MUNSTER SF FINAL: Eventually it took an unmarked corner back, who had wandered in behind the Cork cover, to find the equalising point for a well-organised Tipperary side with a fisted point two minutes into injury time.
MUNiall Kelly, moved to wing back in a reshuffled Tipperary team, took a deft pass inside from Paul Cahill to land the most important score so far in his footballing career.
A draw was no more than an underestimated Tipperary team deserved in a roller-coaster Munster senior football final at Semple Stadium yesterday.
Tipperary showed their intent, and above all the flair they clearly possess, from an early stage, leaving Cork having to come to grips with misleading pre-match publicity that had given the Tipperary men no chance of anything but a sound thrashing.
Cork and their supporters had been misled from whatever source. The guile, drive and technical brilliance of Tipperary, garnished with huge confidence, was something that had not happened over night.
Tipperary manager Tom McGlinchey, who also looks after the coaching, said: "We knew our capabilities and took little heed to what they were saying about us."
Tipperary's positive approach and ability to unhinge the Cork rearguard was signposted over the opening six minutes when the challengers chalked up three unanswered points. The Red army was stunned.
Peter Lambert and Declan Browne were the providers of this early flurry, feeding off a midfield dominance inspired by Kevin Mulryan.
One sensed imminent danger for Larry Tompkins' troops who were thrilled to see midfielder Nicholas Murphy get them off the mark after 17 minutes. By this time Cork had been expected to have laid the foundations for a comfortable afternoon.
Often it seemed that Tipperary had more than 15 players on the pitch such was the amount of running off the ball that their ambitious players were willing to do.
The Browne-Lambert threat was not going to go away and these two stalwarts tacked on another two points by the 10th minute for a 0-5 to 0-1 lead. Quite startling stuff.
Then, Brendan J O'Sullivan, who looked visibly annoyed with the trend, decided to do something about it single-handed. The Ardrigole schemer foraged out to midfield and got lucky when a breaking ball fell his way.
The blond flyer cut through the Tipperary defence, soloing the ball for 50 metres, and then letting fly with a good shot to the far corner for the first of his two goals. He hit home Cork's second just on half-time.
Cork were now back in the game but their confidence had been damaged almost beyond repair. Tipperary's work-rate was never ending. Fionan Murray and Phillip Clifford obviously believed Cork's needed scores would come.
There was no other explanation for the way they squandered two goal chances in the 21st and 22nd minutes. Both attackers popped the ball over the Tipperary bar when shooting for goal appeared the obvious option.
Mulryan and Seán Maher were repeatedly proving best under the dropping ball and Tipperary snipers Damian O'Brien and dual player Brendan Cummins were proving adept at latching on to the breaking ball and setting up crucial attacks.
Instead of adding to their Munster laurels with the comfortable win they had anticipated Cork are now facing a replay in Páirc Uí Chaoimh next Sunday. The prospect does not appeal to manager Tompkins. "It will be a very difficult match seeing what happened us today," rued Tompkins.
Tipperary surprised their own supporters by the amount of switching they deployed before the throw-in. Few retained their original positions. Further switching, designed to puzzle the Corkmen, followed moments after the throw-in but by far the cleverest gambit of all was to play their two best forwards, Browne and Lambert, as a two-man full-forward line.
Cummins picked up good possession and while the distribution was good it often failed to yield the desired results. Only about 40 per cent of their well-devised play realised results on the scoreboard.
Cork's Colin Corkery was yet to play his role as inspiring captain and when he received a proper service in the second half the big Nemo Rangers man went on to chalk up seven points, one less than Browne who was the game's top scorer with eight glorious points.
Cork looked safe enough when leading by 2-6 to 0-8 at the break and seemed almost guaranteed victory when Corkery rose high to gather a Brendan J O'Sullivan lob before stretching Cork's lead to 2-7 to 0-8 in the opening minute of the second half.
The response from Tipperary was prompt and decisive.
Browne (two frees) and Cahill added points before Tipperary substitute Benny Hickey came up with the goal of the match 11 minutes into the second half.
Browne's original shot was parried by Kevin O'Dwyer but Hickey followed up with a searing shot to the net.
This gave Tipperary a one-point advantage that was consolidated with points from Lambert and Browne.
Corkery was then seen at his best, taking four points on the trot to leave the Corkmen clear by a point in the 34th minute of the half. But just as it looked all over for Tipperary Kelly appeared from nowhere for the equaliser.
HOW THEY LINED OUT
TIPPERARY: 1 P Ryan; 5 B Hahessey, 6 N Fitzgerald, 4 D Byrne; 2 N Kelly, 7 S Maher, 3 C Collum; 8 K Mulryan, 12 L England; 13 P Cahill, 9 F O'Callaghan, 10 D O'Brien; 14 P Lambert, 15 D Browne, 11 B Cummins.
Subs: B Hickey for England 43 mins, W Morrissey for Maher 64 mins, M Spillane for Hickey 69mins.
CORK: 1 K O'Dwyer; 2 E Sexton, 3 C O'Sullivan, 4 A Lynch; 5 S Levis, 6 R McCarthy, 7 G Canty; 8 N Murphy, 9 M O'Sullivan; 10 B J O'Sullivan, 11 M Cronin, 12 A Cronin; 13 P Clifford, 14 C Corkery, 15 F Murray.
Subs: Kavanagh for M O'Sullivan 43 mins, D O'Sullivan for A Cronin 53 mins, C Crowley for Clifford 65 mins.
