Tipp were by far the better team. They could have won by 20 points.

The occasion got to Kilkenny and they weren’t their usual selves but Tipperary deserved their victory. They were by far the better team, writes Sean Og O hAilpin.

 

We saw another thrilling All-Ireland final on Sunday and you couldn’t dispute that Tipperary were the better team on the day and fully deserved their victory. I don’t think many people expected that to be the case but there’s no denying that’s the way it was.

It will have come as a major surprise to a lot of people, including myself. I just couldn’t see Kilkenny losing. Apologies and congrats to Tipperary.

I wrote last week of all the things Tipp needed to do to have any chance of winning the game. They did them, and did them superbly.

There was a feeling that they needed to take all the opportunities that came their way. They took every chance they had. They got the goals when they needed them. And they defended superbly. They were magnificent, from start to finish.

And to be honest, Tipp could have won by 20 points. It’s only a measure of the champions Kilkenny are that they were in contention to win they game until a few minutes to go. They weren’t at the races in the first half but they were like a champion boxer on the ropes and they managed to get it back to a point at half-time. They conceded a couple of goals early in the second half and managed to get it back to a couple of points. But in the end Tipp pulled away and they deserved it, every bit of it.

Kilkenny had the look of a team that was waiting for it to happen. They didn’t have the same fluency that we know they’re capable of. Maybe it just proved that they’re human beings after all. I definitely think they were affected by the occasion, by the hype of going for a five-in-a-row. Their first touch was off, their substitutes didn’t have the impact they usually have, I’ve never seen their forwards as poor as they were on Sunday and Brian Cody’s decision to play Henry Shefflin didn’t work out.

Shefflin gamble

With an injury like that, I was amazed he was named in the team. It would have defied logic for him to play and be anywhere close to his best. You just can’t get away from science and biology. There was a tear there, and he just wasn’t going to be fully fit, and in an All-Ireland hurling final, if you’re not fully fit you’re going to be shown up.

However, and it might seem strange to say this, but I can completely understand Brian Cody’s decision. Kilkenny are an exceptional team but Henry Shefflin is their main man. He gets them ticking. Without him, and with the possible exception of Richie Power, the forward line looks leaderless. So if there was half a chance Henry Shefflin would make it, I can understand why Brian Cody played him.

There’s also a loyalty thing. Brian Cody has been coaching this team since 1999 and Henry Shefflin has been his main lieutenant since ’99. There was a bit of it in the ‘80s with Kerry, and Mick O’Dwyer was criticized for sticking with Pat Spillane and Ger Power and Bomber Liston.

The Henry Shefflin situation is a different situation, but there’s definitely a loyalty there – whenever Kilkenny were in a tight spot, Shefflin was usually the man to get them out of it – so I can understand Brian Cody picking him. If this was Cody’s first or second year, I don’t think there’s much doubt that he would have made a different decision, but I can still fully understand where he was coming from.

In any case, Kilkenny will have had a Plan B worked out all week. Michael Rice was very unfortunate not to make the team anyway, so it was clear that he was always going to be the man to come in if it didn’t work out for Henry Shefflin. So it was better to start with Henry and hope for the best. It would have been even worse for Kilkenny if they brought him on and had to take him off again.

Clever Tipp

But there’s a danger of concentrating too much on Kilkenny and forgetting to give enough credit to Tipperary. They played a very clever game, they were hungrier for every ball, they defended brilliantly and everyone made an impact.

Tipp were never going to outmuscle Kilkenny so what they did by sucking the tacklers in and then finding the man in space was pure class. If you look at Lar Corbett’s second goal, Noel McGrath got the ball and three Kilkenny men came to close him down. He had the vision to find Lar Corbett in space. Goal. There were a good few points like that in the game too. They always seemed to be able to find a man in space.

The substitutes also had a big bearing on the outcome of the game. Usually when Kilkenny win you can look at the impact their subs made on the game. Someone will come off the bench and do damage. It didn’t work that way on Sunday, and in actual fact it was Tipperary’s subs who were much more effective.

Seamus Callanan came on. First touch, over the bar. I think it might have been his second touch, over the bar again. David Young, who came in at wing back when Conor O’Mahony was injured, set up another sub Benny Dunne for one of the insurance points near the end. It could have been Benny Dunne’s only touch but it was a real redemption for him, because he came in for a lot of personal stick after last year’s final.

You look at Kilkenny’s subs. Derek Lyng scored a point and touched a few balls but he didn’t do a lot of damage. Richie Hogan and John Mulhall didn’t do a whole lot. Martin Comerford, I’m not sure I recall him getting a touch.

This Tipp team have five U21s on the team, another few on the subs. They have the ingredients to become great champions themselves, but often that’s not the way it works out. How many teams come through and win with a young team, and people say they could clean up for a couple of years? That’s the most dangerous statement in sport.

In Munster next year, you’ll have a good Clare team. You’ll have Waterford rebuilding. Limerick should be ready and waiting after a write-off year this year. If there’s one thing we love in Cork, it’s getting a crack at Tipperary when they’re All-Ireland champions.

And if anyone thinks Kilkenny are finished after losing on Sunday they need to get themselves checked out. The most dangerous team I’ve ever played is a Kilkenny team that has lost an All-Ireland final. They have a lot of young fellas coming through and don’t worry, they’ll be back.