Tipperary hurling and football champions reach the end of the road after incredible year

Murphy’s Law is usually defined as “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” and that pretty accurately sums up Loughmore’s luckless endeavour in the Munster club semi-final, where their year of heroics finally came unstuck.
On a day when referee Johnny Murphy was at the centre of controversy, the Tipperary champions were dealt a rough hand. Denied two players in advance because of Covid, they then had another pair sent off and on top of all that had two goal chances thwarted in the first half by Ballygunner goalie Stephen O’Keeffe.
I know Loughmore like to do things in twos but that’s a sequence of doubles they wouldn’t have wished for in their worst nightmares.
It’s a shame that such an incredible year should end on such a sour note for a team that has won admiration countrywide. Their unique brand of combative spirit has earned the club plaudits from all comers so to have it all end in this manner was rough justice indeed.
The red card flashed to Noel McGrath in the first half has been widely rebuked as a wrong call by the match officials. I use the plural deliberately here because the referee acted after consulting the linesman, presumably on the basis that he hadn’t seen the incident himself.
To begin with the incident was a follow-up to one just a moment earlier when Noel McGrath was the victim and the referee failed to investigate what happened there. Secondly that linesman could not have seen clearly what happened because the players had their backs to him. He may have assumed that Noel McGrath delivered a hurley dig but, of course, the video shows clearly that nothing of the sort happened.
What Noel McGrath did is the type of thing that happens regularly enough in games when players are squaring up. How often do you see a sub coming on and when he arrives to his marker the calling card is often a jostle or body check? It rarely deserves even a yellow card. This was a huge call, a wrong call, and it had a major impact on the game.
John McGrath’s red card near the end effectively finished the game as a contest. He had been booked in the first half for a frontal tackle but even there it was a marginal call. Watch a replay of the incident. He goes to tackle the player who sidesteps him at the last moment and there is a type of glancing contact rather than full on. It’s marginal but I would give the referee the benefit on that one.
In the red card incident later, a penalty had been awarded and when the full back held onto the ball John McGrath tapped it out of his hand. Again, the referee acts on the word of his umpires for another game-changing call. The theatrics of some of the Ballygunner players didn’t go unnoticed either.
If that penalty decision had stood then it’s likely Loughmore would have goaled to set up a one-point game for the final moments – and we know how familiar the Tipp champs are with those scenarios.
On a horrible day for hurling, this game took a familiar course for Loughmore, who slipped behind early on but then rallied with characteristic spirit. From early Dessie Hutchinson was causing mayhem in the Loughmore defence and he was centrally involved in setting up Kevin Mahony for their first goal. Uncharacteristically, Loughmore were caught short staffed at the back in that passage of play.
By the first water break the Tipp side had slipped 1-5 to 0-1 into arrears but that statistic hides the fact that two great goal chances were denied John McGrath by the brilliance of Stephen O’Keeffe.
For the first effort Noel set up John for the shot from a sharp angle to the right of goal. O’Keeffe stood firm to bat away the waist-high effort. In hindsight John will realise that it was one he should have tried to roof under the crossbar.
For the second chance O’Keeffe again did superbly to athletically get a leg in the way. On most days you’d fancy John McGrath to put away both of those chances, irrespective of what goalie faced him but, I guess, when your luck is out it’s that damned Murphy’s Law once more.
After drifting deep into debt in the first quarter, Loughmore took great credit from their recovery in the second spell. It was built on typical tenacity, with players driving into the action and grafting for everything. Goals had eluded them but John McGrath’s point-taking from frees made major inroads into the deficit. Add in an excellent brace of scores from midfielder Ciaran Connolly, and by half-time the lead was back to just two points, 1-8 to 0-9.
The second Ballygunner goal, coming in the third quarter, was the most critical score in the game. Again, Hutchinson was the creator and this time it was Mikey Mahony who supplied the finish, though a blatant foul on Brian McGrath in the lead-up was another item of deep annoyance for the Tipp side – not to mention a clear case of a throw pass.
