Second half Cork goal blitz sinks brilliant Tipperary minor effort in Munster semi-final

Munster Minor Football Championship Semi-Final

Tipperary 1-11

Cork 5-9

A goal scoring blitzkrieg in just one minute of second half play around the 50th minute put a valiant Tipperary minor team to the sword as Cork came to town and continued their bid for three Munster titles in a row in FBD Semple Stadium earlier tonight.

Tipperary will be bitterly disappointed to have coughed up those goals in such quick succession having played some brilliant football for some 45 minutes, but the quality of a small few of the Cork forwards - Sean Coakley in particular - was the deciding difference between the teams.

There were some very notable performances on the Tipp side with Shane Ryan, Michael Connellan, Michael O'Reilly, and Emmet Bonner all have great games, but the effort of the three quarters of the game couldn't be sustained for Tipp as they essentially ran out of steam despite a brilliant team performance for the most part.

The game couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start from a Tipperary perspective though, despite holding onto possession well in the first few minutes, Cork’s first two attacks yielded a 1-1 return in the third minute with Gary Holland pointing.

It wasn’t long before Tipp had coughed up a goal just a moment later, when Peter Boland’s short kickout was misjudged and was intercepted by Denis O’Mullane and the Cork corner forward showed great composure under pressure to side foot a low effort off the bottom right hand post and into the net.

That wasn’t the ideal start for Tipp but it didn’t seem to knock their confidence or gameplan in the slightest as the Premier youngster dominated the possession for the rest of the opening quarter, with Emmet Bonner, Sean Lewis and Michael O’Reilly pulling the strings, and after Shane Ryan found the target from play in the fifth minute, some hard running at the Cork half back line drew a number of scorable frees which were converted from Liam Freaney and two ground strokes from Bill Tierney to level the game after 15 minutes.

Cork though started to build into a bit of possession retention themselves thereafter and were causing issues in the Tipp full back line and got behind the cover on a few occasions to get sight of goal, but Tipp scrambled well and gave away some ‘good’ frees when in danger which Cork converted; three scores in a row coming from Sean Coakley frees (two) and a lovely point from play from Gary Holland to re-establish a 1-4 to 0-4 three point lead for the visitors.

Still, it was Tipp who managed to stifle that Cork scoring burst and get the ball in hand again to build up some attacks, and after a 13 minute drought without a score, full forward Ronan O’Brien won and converted his own free from just inside the 21 to pull it back to a two point game with two to go in the first half.

Shane Ryan was causing huge issues for Cork with his pace and hard running and when he burned a couple of Cork defenders after a good set up from Liam Freaney to slot over a lovely side footed effort in the 30th minute, he drove the Tipp supporters to their feet, and then, scarcely 30 seconds later it was Michael Connellan who levelled the game with a beautiful right footed attempt with the outside of his boot to send the teams in level at the break at 0-7 to 1-4.

Late scores to the first half certainly seemed to carry some momentum onto the resumption for Tipp as Jamie O’Keefe latched onto the throw in to power into the Cork have before setting up Shane Ryan to sell the dummy inside the 14 and slot over a left footed effort to give Tipp the lead for the first time.

The response to that was emphatic from Cork though and it was joint captain Sean Coakley who provided the quality in the 32nd minute, latching onto a diagonal ball on the end line before cutting inside on goal and lashing a left footed strike to the roof of the net to stunt the Tipp pressure and momentum.

Both teams would retreat back into their shells somewhat as the scoring chances over the next ten minutes were few and far between, but a Bill Tierney effort from a free sparked the game into lie in the 41st minute, as Cork went down the field and drew a free which Sean Coakley converted to give the Rebels a 2-5 to 0-8 lead.

It very nearly got worse for the Premier two minutes later when a fantastic delivery into the dangerous Coakley put the Douglas player in on goal but his well struck shot was brilliantly saved by Peter Boland.

However, that just proved to be a stay of execution for the Tipperary goalmouth as Cork had more or less killed this game with two goals in the 50th minute first coming from Denis O'Mullane and with Tipp at sixes and sevens now with that sucker-punch, the impressive Sean Coakley bagged his second and with the flood gates now open further points for the Rebels stretched the lead out to an unassailable advantage at 4-8 to 0-8 with ten to go.

Charlie Grace made a good impact off the bench in the 54th minute when he reacted quickest to his own blocked goal-bound effort to whip on the ball and find the bottom corner to give Tipp the tiniest glimmer of a comeback, but it wasn't to be as the gaps were starting to appear at the other end in Tipp's efforts to get the goals they needed, and when Dara Sheedy an in on goal unhindered to goal after 61 minutes, it was officially game over as Cork advance to the provincial final once again to face Kerry.

Scorers: Tipperary: Shane Ryan 0-3, Charlie Grace 1-0, Charlie Walsh (0-3, 0-2f), Billy Tierney 0-2, Michael Connellan 0-1, Liam Freaney, Ronan O'Brien 0-1f each.

Cork: Sean Coakley 2-2, Denis O'Mullane 2-0, Dara Sheedy 1-3, Gary Holland 0-2, Mark O'Brien, David O'Leary 0-1 each.

Tipperary: Peter Boland (Moyle Rovers); Ronan Myles (Ardfinnan), Cillian Ryan (Ballina), Shane Flanagan (Newport); Jamie O’Keefe (Clonmel Commercials), Billy Tierney (Clonmel Commercials), Michael Connellan (Clonmel Commercials); Michael O’Reilly (Moyle Rovers), Sean Lewis (Arravale Rovers); Louis Coughlan (Moycarkey Borris), Liam Freaney (Kilsheelan Kilcash), Shane Ryan (Ardfinnan); Joey Quinn (Loughmore Castleiney), Ronan O’Brien (Durlas Óg), Emmet Bonner (Galtee Rovers/St Pecaun).

Subs: Charlie Grace (Ballina) for O’Brien (45); Darragh Landers (Clonmel Commercials) for Freaney (48); Mark Neville (Fethard) for Ryan (52); Charlie Walsh (Fethard) for O'Keefe (56); Milo McNamara (Clonmel Commercials) for Quinn (60).

Cork: Billy Curtin; Niall O’Shea, Frank Hurley, Matthew Ahern; Odhran Foley, Gearoid Daly, Trevor Kiely; Mark O’Brien, Mark Hetherington; Timothy Cullinane, Dara Sheedy, David O’Leary; Denis O’Mullane, Sean Coakley, Gary Holland.

Subs: Oier O’Callaghan for O’Shea (HT); James O’Leary for Hetherington (37); Adam Dineen for Holland (47); Liam Hourihan for Ahern (56); Cian O'Sullivan for O'Leary (58).

Referee: Donnacha O’Callaghan (Limerick)