Absolute warfare: The return of Kilkenny and Tipperary after six years
Declan Bogue
IT WAS AN ugly saying to Kilkenny ears, but the inability of the Cats to beat Tipperary in a national final between the years of 1922 and 1967, during a time in which county hurling became a mass pastime and passion, gave rise to the expression, ‘Kilkenny for the hurlers, Tipp for the men’.
In some eras, one or the other wasn’t quite at it. Tipperary went from 1971 to 1989 without an All-Ireland title, indeed, their 1988 defeat to Galway they only time they reached the final.
During which time Kilkenny amassed six Liam MacCarthys to make themselves feel a whole lot better about themselves.
The first meeting came in the final of 1895, a bit of a whitewash it was too as Kilkenny won 6-8 to 1-0.
Another handsome Tipp win arrived in 1898; Tipp 7-13 Kilkenny 3-10.
Kilkenny got one over on them, winning 4-6 to 0-12, in 1909.
There were wins again for the Cats in 1911, 1913, before that spell from 1922 and 1967.
Meanwhile, Tipp lifted the canister in 1916, 1937, 1945, 1950, 1964, 1971 and 1991.
It took until 2009 for the pair to next meet in a final. The next three years were consumed by their rivalry that brought huge controversy and incidents.
Take 2009. Tipperary came up the rails under Liam Sheedy. A few years of turmoil had bottomed out after another spell under Michael ‘Babs’ Keating and a generation of hurlers hadn’t experienced what it was to be part of the preparation of an elite group of athletes.
Kilkenny were chasing four-in-a-row. They had a settled management in Brian Cody, but as he was fond of saying, he cared little for a settled team, more a settled spirit. Sounds good, but what it meant was men gutting each other for their place on the team.
The finals of 2007 and 2008 had been one-sided encounters as Kilkenny dispatched of the innocent Limerick and Waterford. This was different. An instant entry into the Hall of Fame.
It looked to be heading Tipperary’s way too. The odd thing was that they had substitute Benny Dunne dismissed in the 52nd minute for a wild pull on Tommy Walsh.
Yet they upped their game and when Noel McGrath pointed ten minutes later, it left Tipperary two up.
A minute later, Richie Power made a dash for goal. He was being fouled outside the square but referee Diarmuid Kirwan didn’t blow. As he got inside the square, Kirwan felt Power was fouled by Paul Curran.
Henry Shefflin stepped up and crashed to the net. And with that gale in their sails, Martin Comerford arrived a minute later to pilfer their second goal.
In ‘Whatever It Takes’, Richie Hogan’s autobiography, he doesn’t sound convinced about the penalty award.
‘It was a soft penalty for sure, and if it was given the other way we would have been up in arms. We didn’t often get those fifty-fifty decisions from referees, but we were happy to take it when it came,’ wrote Hogan.
Tipp manager Liam Sheedy was somewhat sanguine about it.
“It was a big call and matches are won on big calls. I’ve watched it again and it looked like a tight call. He started outside the square and finished inside it. Did anyone count the steps? These are big calls and the day you get those calls is the day you win the match.”
Marty Morrissey was in puckish form in his day’s work for RTÉ. In the television interview, Cody was praising Shefflin for burying his penalty when Morrissey came in, “And was it a penalty, Brian, do you think?”
Cue Cody asking Morrissey if he felt it was a penalty himself, and after a little more probing, Cody had enough.
“Ah Marty, please! Give me a break, will you?” was a highlight. The cameras cut back to the studio pundits where Ger Loughnane exclaimed, “Will someone please pick up Marty off the floor there?”
Anyway, Kilkenny goalkeeper PJ Ryan was named Man of the Match and his reflex saves from Seamus Callanan and Eoin Kelly early in the second half went a long way to keeping Tipp down.
What did it mean to Kilkenny?
They weren’t getting blasé about such achievements. Indeed, there was a plan that day in Croke Park of presenting Liam MacCarthy to the winning captain in a specially constructed platform. Those plans had to be shelved, stewards moving to ‘Plan B’ as fans spilled onto the pitch at the final whistle despite repeated requests from the GAA the week beforehand.
The year after, we got our first sight of what we would soon come to understand was Total Hurling. Tipperary dragged Kilkenny players all over the defensive lines and their attack became not so much about hurlers taking shots, but the places and positions they found themselves in.
Lar Corbett helped himself to a hat-trick of goals. The first came after Shane McGrath caught a PJ Ryan puckout and leathered it back in the same direction. All alone were Corbett and his marker, Noel Hickey. Corbett showed great strength to hold off Hickey and slipped the shot below Ryan’s dive.
