National Hurling League, Division 1B: Dublin 0-24 Tipperary 2-23
Twelve months ago, Tipperary’s season started to unravel following a round 3 National Hurling League defeat at home to Dublin but last Saturday evening, they further cemented their development under new manager Liam Cahill with victory over the metropolitans at Croke Park.
Second half goals from substitute Conor Bowe and top-scorer Jason Forde proved to be the key scores as the visitor’s greater efficiency in front of goal was the difference over a Dublin side who shot 14 wides to Tipp’s eight. Dublin did though have the game’s best player in Donal Burke, who contributed 0-15, eight from play, in a terrific personal contribution, before hobbling off late on.
“He rotated a lot, started at 11 and was popping up all over the place,” said Liam Cahill of their difficulty in dealing with the Na Fianna clubman.
“He is one of these modern forwards now that can appear anywhere, and his movement created a lot of difficulty for us. Young Johnny Ryan in the second half kind of stemmed that a little bit and gave us a chance as a defensive six to try and put better shape on our structure back there, and that helped to quench that a little bit.”
Burke scored six points from play in the opening half in which Dublin dominated chances and possession with Conor Burke, Daire Grey and full forward Alex Considine also to the fore, although Dublin manager Micheal Donoghue admitted the need to take the scoring load off his talisman.
“We have to get more out of the others as well but he is a phenomenal player” he said of Burke who limped off late on, with nothing more than cramp, which also affected a number of other players.
Tipp weren’t overly reliant on one forward, although Jason Forde did contribute 1-10 of their total, but Mark Kehoe and Gearoid O’Connor were prominent as the visitors led 0-14 to 0-13 at the break but it was a fortunate lead according to the Tipp manager.
“We were lucky to go in at half time a point up,” Cahill said. “[The first half] was played on Dublin’s terms early on. They had a lot more movement than us, a lot more energy. But in fairness to the players, they addressed it well at half time and started the second half really well.”
Half time substitute Conor Bowe made an immediate impact with a 39th-minute goal, finishing off a fine move. Dublin responded well with the lively Alex Considine bringing his tally to three, in a terrific duel with Tipperary’s Bryan O’Mara who was another bright spot for Tipperary in a new position of full back.
Dublin were still in the game up to the 52nd minute when Tipp struck for their second goal; a long clearance from O’Mara landed in the square and Jason Forde read it quickest to flick past the advancing Sean Brennan to push Tipp six clear and they were relatively comfortable from there to the finish.
DUBLIN: S Brennan; J Bellew, E O’Donnell, P Doyle; J Madden, C Burke (0-1), D Gray (0-1); C Donohoe, C O’Leary (0-1); C Costello, D Sutcliffe, C Boland; D Burke (0-15, six frees, one 65); A Considine (0-3), F Whitely. Subs: J Flanagan (0-1, free) for Costello (53 mins); P Crummey (0-1) for Considine (56); D Leavy for Whitely (61); D Keogh for Sutcliffe (62); S Currie (0-1) for Burke (64, cramp).
TIPPERARY: B Hogan; C McCarthy, B O’Mara, J Ryan; M Breen, R Maher, B McGrath (0-1); C Stakelum, D McCormack; A Tynan (0-2), G O’Connor (0-4, two frees), S Kennedy (0-2); J Forde (1-10, eight frees), J Morris (0-1), M Kehoe (0-3). Subs: N McGrath for McGrath (34 mins, inj); C Bowe (1-0) for Stakelum (h-t); S Callanan for Kennedy (56); P Maher for Forde (62, inj); C O’Dwyer for O’Connor (68).
Referee: P O’Dwyer (Carlow).
