Wasteful Tipp still too strong
NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE DIVISION 1A
DESPITE missing the target on 20 occasions, Tipperary had too much in the tank for Cork in the last round of the National Hurling League last Sunday leaving the reigning Munster Champions needing a win over Waterford next Sunday to avoid dropping to the second tier.
The clash at the Home of Hurling was always going to be a difficult proposition for Cork after a series of less than impressive results, but if you had told many hurling fans that Tipp would have racked up 20 wides and still won few would have believed it.
Cork started with a strong enough team, but had to line up without full-back Eoin Cadogan after the star cried off late due to illness. Cork started well taking the game to the hosts however in the opening salvos they gave up three easy possessions resulting in two scores heading Tipp’s way.
The Rebels stuck to their task and were rewarded with early points from Bandon’s Michael Cahalane and Glen Rovers’ Patrick Horgan before Alan Cadogan in the corner found himself through on goal only to be stopped illegally by a number of Tipperary defenders.
Horgan stood up and smashed home the resultant penalty to put Cork into a two point lead, but that just seemed to just rattle the cage of the home side who responded with a scoring blitz over the next four minutes with four terrific scores to reclaim the lead.
Cork looked a long way off the pace when Tipp opened up however the men in blue and gold were unable to keep that elevated pace going and they started to rack up what was a seriously hefty wides count – eleven in all in the first half.
Tipperary found it much easier to get space to shoot and despite missing on far too many occasions they did manage to slot over fifteen first half points, which was a testament to their prowess with the ball in hand.
Like Cork, Tipperary had all but one of their forwards on the score board inside 25 minutes, but unlike the men in red four of the five scorers bagged more than one, with full-forward Jason Forde leading the line superbly with six first half points (two frees).
Horgan kept Cork within touching distance in the first half with his personal tally of 1-5 – 1-10 in all. To that point he was the only player to register more than one score for the visitors which was surprising considering the amount of endeavour put in by the front sextet.
Despite being level on no fewer than eight occasions in the opening 35 Cork went in down by three at the break (0-15 to 1-9) which wasn’t that bad considering the dominance exhibited by the eventual winners.
For their part, Tipperary would be happy enough to have led at the break however after shooting wide eleven times they would have surely felt they left Cork remain in this game when they could have been out of sight.
All that said, Cork needed to up the ate after the break if they were to get back into this one but despite going to the bench around the 60th minute to bring in the likes of Luke Meade and Brian Lawton Cork just couldn’t close that three point gap.
Corner-forward Alan Cadogan did his bit in the second period adding two points to the one he got in the first half while subs Meade and Declan Kearney kept their side in the running with two and one points respectively.
Cork managed to get back to within four points on the 54th minute but a goal from Billy McCarthy and wonderful points from their talisman Forde and Patrick Bonnar Maher meant this one was never likely to get away from Tipp.
Cork to their credit pushed all the way and got the gap down to three deep in injury time, but it was not to be as Tipp booked their place in the league quarter-finals while for Cork it is an all or nothing clash with a Waterford at Pairc Uí Rinn next Sunday.
TIPPERARY: B Hogan, A Flynn 0-1, S O’Brien, D Maher, B Heffernan, Padraic Maher, R Maher, B Maher 0-1, C Barrett 0-2, S Curran, B McCarthy 1-1, Patrick Maher 0-3, M Breen 0-2, J Forde 0-12 (0-7 f), J McGrath Subs: M Russell for McGrath (64). C Darcy for McCarthy (71), M Cahill for D Maher (72)
CORK: A Nash, S O’Donoghue, D Browne, C Spillane, C Joyce, T O’Mahony, M Coleman, D Fitzgibbon, B Cooper, S Kingston 0-1, C Lehane 0-2, R O’Flynn, A Cadogan 0-3, M Cahalane 0-2, P Horgan 1-10 (0-8 f, 1-0 pen) Subs: L Meade 0-2 for Kingston (54), B Lawton for O’Flynn (59), D Kearney 0-1 for Cooper (64), J O’Connor for Fitzgibbon (70)
REFEREE: P O’Dwyer (Carlow)