Tipperary hit form to reach play-offs as Kilkenny head for relegation scrap

TIPPERARY 2-22 KILKENNY 1-13

It's always a bit pointless describing Allianz League matches the following spring as "revenge" or "consolation" for All-Ireland defeats the previous September but Tipperary's big win over champions Kilkenny before a crowd of 10,421 in Thurles yesterday was significant in a few ways.

Firstly Tipp move into the quarter-finals with a match to spare as a result of this first win over their rivals in two years. Secondly Kilkenny, the holders, will not now be able to extend their sequence of league titles to four and instead will be contesting next Sunday week’s Division One A relegation play-off.

Coincidentally their most likely opponents are Clare, who they meet in the final series of regulation matches next weekend in Nowlan Park. It is also likely Kilkenny have never previously lost three competitive matches on the spin during the 16 years of Brian Cody’s management.

The manager himself wasn’t sure and not hugely interested in verifying the statistic after a difficult campaign to date with an under-strength selection in the absence of amongst others the Ballyhale players, who tomorrow go in search of a record sixth All-Ireland club title.

Poor start

Tipperary didn't have a full pick either and will be happy with how they survived a poor start – Jonjo Farrell's goal came within 15 seconds of the throw-in – and suppressed Kilkenny's comeback with a clinical phase before half-time and a largely dominant second half.

That there were flickers of the counties’ magnificent All-Ireland final draw last autumn was down to the relentless pace and end-to-end scoring of the first half-hour.

There was a good deal of useful defending by Kilkenny during this period but they were caught for scores because of the accuracy of the shooting, often from distance. Séamus Callanan’s goal – out quickly onto Niall O’Meara’s pass and in on goal for the score – in the fourth minute came as a swift response to Kilkenny’s opening. Tipp picked up the pace and led 1-5 to 1-1 after eight minutes.

That fifth point showed Pádraic Maher in full flow, tidying up at the back and recycling the ball through his brother Ronan up to Jason Forde for the score.

Richie Hogan carried the scoring burden for Kilkenny with nine first-half points, four from play. His contest with Pádraic Maher was another similarity with last year's All-Ireland and although the latter gave a great overall display, a couple of mistakes were ruthlessly punished by the Kilkenny captain who was accurate from frees and heavily involved in his team's best moments.

He led the revival half-way through the first half, which at one stage cut the deficit to one, 1-9 to 1-10, but Tipperary ran off six points before half-time. Noel McGrath, John O’Dwyer and O’Meara struck from play and Callanan hit three dead-ball awards for a 1-16 to 1-9 half-time lead.

The second half wasn’t much of a contest and Tipperary’s half-time lead ultimately wasn’t threatened.

Cody reaction

Although his opponents set up more defensively after the break to squeeze the space around Hogan, Cody acknowledged his team could have done better at the start of the second half but a 41st-minute penalty came to nothing when Brendan Maher stopped Hogan’s shot on the line. “Tipp got on top of us but we had chances early on in the second half and didn’t take them. Those things matter. Suddenly it gives confidence to a team. We didn’t get scores; we didn’t finish off the moves and that certainly gave Tipp the drive to keep on going and they were strong.”

The downside was the Tipperary attack was poorly serviced for the third quarter, which included a gaping 14 minutes without a score for either side. The massed defence coped well with Kilkenny but the deliveries into the forwards were hasty and badly directed.

Ronan Maher's 54th-minute delivery into Callanan was the first decent ball the full forward got and he duly obliged, taking on Paul Murphy and under pressure squeezing a pass across goal for O'Meara to shoot the second goal, 2-18 to 1-10.

From then on the contest flagged but it leaves Kilkenny certainties for the relegation play-off, most likely against Clare. O’Shea disagreed winning the league was now a priority for his team, as they head for Cork next weekend with both counties already in the quarter-finals. “The priority is to keep on improving, to try to do better. We’re still evolving as a team, we had newer players in today but the older lads were trying really hard as well. I wouldn’t say a priority. We’ll take the next game against Cork and try to do our best there, in fairness to the other teams in it.

“We’ll try to win the next game after that and if we do, fantastic and if we don’t, we’ll have to start again. You try to do a bit better every Sunday.”

TIPPERARY: D Gleeson; C Barrett, C O’Mahony, P Curran; M Breen (0-2), P Maher (0-1), R Maher; K Bergin, J Woodlock (0-1); J O’Dwyer (0-4), B Maher (capt), J Forde (0-1); N McGrath (0-3), S Callanan (1-7, 0-3 frees, 0-1 65), N O’Meara (1-2). Subs: C O’Brien for Curran (30 mins), S McGrath for Forde (51 mins), J McGrath for O’Meara (59 mins), S Bourke (0-1) for N McGrath (62 mins), D Egan for Gleeson (65 mins). KILKENNY: E Murphy; S Prendergast, P Murphy, J Tyrell; B Kennedy, K Joyce, C Buckley; M Kelly (0-1), L Ryan; W Walsh, R Hogan (capt; 0-10, 0-6 frees), M Ruth; J Farrell (1-1), J Power (0-1, 65), G Aylward. Subs: K Kelly for Aylward (half-time), J Lyng for Ryan (48 mins). Referee: James McGrath (Westmeath).