Tipperary 7-38
Offaly 3-18
Kevin Egan reports from Glenisk O’Connor Park
THE FUTURE OF the preliminary quarter-finals in the All-Ireland senior hurling championship will surely come into question following this afternoon’s record-breaking win for Tipperary over Offaly in Tullamore.
Their final tally of 59 points, and the combined total of 86 points, both represent new championship records, as Liam Cahill’s side sliced through an Offaly side that looked like a team that never recovered from their heartbreaking defeat to Carlow in the Joe McDonagh Cup final.
While Carlow’s strong showing against Dublin tells a different tale, the gulf between the levels was plainly apparent right from the start here. Thunder and lightning descended on Glenisk O’Connor Park by the end, but at the start there was warm sunshine for the 9,962 supporters, and a strong breeze blowing at the backs of the Munster County.
They didn’t exploit it by looking for scores from distance, but instead working the ball through the lines, while ruthlessly hunting and pouncing on defensive errors from the home side. It was a deadly combination, as they clinically punished every Offaly touch that was less than perfect.
Five points in the opening five minutes set the tone, three of them from the stick of Jason Forde, who was making his first appearance since their draw with Cork in Munster. However once Mark Kehoe snaffled a short puckout and danced in for the game’s first goal, the metaphorical clouds were gathering for Offaly, as well as the physical ones.
Ten minutes had passed by the time Eoghan Cahill whipped over Offaly’s first point, and already Tipp were motoring with 1-7, and talk of records was beginning to gather across the stadium.
Liam Cahill’s men didn’t let up, and their scoring rate of approximately a point a minute continued. Alan Tynan, Jake Morris and Conor Stakelum shot 12 points from play between them in the first half, five each for Morris and Stakelum, while two goals in as many minutes from Jason Forde and Seamus Callanan, both of which penalised Offaly errors, helped push the lead out to 25 points with less than half an hour gone, 3-24 to 0-8.
A strong run from Cillian Kiely saw Dan McCormack pull across the Kilcormac-Killoughey player and led to Johnny Murphy issuing a black card to McCormack for careless use of the hurl denying a clear goalscoring chance, and Eoghan Cahill’s penalty gave the beleaguered home supporters something to shout about.
To Offaly’s credit, they were much more competitive for long stretches of the second half, and goals from Cillian Kiely and Charlie Mitchell kept the margin at the around the 20-point mark for long periods. Tipperary were always in control of the game and some wonderful scores from Bryan O’Mara, Morris and Forde proved that they were still a class apart, but with ten minutes to play, it looked like the game would finish with a similar winning margin to what lay between the teams at the interval.
Late in the game the heavens opened however, and Tipp rained further misery on their hosts in the process too. Two more goals from Kehoe, another from Forde and 1-1 from John McGrath off the bench made for a serious statement of intent from the Munster County, and quickly sent GAA historians diving through the record books to confirm that the final totals did indeed break new ground.
Scorers for Tipperary: Jason Forde 2-11 (0-4f, 0-3 65s), Mark Kehoe 3-3, Jake Morris 0-7, Conor Stakelum 0-6, John McGrath 1-1, Alan Tynan 0-3, Seamus Callanan 1-0, Noel McGrath 0-2, Dan McCormack 0-1, Seamus Kennedy 0-1, Eoghan Connolly 0-1, Bryan O’Mara 0-1, John Campion 0-1.
Scorers for Offaly: Eoghan Cahill 1-7 (1-0 pen, 0-5f), Cillian Kiely 1-3 (1-1f), Charlie Mitchell 1-1, Jason Sampson 0-2, Paddy Clancy 0-1, Brian Duignan 0-1, John Murphy 0-1, Liam Langton 0-1, Paddy Delaney 0-1.
Tipperary
1 Rhys Shelly (Moycarkey Borris)
2 Eoghan Connolly (Cashel King Cormacs), 3 Michael Breen (Ballina), 4 Craig Morgan (Kilruane McDonaghs)
5 Bryan O’Mara (Holycross Ballycahill), 6 Ronan Maher (Thurles Sarsfields), 7 Dan McCormack (Borris-Ileigh)
8 Conor Stakelum (Thurles Sarsfields), 9 Noel McGrath (Loughmore-Castleiney)
10 Alan Tynan (Roscrea), 11 Jason Forde (Silvermines), 12 Séamus Kennedy (St. Mary’s)
13 Jake Morris (Nenagh Éire Óg), 14 Séamus Callinan (Drom & Inch), 15 Mark Kehoe (Kilsheelan Kilcash)
Subs:
- Johnny Ryan (Arravale Rovers) for Morgan (47)
- John Campion (Drom & Inch) for McGrath (47)
- Enda Heffernan (Clonoulty Rossmore) for Maher (47)
- Gearóid O’Connor (Moyne-Templetuohy) for Callanan (53)
- John McGrath (Loughmore-Castleiney) for Kennedy (61)
Offaly
1 Stephen Corcoran (Coolderry)
2 Ben Conneely (St. Rynagh’s), 3 Ciarán Burke (Durrow), 4 David King (Coolderry)
5 Jack Clancy (Belmont), 6 Jason Sampson (Shinrone), 7 Killian Sampson (Shinrone)
8 Eimhin Kelly (Lusmagh), 9 Sam Bourke (Durrow)
10 Brian Duignan (Durrow), 11 Eoghan Cahill (Birr), 12 Adrian Cleary (Shinrone)
13 Cillian Kiely (Kilcormac-Killoughey), 14 Paddy Clancy (Belmont), 15 Charlie Mitchell (Kilcormac-Killoughey)
SUBS:
- Paddy Delaney (Kinnitty) for Bourke (half-time)
- Eoghan Parlon (Coolderry) for Kelly (half-time)
- John Murphy (Ballinamere) for P Clancy (40 mins)
- Liam Langton for Cahill (44)
- James Nally (Belmont) for King (67)
Referee: Johnny Murphy (Limerick)
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Surely, it would be better to have 4th place from Munster and Leinster to play this game? Tipp vs. Wexford and Dublin vs. Cork with the 3rd placed team getting home advantage? That result isn’t any good for anyone…
@Tadgh J. Fanning: 100%, with the greatest respect to offaly but teams with such a gulf in class should not be playing each other. Its of no benefit to either team or counties.
