Rebels blow Championship wide open but have they consistency to make this a six horse race?
ROLL on the summer if fare like Sunday’s at Semple Stadium is what it will bring.
It was one of those days that restores your faith in the game - if it had been waning. The speed, skill and number of scores made for a majestic contest and neither side left anything on the field. Cork were deserving winners and the result has really turned the Championship upside down with Tipperary consigned to the first round of the qualifiers. At the outset most would have surmised that five teams could win the All-ireland. Maybe there are now six. I wasn’t necessarily surprised at how good Cork were as they have shown patches of the quality they undoubtedly possess on various days. But this time they gave a performance from the first whistle to the last. However, while I think Cork now come into the reckoning, if I was from Waterford I wouldn’t be too downbeat. Who would Derek Mcgrath rather have faced out of the two teams? Cork, undoubtedly. It’s going to be a massive game between them in June 18 with Cork coming on the back of a huge victory after placing all their cards on the table, as you have to in Championship, with Waterford now having a full four weeks to work on what they saw. We have to wait and see if Cork have the consistency they need. Conor Lehane was superb on Sunday, for example, but if he doesn’t scale those heights the next day, will someone else pick up the slack? That’s how a team’s maturity manifests. Tipp now find themselves at a crossroads and their form hasn’t been good for some time. When they played Kilkenny in the League they took their foot off their neck and ended up salvaging a draw. Tipp could have blown Kilkenny out of the water early on but they didn’t have the ruthlessness to do so and there were holes there which were exposed since by Cork in the League, Galway in the final and now Cork again. They’re really going to have to sit down and analyse what has happened them of late. They appeared head and shoulders above everyone else early in the League but that perception has now been obliterated. Yet, unless they get a very awkward draw, they should make it back to the All-ireland quarter-final and anything can happen from there. But every other manager will take note of the success Lehane had in running at the Tipperary defence. They have a lengthy break now and they need to take some time off and hope they’ll come back buzzing. However, a number of their players have been around for a while now and their full-back line took an awful hammering on Sunday. Perhaps tweaks are needed but they still have, on their day, the outstanding six forwards in the game with Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher still to come in. They just need to find a spark again. They haven’t been able to find a way to push on as champions as Kilkenny have done so often over the past 15 years. That manifested itself in so many ways for Kilkenny at their best, be it Michael Fennelly making a big tackle, JJ Delaney with a hook or Henry Shefflin with a massive score. Tipp have yet to tap into that and, while their talent hasn’t diminished, they obviously haven’t found a way to leave 2016 behind yet. They’re the only ones that can do that. They still have fantastic players and are certainly not a spent force, but whether it’s in them to put titles back-toback remains is shrouded in doubt right now.