WHEN Kevin Kelly scored Kilkenny’s goal after half-time in last Sunday's All-Ireland final, the general sense in the ground was one of déjà vu.
Tipperary had done all the hurling. They had bossed the game. And now Kilkenny had hit them with a huge haymaker.
Tipp though, didn’t just rebound off the ropes; they unleashed a barrage of punches to Kilkenny’s midriff, a volley of shots to their chin.
Kilkenny were stumbling. They were hanging on like the champions they are but it was only a matter of time before Tipp stretched them across the canvas.
A nine-point victory didn’t even do justice to Tipp’s superiority. Tipp had a staggering 49 shots at the target, 14 more than their opponents. They scored two goals but they could have had five. Goalkeeper Eoin Murphy was probably Kilkenny’s best player.
For the last two years, there has been a perceived vulnerability in the Kilkenny full-back line, especially through Joey Holden and Shane Prendergast. Nobody though, had got a run on them but few teams have the firepower Tipp have in their full-forward line.
And all those fears came to pass because Seamus Callanan, John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer and John McGrath blew the Kilkenny full-back line to smithereens.
From a combined 41 plays, that trio hit 2-15 from play. As a comparison, the Kilkenny full-forward line managed just 1-1 from play, all from Kelly.
Kilkenny players and management at the end of the game ©INPHO/Morgan TreacyPaul Murphy has been the best corner-back in the game for the last three years but he was never under as much pressure as he was last Sunday. Murphy’s dominance has always been vital to offering protection to Holden and Prendergast but when the cracks showed in his performance, the rest of the roof soon caved in.
Kilkenny eventually collapsed under the sheer weight and volume of ball pumped into the Tipp forward line. Of the 43 balls hit into the Tipp attack, they won 22 (52 per cent).
Yet the longer the game went on, the more the space opened up, and the better the quality of ball going in became. And when a player like Callanan was in that kind of form, and with that level of service, he was always capable of doing a number on that full-back line.
From just 11 plays, Callanan scored nine points from play. He nearly made it 10 with one wide, while one of those points just shaved the crossbar. That level of economy and efficiency would be impressive in a low-key training-ground game. To do it in an All-Ireland final was an endorsement of Callanan’s brilliant talent.
Tipp’s platform was created in the middle third. The dominance and stranglehold they had in that sector was the source of their supply but they also managed something they hadn’t done against Kilkenny since the 2010 All-Ireland final; they worked harder all over the field.
Tipp won the hooks-blocks-tackle count 52-40. Over the 70 minutes, they won 23 Kilkenny puck-outs.
Tipperary's John McGrath celebrates scoring his goal ©INPHO/Donall FarmerOne of the signature moments in the game arrived just before Kilkenny’s first goal. In the 39th minute, Colin Fennelly got past James Barry and headed straight for goal. He passed to Kelly in space inside the 13 metre line but Kelly recoiled from a Mickey Cahill hit and then Padraic Maher turned the ball over.
That framed a large part of the story of the game because Kilkenny never coughed up as much ball.
Four Tipp scores in the first-half came off forced turnovers-in-possession. Tipp won that stat in the second-half on a count of 9-3.
That resilience and steel was the emblem of Tipp’s performance. After Kelly’s goal, Tipp hit 1-4 without reply. When Kilkenny staunched the bleed with a pointed free, Dan McCormack forced Padraig Walsh into over-carrying and a Callanan free pushed Tipp five in front again.
Tipp turned over the next Kilkenny play as well, which led to a John McGrath point. Tipp would have had a couple of goals only for brilliant Murphy saves but when McGrath did raise their second green flag, it came after the Kilkenny defence was hounded into conceding more cheap possession.
Tipp were rampant by that stage. Padraic Maher thundered into the game in the second-half. His brother Ronan showed massive leadership and maturity beside him. The longer the game went on, the better Brendan Maher became. With that grip around the middle third, Kilkenny couldn’t impose their will on the match.
Kilkenny though, could never get a grip. They showed their experience early on, especially in the opening six minutes when Tipp were ahead in the puck-out stat 6-1 and Kilkenny still led by 0-3 to 0-1.
Even though they were hanging in there during the first-half, most of Kilkenny’s big guns around the middle had no real impact. TJ Reid, Richie Hogan, Conor Fogarty, Cillian Buckley, Padraig Walsh and Walter Walsh only had a combined 30 possessions in that period, numbers way below their normal average.
John McGrath, Seamus Callanan and Jason Forde of Tipperary celebrate at the final whistle ©INPHO/Donall FarmerIn the end, the well eventually ran dry. Kelly did well on his starting debut but Brian Cody didn’t make his first substitution until the 59th minute. He brought on a midfielder and a centre-back, even though the full-back line was being destroyed and the forward line wasn’t firing.
Kieran Joyce was taken out of centre-back. He didn’t dominate but ‘Bonner’ Maher had made no real impact on him, or on the game, either while he was on Joyce. Kilkenny no longer have the same options off the bench but they couldn’t expect to have after losing so many marquee players in the last three years, and with so little underage success to draw on over the last six years.
Kilkenny will recover. They always do, but that challenge won't be as easy to overcome in the coming years as it was in the recent past.
Jackie Tyrrell and Eoin Larkin will hardly be seen in a Kilkenny jersey again. Given the seriousness of his injury, and the litany of injuries he has been ravaged by, Michael Fennelly may also have played his last game for Kilkenny.
When you consider all the great players Kilkenny have lost in the last three years alone – Henry Shefflin, JJ Delaney and Tommy Walsh were three of the greatest players of all time – it's impossible for any team to keep losing so many brilliant performers and to expect the same high standards.
Nobody disputes Kilkenny’s greatness, but Tipp blew a huge hole in their aura last Sunday. And by the end, it was Tipp’s class and talent, which has always promised so much, which was shining as brightly as the warm early autumn sun splashed across Croke Park.
Brendan Maher lifts the trophy ©INPHO/James Crombie