CORK and Tipperary have the All-Ireland final they have always dreamed off.
The rivalry between the counties stretches back over a century and to have them meeting in the decider for the first time is so special.
The atmosphere in two weeks’ time in the parade will be unbelievable with Croke Park heaving in blue and gold and red and white.
Hats off to Liam Cahill — it’s something else that Tipp are back in the big time and there will be a huge buzz around the county for the next two weeks.
Absolutely nobody expected Tipp to be in the final — but here they are on merit.
The work that he did and the entire performance of his team deserves massive credit considering how far they have come.
The ten-point loss to Cork in the NHL final was sobering, as was the 4-27 to 0-24 defeat to the Rebels in the Munster Championship.
But they finished third, got the job done against Galway and showed huge resolve to beat Kilkenny yesterday.
From a Tipp point of view, Darragh McCarthy’s second yellow was disappointing but at least he won’t miss the All-Ireland.
He took his goal well, but he has a lot to learn in senior hurling. I don’t like his style as a free-taker either, he missed two in the second half and Jason Forde took over then.
He kind of slices the ball — Tony Kelly does it in Clare and Limerick’s Aaron Gillane is similar too. But a clean strike is always best.
In that regard, maybe it’s best that Tipp hold McCarthy in reserve for the final given he’s been sent off twice, missed frees and there’s just so much at stake.
As for the Cats, I’m in Kilkenny an awful lot in recent times and I have a lot of friends there — particularly hurling friends.
And the hurt that Kilkenny feel when they lose to Tipperary is always massive, no matter what level it’s at because the dislike that hurling people have between the counties down the years has never really gone away.
They would have preferred to have been beaten by the devil himself than to have been beaten by Tipp — so that’s going to hurt and going to hurt for a long time.
That result is going to set Kilkenny back an awful lot because this was the only team they had with a genuine chance of ending the ten-year famine.
LAST CHANCE?
Go back to last year, and their club champions Thomastown were beaten by Castletown-Geoghegan of Westmeath in the Leinster club quarter-finals.
The one thing Kilkenny had is county club champions that were leaders. Whether it was Ballyhale or the Village.
The county champions always led, and captain John Donnelly was the only starting player from Thomastown on yesterday’s team — and I’d say we’ll never see TJ Reid in a Kilkenny jersey again.
He turns 38 this year, and he looked totally crestfallen as he left the field a decade on since his last All-Ireland.
Leinster titles are all good and well, but there’s only one currency that matters. Their full-forward line looked like doing real damage yesterday.
But for some reason, when every section of the Kilkenny team got the ball they messed it up with short passing and ran down blind alleys.
TJ Reid got no ball in the second half and neither did Eoin Cody, even though he gave Robert Doyle a torrid time in the first.
A man-on-man ball on Ronan Maher or Eoghan Connolly never came Reid’s way at all and even though he scored 0-11, only two of those came from play.
So many times two Kilkenny players went for the same ball with a Tipp player waiting for the break, and it cost them three of the four goals when McCarthy and Forde scored before Oisín O’Donoghue’s wonder strike to win it.
The golden rule, you never play the ball down the wing, on your own wing — but they did that all day.
MURPHY’S LAW
Eoin Murphy had the most disappointing game I’ve ever seen from him in goal with all of his experience.
Shipping four goals was a huge blow for him and everything was wrong about him.
Kilkenny were still only beaten by two points but everything went right for Tipperary and the last goal from O’Donoghue was spectacular.
Conor Stakelum was outstanding and so were the subs that came in, from Noel McGrath to Alan Tynan.
Hurling was the winner but Kilkenny were the real losers. They must have really had their heads down going home last night because they have no great prospects of ending their famine anytime soon.
It’s an all-Munster All-Ireland final for the second year running.
And all the pressure really will be on Cork.
Twenty years is a massive famine on Leeside, and they lost last year’s final to Clare by a point after extra-time.
They rattled seven goals past Dublin and the hype and expectancy down there now will be through the roof.
