Early dismissal for Tipperary leads to heavy loss to Cork in round two Munster clash

Munster Senior Hurling Championship - Round 2

Tipperary 0-24

Cork 4-27

This was always going to be a tough task to get a result against a strong Cork side in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, but the dismissal of Darragh McCarthy before the throw-in was a death sentence for Tipperary, who succumbed to a heavy beating in this round two clash.

A harsh lesson for McCarthy, who was given his marching orders when he and marker Sean O’Donoghue got to know one another running into their positions, but the Toomevara man was adjudged to have taken it too far with a strike, and after referee Johnny Murphy consulted his umpires, McCarthy was flashed with the red.

With 70-plus minutes of space, more so in the early stages, Tipperary were always chasing shadows as a slick Cork team with time and space made hay with goals from Declan Dalton, Alan Connolly, and Patrick Horgan giving the Rebels a healthy half-time lead of 3-13 to 0-12.

Even allowing for the extra man, the Tipperary players were firmly discombobulated after that early red for McCarthy, and it certainly fed into the confidence, or lack thereof - for the players left who didn’t cover themselves in glory in the opening half.

Alas, what it means is that Tipperary will now go to Ennis on Saturday, May 10, in search of a win that will be badly needed for both teams to continue their championships, after Clare were well beaten by Waterford in the earlier game played on Sunday.

The game was essentially over after 17 minutes with Tim O’Mahony’s goal in the sixth minute and Patrick Horgan’s finish in the 13th minute putting Tipperary on a road to nowhere for the remainder of the game.

Indeed, by the time Tipperary got their third score of the game from a Jason Forde free in the 18th minute, Cork had rattled home their third goal of proceedings less than 30 seconds later with Alan Connolly having an easy finish to the net after Brian Hayes had burned Michael Breen on the endline.

Tipperary steadied up somewhat thereafter and hit some fine points from Jake Morris and Jason Forde and it wasn’t too messy on the scoreboard considering as they trailed by ten at the break.

In fairness to the players, they did put in a fair effort in the third quarter of the game, and, at times, they did threaten to cut the lead back and trailed by 3-19 to 0-19 as far out as the 55th minute.

But again, Cork stuck the dagger into Tipp when Declan Dalton’s rasping shot to goal in the 64th minute broke and spirit and resolve left in the Premier as Cork recorded their first win of the championship, which sends them to the top of the table.

This was a desperate day out for Liam Cahill and his team. They couldn’t have dreamt for a worse start to the game with the dismissal of Darragh McCarthy and it did more than reduce the numbers on the field for Tipp, as the nervousness of the team was apparent from an early stage.

The performance will be easily sold to the players in the coming weeks to try and salvage some confidence heading into the final two games. However, if you were offered a point from the first two games as a Tipperary supporter with Clare and Waterford to come, it would have enticed many Tipp fans in the run-up to the championship.

The demoralising nature of the loss will be difficult to deny, thoug,h and there will need to be a massive input from management and the experienced players over the next fortnight to try and shake off this game, and have a cut at the reigning All-Ireland champions.

Scorers: Tipperary: Jason Forde (0-15, 0-12f), Jake Morris 0-3, Willie Connors 0-2, Darragh Stakelum, Andrew Ormond, Craig Morgan, Eoghan Connolly all 0-1 each.

Cork: Patrick Horgan (1-9, 0-6f), Declan Dalton (1-6, 0-4f), Seamus Harnedy 0-5, Alan Connolly, Tim O’Mahony 1-0 each, Robbie O’Flynn, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Brian Hayes all 0-2 each, Tommy O’Connell 0-1.

Tipperary: Barry Hogan; Robert Doyle, Eoghan Connolly, Michael Breen; Sam O'Farrell, Ronan Maher, Bryan O'Mara; Craig Morgan, Alan Tynan; Conor Bowe, Jake Morris, Darragh Stakelum; Darragh McCarthy, John McGrath, Jason Forde.

Subs used: Andrew Ormond for Conor Bowe (42); Noel McGrath for D Stakelum (42); Seamus Kennedy for Tynan (46); Gearoid O’Connor for J McGrath (51); Willie Connors for O’Farrell (67).

Cork: Patrick Collins; Niall O'Leary, Eoin Downey, Sean O'Donoghue; Ciaran Joyce, Rob Downey, Mark Coleman; Tim O'Mahony, Ethan Twomey; Declan Dalton, Darragh Fitzgibbon, Seamus Harnedy; Patrick Horgan, Alan Connolly, Brian Hayes.

Subs used: Ger Millerick for R Downey (21, inj); Luke Meade for Twomey (47); Brian Roche for Connolly (52); Robbie O’Flynn for O’Mahony (57); Tommy O’Connell for Joyce (66).

Referee: Johnny Murphy (Limerick)