Tipperary 3-13 Kilkenny 1-13:In the aftermath Brian Cody shrugged off the end of Kilkenny's long unbeaten run as if it were nothing. "It's competitions you win, not records," he said, and he was right of course, but being the competitive beast he is, the Kilkenny manager will have seen enough yesterday to make him wonder a little about the competitions ahead.
A draw and a defeat in the opening two games of the league could scarcely be described as a crisis, certainly not in Kilkenny, where winter and spring are for examining the latest glittering rocks to come up from the diamond mines of the youth system.
Yet the fact it was Tipperary, and a Tipp team which never looked afraid, will give pause.
The game started with a fury, and though it had plenty of tame moments later, there was enough good stuff in it to keep a crowd of about 5,000 from thoughts of the Sunday-evening traffic. Even when Tipp went 10 points ahead in the second half, the home support sat patiently waiting for Kilkenny to rouse themselves.
Tipperary, though, looked like a side who'd had an infusion of confidence. An Eoin Kelly free and a point from John Carroll put them ahead within three minutes and they were never caught.
Babs Keating must be quietly pleased with how things are growing in his garden. Last year's underage heroics have thrown up some prospects who will need careful nurturing, but in Danny Hanlon, a 19-year-old who spent most of last summer trying to break into the under-21 team, the time seems to be now.
O'Hanlon scored 2-1 off Noel Hickey yesterday in a performance redolent of that other redhead Ger O'Grady, who scored 1-6 off Hickey that spring day in 2003 when last Tipperary won in Nowlan Park (putting, as it happens, an end to another long, unbeaten record).
Yesterday it wasn't that Hickey was bad, just that O'Hanlon was quick to react around the square. Both goals were ground pulls, the first coming just after the quarter-hour when a Lar Corbett handpass hit the deck and O'Hanlon pulled sweetly.
O'Hanlon has his raw edges yet but the full-forward line with him sandwiched between the Kelly brothers had a nice balance to it.
O'Hanlon's goal extended Tipperary's lead to five points and Kilkenny seemed to be struggling in a few places. The right side of the defence lacked aggression, and at centre back Brian Hogan didn't look as natural as John Tennyson. The debate on where to use Hogan will continue.
In a midfield deprived of the energy of Cha Fitzpatrick, Kilkenny were just about breaking even, but Eddie Brennan wasn't delivering at full forward, and the All-Ireland champions spent a lot of time huffing and puffing in front of the Tipperary posts.
Five minutes after O'Hanlon's goal Paul Kelly had the ball in the Kilkenny net again. Once more the build-up was a fine thing to watch, Tipperary handpassing the ball unmolested through the centre of the Kilkenny defence.
Kilkenny were losing touch, yet even in their torpor showing that even working from memory they have extraordinary class. Richie Power pulled back a point with a free and then the score of the game came from Michael Rice after three crisp passes had seen play switched from one wing to the other and Rice finishing with perfect certainty to get the crowd roaring again.
Typical of Tipperary's demeanour, though, was that O'Hanlon and Eoin Kelly claimed the next two scores before the game's turning point arrived. Willie O'Dwyer was fouled when setting up Power for a successful attempt on goal and the play was dragged back for a penalty. Power never got the purchase on it that was needed and Brendan Cummins saved to his left.
Tipperary would carry the seven-point lead to the break.
The second half had elements of the thriller about it as Kilkenny went in chase of Tipp. To make it interesting O'Hanlon had added another goal early in the half when a long Benny Dunne free was knocked down on the edge of the square by Eoin Kelly. Another quick pull. Another goal.
And so to the chase scenes.
Most spectacular was the Kilkenny goal, the pick of the afternoon. Jackie Tyrell located Eoin Larkin, who conjured a fine pass to Martin Comerford, whose strike almost exploded the net.
By now Kilkenny had refitted their forward lines. Comerford was at full forward, Brennan top of the right and Power right wing forward.
There was a sense in the crowd, plump from success, that Tipperary's lead was just a theatrical device to heighten the tension, and when Brennan and Eoin McCormack added scores to bring the lead back to four points it seemed the cognoscenti were justified in their calm.
Tipperary were quite chilled themselves, however. The Kellys had a point each. Kilkenny found two more. But a free from Eoin Kelly closed the scoring.
"Any day you get two points off Kilkenny is a good day," said the young hero of the hour, O'Hanlon. "We knew they'd come at us in the second half but we worked hard."
"Yes," said Cody graciously, "Tipp looked like a really serious team today."
A win that will nourish Tipp more than it will haunt Kilkenny. Only spring but the buds are interesting.
TIPPERARY: B Cummins; E Buckley, P Curran, D Fanning; E Corcoran, C O'Mahony, B Dunne (0-1); S McGrath, F Devanney; J Carroll (0-2), D Egan (0-1), L Corbett; E Kelly (0-6, frees), D O'Hanlon (2-1), Paul Kelly (1-2). Subs: J Woodcock for Corbett (half-time), W Ryan for Carroll (60 mins), S Maher for Devaney (70 mins).
KILKENNY: PJ Ryan; J Tyrell, N Hickey, JJ Delaney; J Dalton (0-1, a free), B Hogan (0-1), T Walsh; D Lyng, P Cleere; W O'Dwyer, M Comerford (1-0), M Rice (0-2); R Power (0-6, five frees), E Brennan (0-2), A Fogarty. Subs: J Ryall for J Dalton, E Larkin for O'Dwyer (both 42 mins), E McCormack (0-1) for A Fogarty (52 mins).
Referee: B Kelly ( Westmeath).
