After a month in the darkness, the hurlers of Tipperary and Waterford stretched their limbs in Nenagh yesterday and it was the home side who embraced the return to arms with greater exhilaration. They prepare for the closing stages of the Allianz league with a keen interest while Waterford's afternoon reflected their broken season to date.
Waterford underwent the sort of calamitous defensive experience best exorcised in these gentle days of early spring and Tipperary, fleet-footed and glad to be running again, were in a mood to punish. Twice in the first half Brian O'Meara found himself splendidly alone and behind Waterford's last line and twice he drilled goals past the advancing Brendan Landers.
After 31 minutes, Liam Cahill took Tipperary's third goal and just two minutes later, Landers made a fine reflex save with Eugene O'Neill bearing down on him.
That reprieve was temporary for it was a day when the Waterford back line was constantly creaking. Even though the visitors stayed in touch throughout the second half, O'Neill, a torture all afternoon, bustled through for the fourth goal after 53 minutes and the excellent Lar Corbett iced the afternoon with a goal that his overall industriousness and lightness of touch merited.
"I thought both teams were rusty. We got a few goals on the run of play but we weren't five points better than Waterford at half-time. And yet Waterford never really got below that. I just thought the goals came easy, there was no great lead-up to them," reasoned Tipperary manager Nicky English afterwards.
And there was a definite sense that the goal-rush was partly inspired by Waterford's internal distress. Gambling with a struggling Sean Cullinane backfired and when the full back limped off after 14 minutes, further surgery was required for an already heavily dressed defence. Tom Feeney, operating comfortably in the corner, was dispatched to shepherd the loitering Eugene O'Neill on the edge of the square and it was precisely there that the visiting defence was cut to shreds. The first Tipperary goal, after just four minutes, arose from the Waterford backs' failure to deal with a fairly straight-forward dropping ball. O'Meara's next goal arose from a telling Eddie Enright ball towards O'Neill and although the full forward couldn't connect, he held off Feeney, allowing his colleague a free passage on goal.
The third had a similar look, with O'Meara firing a low ball which Cahill flicked through Feeney before burying.
"It looks like a bad defeat for us but I didn't feel the difference was that great between the teams," offered a sanguine Waterford manager Gerald McCarthy.
"Tipp worked hard for the goals and there was a bit of luck there in that a couple of them were down to basic errors on our part. But at other stages we played well and I was trying to emphasise to the players that there was a lot more positives than negatives overall."
And his charges did show heart in gamely battling back from the series of goal deficits they were confronted with. Although unsteady in his initial free-taking duties, Paul Flynn emerged as Waterford's most sparkling performer, bagging 1-9 over the afternoon. His goal was a typical piece of audacity. Standing over a 20metre free, Flynn eyed up a heavily-guarded Tipp goal-line before boldly striking for goal. His bullet went clean through, leaving the score at 3-4 to 1-8 just three minutes into the second half.
Much later in the match, the visitors threatened to upend the logic of the game when Ken McGrath took a fine Dave Bennett cross-field pass to deliver a fine goal to leave matters at 4-14 to 2-15. This, after 65 minutes, followed a prolonged period of Tipperary show scores. But on the next sequence of play, Bennett found space enough to whip a low shot that Brendan Cummins parried and somehow the rebound eluded the on-rushing Dan Shanahan.
Waterford's lone shutter of hope opened and closed there; a minute later, Eamonn Corcoran sent a long-range free sailing for the home team and as the game entered its last minute, Corbett danced in for a popular goal.
The summer's giants, John Leahy and John Carroll, got runs in the last quarter of the match while the general play from accomplished regulars such as Enright, O'Meara and Paul Kelly warmed the home crowd. There was, at various times, a precision and intuition that bodes well.
Tipperary: B Cummins; T Costello, P Maher, P Ormonde; E Corcoran (0-4, three frees, 65), D Kennedy, P Kelly; M Ryan (0-1), T Dunne (0-1, 65); M O'Leary, E Enright (0-2), B O'Meara (2-0); L Cahill (1-2), E O'Neill (1-4, three frees), L Corbett (1-1). Subs: N Morris for T Dunne (inj, half-time); J Carroll for D Kennedy (55 mins); J Leahy for M Ryan (66 mins); E Kelly for B O'Meara (70 mins, inj).
Waterford: B Landers; T Feeney, S Cullinane, B Flannery; J Murray, S Frampton, J O'Connor; P Queally, J Brenner; T Browne (0-2), K McGrath (1-1), E Murphy (0-1); J Mullane, S Prendergast, P Flynn (1-9, five frees). Subs: F Hartley for S Cullinane (14 mins); D Bennett (0-1) for J Brenner (half-time); D Prendergast for J O'Connor (50 mins); D Shanahan (0-1) for S Prendergast (54 mins); E McGrath for J Mullane (60 mins).
Referee: S McMahon (Clare).
