Tipperary 2-16 Offaly 2-11What a strange and disappointing match this was. Even the fastest field game in the world has its off-days. Neither side played with much fury but Offaly looked particularly anaemic.
Neither side looked like All-Ireland semi-finalists but Tipperary got their passport stamped in the end. By then many of us were wishing we'd stayed home to read the Sunday supplements.
There were five points between the sides at the end, the margin a distortion of the previous 70 minutes and despite Offaly having scored 1-1 through Neville Coughlan in the last couple of minutes the air didn't exactly sing with reminiscences of great Offaly comebacks. We just wondered where the fire had gone. How could two teams look so content about so little.
Tipperary could have done with the pace being a little hotter and the challenges a little heavier. As regards playing Kilkenny in August this was like preparing for war by doing a little arm wrestling. They will have regained some confidence but will carry some worries. Tommy Dunne left with an injury; Eoin Kelly got just one point from play; full forward still has a vacancy sign.
The frustrating thing is it promised so much. A Mike MacNamara team bursting to prove a point against the old bluebloods of the Premier. Memories of Tipperary's crumbling against Clare in May were fresh. What if Offaly gave them a good rattle ? Would they fold again? Maybe they would have. We'll never know.
In the end Tipp rolled on as serenely as Old Man River. Their reward is a new transfusion of self-belief after the traumas of May and their third clash of the year with Kilkenny.
It would have been interesting had they been tested a little yesterday. Early on Offaly pressed and hurled with the style they have made their own and we thought it might be hot and heavy for an hour at least. Brendan Murphy swished a fine score over the bar on three minutes and not long after Eoin Kelly paid Offaly the compliment of going for goal from a 21-yard free.
His attempt was blocked but in the fifth minute Benny Dunne swept a good score over only to see it eclipsed a little later by a stunning 75-yarder from Colm Cassidy. When Michael Cordial rapped another one over you began to suspect there was grounds here for a classic to unfold. Oh well . . .
Both sides had shuffled their forward lines a little. Offaly, though, stuck with the plan of having Gary Hanniffy play directly on Tommy Dunne hoping Hanniffy would gather some clean ball and lay it around him. Tipperary moved Conor Gleeson inside to the edge of the square with Brian O'Meara moving to centre forward. Things didn't go badly but Michael Doyle will feel the issue of who to play at full forward is unresolved.
What could go wrong for Offaly went wrong in small increments which were punished as they arose. On quarter of an hour Paul Kelly intercepted a diagonal Colm Cassidy pass and converted it into a Tipp point. And Cordial's influence began to wane a little, while Barry Whelahan's waned a lot. Cordial set up a Gary Hanniffy point a little later but not long afterwards Tipperary moved Eddie Enright onto him, the looser Benny Dunne being freed to do damage.
The omens were everywhere by then. Brian Mullins had to pull off one of the saves of the season from Conor Gleeson before Tipperary approached half-time with a flurry of scores to nourish them.
In the middle of the field they were winning the preponderance of ball but the key difference was in the manner in which they converted it. Quick transfer to the forwards and snap shots which all too often went wide but at least they kept Offaly on the back foot.
By contrast the sliotar seldom reached the palms of the Offaly full-forward line. Joe Errity can seldom have had a more desolate day.
It's not quite hell's kitchen in there with the Tipp full-back line these days but a mixture of Offaly's hurried passes and Tipp's determined defending kept Offaly at bay and by half-time there were several positional switches as McNamara sought to kickstart something. No surprise really at the start of the second half to see Simon Whelahan arrive onto the field. More of a surprise to see how few points he scored.
The bridge between the sides might have been gapped by more passion and effort from Offaly but they were languid for long periods and when we expected desperation things were no more urgent than they would be on a Monday evening puck-around.
Offaly trailed by six points at the break, a 13th-minute kicked attempt from Brian O'Meara having breached their goal as Ger Oakley came to a low ball and failed to clear. O'Meara, scooped, soled, kicked and scored.
By then Offaly had showed us what we already knew - they could hurl a bit. Tipp showed what many also suspected - they could hurl a bit better.
Tipperary wrapped things up in the first minute of the second half. Offaly had a wide from a free and Tipperary pressed upfield and Mark O'Leary gave a nice little pass off the stick to John Carroll who swivelled and drove the ball to the net. The goal sparked the frisson of excitement which goals always do but in reality it squeezed the last life from the game.
Tipperary were cleaning up in midfield. The commitment of their backs was perhaps summed up best late on when Coughlan (livelier than his forward peers combined) pulled on a ball on the 21-yard line and two Tipperary bodies threw themselves in its path to smother it.
By then the pattern of the game was long set. Tipperary were physically stronger and quicker. They had a more assured touch and sufficient cold blood to punish every Offaly mistake.
On 53 minutes Cordial had a fresh-air swish, the humiliation of which was underlined by Tommy Dunne scooping the sliotar and driving it over the bar from 70 yards. If Offaly had been punched in the guts by a heavyweight wearing brass knuckles the air couldn't have gone out of them more swiftly.
All through the second half as the pace continued to be sedate Tipperary strung together little sequences of scores. Their superiority would be most clearly illustrated by showing the scores from play that each of their half-back line helped themselves too.
Late on Tipp were leading by 11 points when a rather fortuitous deflection off a Gary Hanniffy shot caused the ball to loop into Brendan Cummins's net. Into injury-time and substitute Coughlan scored a fine goal and a point. By then Tipperary minds had turned back to a decades-old problem. How to beat Kilkenny in August.
TIPPERARY: B Cummins; T Costello, P Curran, M Maher; E Corcoran (0-1), T Dunne (0-3, 2 frees), P Kelly (0-3, 2 frees); B Dunne (0-1), E Enright; M O'Leary (0-1), C Gleeson (0-1), J Carroll (1-0); E Kelly (0-5, 3 frees), L Corbett (0-1), B O'Meara (1-0) Subs: D Kennedy for T Dunne (56 mins); G O Grady for L Corbett (58 mins); D Byrne for M O'Leary (63 mins); C Morrissey for J Carroll (66 mins).
OFFALY: B Mullins; N Claffey, G Oakley, D Franks; J Brady, Brian Whelahan, C Cassidy (0-1); M Cordial (0-1), Barry Whelahan; C Gath, G Hanniffy (capt, 1-2), R Hanniffy (0-2, 1 frees); B Carroll (0-2, frees), J Errity, B Murphy (0-1). Subs: S Browne for Barry Whelahan (22 mins); S Whelahan (0-1) for J Errity (half-time); D Murray for C Gath (42 mins); N Coughlan (1-1) for S Browne (50 mins) B Teehan for J Brady (59 mins)
Referee: G Harrington (Cork).