Things might have been worse for Loughmore, however, if Stephen O’Keeffe hadn’t drilled a penalty wide after Hutchinson was brought down near goal in another attack. The corner forward really was the match- winner for Ballygunner.
By the second water break the lead was out to four, 2-10 to 0-12 but, tellingly, the extra man was having an impact, with John McGrath now struggling to get near the ball.
It was a no-frills dogfight at this stage, with Loughmore grafting and grinding for sheer survival. Substitute Ciaran McCormack brought another save from O’Keeffe and, annoyingly, John Meagher was wide on three efforts that might have brought this tie to another grandstand finish.
The game was in the 22nd minute of the half when the John McGrath red card was delivered and thereafter the odds were simply too much for brave Loughmore. Fittingly, it was Dessie Hutchinson who delivered the final point in a man of the match display.
Loughmore bow out but with honour intact. They’ve been magnificent all year. Sadly, however, the game will be more remembered for the controversies. There’s a soccer campaign at the moment urging respect for referees, something we can all subscribe to. The only problem is that respect may be a right, but it also has to be earned.
In other news last weekend, Limerick dominated the All-Stars, with a record twelve awards going Shannonside. Never before, in either hurling or football, has a team assumed such all-powerful supremacy. It hasn’t been a surprise, however; the three overlooked Limerick players have drawn more comment than the twelve apostles themselves.
In truth, there has been very little disapproval of the decisions of the selection committee. Cork, as the first-ever All-Ireland finalists to be overlooked, might have been expected to bristle at that unwanted distinction, but even Leeside responses have been muted enough. I guess when Teddy McCarthy says it could as easily have been fifteen for Limerick then few Corkonians will raise much fuss. The nature of the All-Ireland defeat doesn’t exactly encourage any Rebel complaints either.
Interestingly, neither Dublin nor Kilkenny in all their pomp during the last decade or more could muster that number of statuettes, which raises an interesting point. Has Limerick’s dominance been aided by a noticeable slump in standards elsewhere? Tipperary have certainly been on the slide in recent years. Kilkenny’s golden era has passed. Galway have been unable to follow up 2017. The Cork famine continues; Clare have faltered since 2013; Waterford have only come so far; Wexford’s push peaked in the 2019 semi; Dublin’s progress has stalled.
The inevitable conclusion is that Limerick’s emergence has definitely been aided by slipping standards among all the main contenders. They have it all to themselves and bar some self-inflicted damage it’s difficult to see the landscape changing dramatically in the next few years.
Finally, an end-of-year word on the hurling handpass and the ongoing debate surrounding same. 2021 saw a highlighting of this issue like never before. Conor O’Donovan may have been ploughing a lone furrow in previous years but he certainly had impressive company in the past twelve months.
In particular the number of former players, All-Ireland winners and All-Stars who backed the case for change was particularly noteworthy. These were heavyweights of the game, ranging from Eddie Keher to Noel Lane to Michael Cleary, all on the same hymn sheet, all pushing for change to the rule in a bid to address the epidemic of throwing that’s blighting the sport at present.
The indications during the year were that Croke Park had duly taken note and that moves would soon be afoot to address the situation. The rules review committee was seen as the vehicle for change and the growing expectation was that things were about to happen.
Now, however, comes the depressing news that this committee is about to recommend an enforcement of the present rule rather than any change. It beggars belief that such an approach is even being contemplated. This has been tried and re-tried in the past and has failed miserably, simply because the present rule is unenforceable.
One can only think of that old definition of insanity, sometimes attributed to Einstein: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
So, if present indications are accurate, we can expect a bit of fuss in the New Year, as referees are told to enforce the unenforceable. There will be major controversy at the start of the league and then the referees will back off and normal service will resume.
Throwers of the ball can relax, there’s no stomach in Croke Park for tackling this issue.

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