@Tadgh J. Fanning: I’m not sure Tipp v Wexford or Dublin v Cork would have gone much better in knockout hurling
@Tadgh J. Fanning: So 40+ games to eliminate 1 team in each province? Come off it now.
Also those championships would lose their appeal without the jeopardy there currently is.
Logical solution is knock out provincials and 2 x groups of 5-6 seeded based on provincial finishing place. Promotion and relegation risk for everyone.
@John B Keen: there is very little jeopardy in Leinster. The 6th team all but ensures that.
That proposal of yours is the most illogical solution I have heard to date.
All that’s required is the elimination of the preliminary quarter final against the mcdonagh cup finalists. Promotion is reward for the winners(of MCD Cup). The losers go again next year.
@John B Keen: how is it 40+ games?
@Shane Roche: how many games were played in Munster and Leinster this year?
@Tim Dawson: well correct me if I’m wrong but there was plenty of jeopardy for Wexford in that Kilkenny match. Something Waterford didn’t have going in to the last match despite winning no game.
If its illogical then be sure to tell Sean Moran in The Irish Times.
Its not more illogical than playing 40 matches and have 6 out of 9 counties qualify, I can tell you that much for nothing.
So it’s perfect other than that one match above? How are you ever going to extend hurlings reach to new counties and help keep Offaly etc improving if you are that narrow minded? Or is that the problem, look after the top few counties?
@John B Keen: expending Hurlings reach by getting them to play counties who will Hammer them at every opportunity? This has been happening for years, and hurling in those counties has seen no improvement consistently against the top teams. Investment is needed to make those counties competitive, which would take years. Those Preliminary Quarter Finals have been a waste of time because the McDonagh Cup teams are not good enough to make the jump. Look after those counties by investment, not by throwing them into the deep end. Would be like throwing a League of Ireland team into the Premier League and expecting them to improve with no investment and against the best of the best. As a spectacle, the Offaly game was a joke. How is that a good advertisement for Hurling??
@Tadgh J. Fanning: did you even read what I said? I didn’t say anything about keeping the preliminary quarter finals. I never said it wasn’t a joke.
But the notion that 40 matches should be played in 2 provinces to keep 8 out of 11 teams is the best format is stupid.
@John B Keen: Wexford were in that situation because they folded against Westmeath inexplicably. That was a freak result but when the dust settled Antrim and Westmeath were the bottom 2 with Westmeath going down. I will predict now that after next seasons round robin the bottom 2 will be Antrim and Carlow with the relegated team being the one that loses between the two of them.
You want to destroy the Munster championship to somehow grow the game? That’s ridiculous. The reason why hurling isn’t growing is down to the individual county boards and the GAA culture within their counties. How can you grow something in a county that’s not in the perceived interests of the clubs, Gaelic Football clubs, that make up that county board? You can’t. They are GFCs for a reason.
I’d love to see a change that if the Allianz league winners don’t make it out of their province, they go into the preliminary quarter finals instead of the mcdonagh Cup runners up. It would make the league more meaningful and reduce days like these.
@Eoin Fitzgerald: not a bad idea Eoin
@Eoin Fitzgerald: Waterford Man by any chance? Good idea but realistically how often would it happen. Once in 10 years maybe. Maybe more.
You’d wonder why the umpires bothered to put the flags down between scores…
An absolute embarrassment men v boys, I seen King Henry there and he left with 20 mins to play and he like us all had enough.. Best of luck to tipp, I don’t think they will be far off, going be a cracker v galway.
@Paully kells: Fully expect Tipp to win and win well.
That’ll benefit both teams, no doubt……
As an Offaly Man, it hurts to say but if you’re in Joe Mcdonagh you shouldn’t have any chance of being in the All Ireland series. The facts are that no team will ever come up and upset these teams. The gulf is way too big now and is getting wider with every passing year. Outside of maybe five teams in Munster and Galway and Kilkenny in Leinster, everyone else is miles of . Even neutral supporters don’t want to watch that today. And that’s no disrespect to our Offaly boys. Always proud of them.The GAA need to have a good hard look at it again.
Facile
Donal Og will be delighted
@Keyser Söze: it depends which one of the 5 sides of his mouth Donal Og decides to talk out of next week.
Truth be told, he couldn’t give a rats about the Offaly and Carlow hurlers.
No disrespect to Offaly but this bone throwing effort to the McDonagh cup is ridiculous it invariably always ends in a hockeying. Better to offer the two table toppers of 1A and 1B that slot and reinvigorate a flagging league with a drop down option in Leinster and Munster if those qualify automatically