TIPPTIPPTIPPTIPP / YouTube
His second came with a delivery to Noel McGrath. Hickey was tight to him but he produced a no-look handpass to the unmarked Corbett who dodged the thrown hurl of John Tennyson to net again.
His final goal deep into injury time was the sweetest of touches. A ball inside was fielded by Bonner Maher. Lying on the turf he noticed Corbett had peeled off and, after taking a touch on the bás to kill the ball, lashed it home.
Think of that touch and the aplomb that Corbett applied.
Now take yourself 12 months on to the next final. Eddie Brennan streaming through the middle of the Tipperary defence. Richie Hogan has backpedalled into a position just left of the posts on the Hill 16 end.
Brennan handpasses. Hogan takes a touch and then wallops it into the top corner.
GAA - officialgaa / YouTube
All that artistry wasn’t the only thing about the rivalry. There were some bizarre moments too. Top of the list in that category was certainly the role that Corbett was handed in 2012; turning from an artist to a man-marker of Tommy Walsh.
It took a surreal turn when Kilkenny refused to let it become a straight battle between Walsh – who was marking Pa Bourke anyway – and Corbett, so Jackie Tyrrell stayed on Corbett, which made for a bizarre quartet running around Croke Park.
“For ideal match-ups that was the plan that Lar would pick up Tommy and obviously Jackie Tyrrell didn’t agree and he wanted a piece of it as well,” said Tipperary manager Declan Ryan.
“Tommy Walsh finished the game and his last 20 minutes was probably his best period of the game. I don’t know how good he was in the first half.
“But I think ultimately results proved that it backfired to some extent on us.”
It was a role that Tyrrell relished. For the 2011 final, he was handed the role of marking Corbett for the final. The week before, the Kilkenny coach Martin Fogarty handed Tyrrell a DVD of Corbett in action and what to look out for.
Tyrrell himself put a photograph of Corbett as his mobile phone screensaver. Every time someone called, he would see Corbett’s face.
‘When I was in meetings or in other people’s company, I would turn the phone in towards my body before I answered it. I didn’t want people thinking I was a complete nut-job but the picture was there as a constant reminder to myself that something big was coming,’ he wrote in his autobiography, ‘The Warrior Code.’
In 2013, they played a knockout qualifier in Nowlan Park with 23,307 present. It being only early July, they had been unaccustomed to meeting each other at this time. Henry Shefflin made a dramatic return for the last five minutes as Kilkenny prevailed 0-20 to 1-14, the Tipp goal inevitably coming from Corbett.
Years later, a player from each side were on an All Stars tour and recalled that game. They admitted they had never played in a game with as feverish atmosphere.
The 2014 decider came down to Hawkeye. In the first game, they drew Kilkenny 3-22 Tipperary 1-28. Kilkenny prevailed in the replay 2-17 to 2-14.
But that it went to a replay was the incredible thing. The first game has frequently been described as the greatest game of hurling ever – a title that seems to get passed on every week or so in the last few seasons.
The final play came down to John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer. He had been on fire that day with seven points, two from frees. He caught his last free sweet but at the very end of its flight it kicked outwards.
Off to HawkEye for adjudication.
“I felt he had a chance,” said Tipp manager Eamonn O’Shea.
“I thought it was over but obviously HawkEye said no. He got a great strike on it and he was unlucky.”
Wide. No score. Replay in three weeks time. Kilkenny got the business done.
By this stage Tipperary were wondering what hurling Gods they had upset.
They got their vengeance in 2016. Seamus Callanan went bananas with 0-13 scored and a 2-29 to 2-20 win for Tipp manager Michael Ryan.
It was the fifth final between these two since 2009. But Tipp badly needed to correct the record as it was the seventh meeting in eight years in championship, Kilkenny winning five up until that point.
The final meeting of the decade was also the last time they have met: 2019.
And arguably, the biggest talking point of all. The game was warming up coming into half-time when Richie Hogan caught Cathal Barrett with a raised elbow.
Some days it might have met with a stern ticking-off, or a yellow. Referee James Owens sent Hogan off.
It led to Kilkenny’s heaviest defeat under Brian Cody, 3-25 to 0-20. Naturally, the James Stephens man felt there were questions to be answered.
“Unfortunately, we lost a player and that is what is being spoken about. It is spoken about in general because there are divided opinions on what should or shouldn’t be.
“Obviously, that is what happened to us. And we weren’t able, we weren’t good enough to take on Tipperary down a player. It’s that simple.”
Six long years have passed. It’s time to take up the cudgels and let them go at it again.
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