Kilkenny 2-17 Tipperary 1-16:AFTER A performance of feral intensity Kilkenny are once more champions. Driven by the grievance of losing an exclusive place in history 12 months ago when Tipperary foiled the 'drive for five', Brian Cody's team hustled the holders into submission and were a little maligned by the tightness of the winning margin.
Just as Tipperary’s aggression and desire proved too hot to handle in last season’s final, the motivation of having lost the previous year again subdued the defending champions.
Tipperary went down with honour even though not being allowed to play anywhere near their best. Pa Bourke’s goal 15 minutes from time revealed glimpses of an attainable happy ending but the efforts at recovery were too frantic and the Leinster champions never lost their nerve.
From the start all of the early indicators fell Kilkenny’s way. In a match which saw defences playing well, the winners’ forwards were more clinical in the early stages, doing better under pressure and creating small openings as well as finishing enough of the chances that presented themselves to go 0-5 to 0-0 ahead after a quarter of an hour.
That was a conservative estimate of the damage and it required Paul Curran, who battled well for Tipperary at full back, to take the ball off the line in the 12th minute when Eoin Larkin looked to have finessed a goal.
Kilkenny’s defence was magnificent. In the first 10 minutes both JJ Delaney and Tommy Walsh stamped their authority on the wings with super catches, characteristic of their best form.
Walsh was facing up to the opponent, Patrick Maher who had inhibited his influence a year ago but yesterday, and this time not labouring under the constraints of a shoulder injury, the Tullaroan wing back was like a hornet buzzing around, sweeping behind his line and placing some telling deliveries into the forwards.
Curiously he achieved this although Maher came into the match in the second half and made an impact winning ball and drawings frees, but without quite turning the tide for the Tipperary attack.
The cockpit of the match had been expected to be in the full back line. Tipperary’s devastating form in Munster and in the All-Ireland stages of the 2010 championship had been built on fluid interchange of forwards, luring defenders out of position – as in last year’s final – to exploit the space, as Lar Corbett had been doing spectacularly with five goals in his past two matches.
There had been intimations of system breakdown in the semi-final when Dublin deployed an extra defender to cut down on the space available and make the attacking zone more crowded. Kilkenny were unlikely to drop a man back but how they guarded the approaches to goal would be critical.
With their full-back line looking far from impregnable at stages this year, Kilkenny had to tread carefully. In the event the defensive performance was integrated and exceptional.
Jackie Tyrrell, who hadn’t been having the best of years, was assigned to track Corbett and although the Hurler of the Year probably saw more ball than in last year’s final when he scored a hat-trick, none of his possessions came in situations where he had a clear sight at goal and Tyrrell kept him scoreless.
The injury that kept Brian Hogan out of last year’s final looked even more costly by the full-time whistle yesterday, as his presence intelligently maintained in the centre, played a key role in turning the avenues of 2010 into cul de sacs.
Effectively screened, Noel Hickey at full back wasn’t exposed to the indignities of a year ago and formidably held his position. Rookie defender, Paul Murphy, thrived in such an efficient context and his dash and exuberance complemented the experienced strategists around him.
Eventually the champions got moving in the second quarter. Noel McGrath scored their first point in the 16th minute but that was the only score Tipp’s forwards managed from play before half-time.
Eoin Kelly converted four frees – the award of one which triggered a confrontation between the players during which Walsh’s stick cracked referee Brian Gavin on the nose and necessitated some extensive running repairs – and Gearóid Ryan added another point from centrefield.
The critical score of the half – and arguably the match as it stripped bare Tipperary’s growing confidence that they could get to the interval with a relatively small deficit despite having been distinctly second best – had its origins in carelessness.
Fatefully relaxing as Henry Shefflin addressed a line ball, the defence didn’t react smartly enough when Shefflin quickly regained possession to find Richie Hogan. Hogan spotted Michael Fennelly surging through the middle and he hammered home the first goal for a 1-7 to 0-4 lead.
An illustration of the Kilkenny commitment came before half-time when Colin Fennelly, showing no ill effects of the hamstring injury that had threatened his participation, dived to block Corbett and sustained a nasty gash that required his temporary substitution.
Tipp brought Brendan Maher into the fray after half an hour and the 2010 All Star picked up the rhythm of the match to have a very productive second half.
At half-time Declan Ryan sent in Pa Bourke and Benny Dunne to replace Séamus Callanan and Shane McGrath, the latter a recognition of the problems Michael Fennelly and Michael Rice were causing at centrefield.
Despite Patrick Maher asserting himself (by the end earning four pointed frees, one converted 65 and making the first incision for the Tipp goal) Tipperary couldn’t make huge inroads into the deficit and in the 44th minute Richie Power pointed to increase the half-time lead to six, 1-11 to 0-8.
Five minutes later the game was up. Eddie Brennan, deployed to complicate things for Pádraic Maher and with the help of his industrious team-mates succeeding to the extent that the exceptional Tipp wing back was unable to reach the previous heights of earlier in the season, came onto a ball in space in the middle of the field.
Racing through the heart of the defence, he spotted Richie Hogan and set him up for a sweet finish. Hogan controlled the ball on his stick and fired his shot beyond Cummins for an eight-point lead. Bourke’s goal, supplied by Corbett after work by Patrick Maher, raised hopes but the margin would never drop below a goal.
Like in 2006 when they last had a score to settle in an All-Ireland and thwarted Cork’s three-in-a-row, Kilkenny ran on high-octane fuel. Cody, animated on the line by everything from sloppy wides to disputed refereeing decisions, eventually danced his victory jig as the team locked down his eighth All-Ireland in 13 years of management.
Brian Hogan made a very gracious victory speech and those who had speculated on the end of the line for this great team were left feeling pensive.
KILKENNY: 1 David Herity; Paul Murphy, 3 Noel Hickey, 4 Jackie Tyrrell; 5 Tommy Walsh, 6 Brian Hogan (capt), 7 JJ Delaney; 8 Michael Fennelly (1-0), Michael Rice (0-1); 10 Eddie Brennan ((0-1), 11 Richie Power (0-2), 12 Henry Shifflin (0-7, five frees); 13 Colin Fennelly (0-2), 14 Eoin Larkin (0-2), 15 Richie Hogan (1-1). Subs: 22 TJ Reid (0-1)for Brennan (60 mins), 23 John Mulhall for Hogan (65 mins)
TIPPERARY: 1 Brendan Cummins; 2 Paddy Stapleton, 3 Paul Curran, 4 Michael Cahill; 5 John O'Keeffe, 6 Conor O'Mahony (0-1),7 Pádraic Maher; 8 Gearóid Ryan (0-2), 9 Shane McGrath; 10 Séamus Callanan, 11 Noel McGrath (0-3, one sideline ball),12 Patrick Maher; 13 Eoin Kelly (0-8, seven frees, one 65), 14 John O'Brien (0-1),15 Lar Corbett. Subs: 21 Brendan Maher for O'Keeffe (30 mins), 18 Benny Dunne (0-1)for Shane McGrath (half-time), 17 Pa Bourke (1-0)for Callanan (half-time), 26 David Young for O'Mahony (58 mins), 23 J O'Neil for O'Brien (66 mins)
Attendance: 81,214
Referee: Brian Gavin(Offaly)
