it. Both their goals in the league encounter came down the middle, although Robert Downey has plugged that channel.

Jake Morris got one that day and the vice-captain has a strong record against the Leesiders. Ryan may choose to switch Ciarán Joyce across to the roving wing-forward, which could free up Mark Coleman to feed the attack.

Inside, Tipp have embraced Cork’s trend-setting return to a traditional three-up structure.

Cahill has backed Darragh McCarthy all year as his free-taker, and all indications are that he will do so again, regardless of Jason Forde’s accuracy against Kilkenny.

Huw Lawlor was a Hurler of the Year contender coming into that game, but Tipp shook enough change from the full-back line to overcome a nerve-ridden start.

They lost 16 of the 28 deliveries into their attack, but turned those scraps into 3-5 and a couple more goal chances.

They will need all that perseverance and efficiency to deny Cork. The task requires a performance closer to perfection than they have produced all year.

Cork have hit those heights already. They just need to replicate it on the biggest day of all.