Predictably Unpredictable

KILLINAN END

There is something curious indeed about this Munster Hurling Championship where nothing comes easy and even the condensed road of the current competition manages to become long and winding.

What person in full control of their judgment and with common sense would try to predict the final outcome of what is to unfold in the coming weeks. One post-match reaction suggested that of the four teams on Sunday evening, Tipperary would be the happiest of the lot. There may be something in that in the sense that perhaps the Blue and Gold were the outfit carrying most baggage into the competition.

Clare, after all, whatever the year might bring entered 2025 as the reigning League and All-Ireland champions. Cork took this year's League title in some style on top of their exploits of last summer. The men in green hardly need to the point to further reasons for optimism considering their extraordinary achievements in recent years. Even after failing to win the first round all can still look ahead with some reasons for optimism – how those reasons stand the test of time is of course another matter.

Tipp are entitled to take particular satisfaction from the weekend. The downside is that they are no better off than any other team despite a good performance. However, the upside is significant. Tipp brought and sustained a level of physicality and intensity for seventy-plus minutes. The game was punctuated by the usual moments where Limerick would normally be poised to kick for home. The green surge at the start of the second-half is a well-established phenomenon yet this Tipp team of four championship debutants did not buckle. Only one point came the way of Tipperary in the last eight minutes yet the game was still not lost. The nitty gritty aspects of the game were demonstrated supremely by this Tipp outfit. The blocking, hooking, and intercepting broke down no end of Limerick attacks. This thing they call work-rate was off the scale which in this ludicrously magnificent provincial championship is probably an entry-level requirement.

In a lifetime where we have been so lucky to enjoy so many great moments from those clad in Blue and Gold, a good few glasses could be emptied debating the greatest and more significant scores achieved by our hurlers. The precise significance of last Sunday will be decided by the cold eye of history in time to come, perhaps in a very short time to come. Significance of scores will edges out technical excellence in the long-term memory. Dinny Ryan’s late scrambled effort to wrap up the 1971 All-Ireland Final was no thing of beauty but its memory warmed hearts from Cureeny to Kilcommon and beyond forever and a day. Matt the Thresher himself would have swooned at this tribute to the little village.

What posterity will finally make of John McGrath’s brace of goals remains to be seen. His first was the act of a hurling assassin. A handy point was there for the taking. Throw it over, run back to your position, job done. To not do so demonstrated a championship mindset where the risk versus reward calculation was done in a split-second and achieved the deserved outcome.

But the second goal is one that deserves a kind nod from the history books. The team’s movement, accuracy of passing, almost entirely under duress, leading to a brilliant finish, put this goal up there fit for comparison with anything from the past. Very much a goal of its time exemplifying this very modern style of play.

Of course, as we saw in Ennis, there is a place for a good old-fashioned route one approach. The shortest distance between two points remains a straight line though not everybody has an operator like Peter Duggan on the edge of the square.

It was a shame that Jake Morris’s attempted foot-stab lift – after he had lost his hurley - did not work out. It might have been remembered along the lines of Nicky English’s soccer-style finish at the same Killinan End goal in the 1987 Munster Final. Jake’s power, aggression, and vision, are now invaluable. Eoghan Connolly’s long-range free-taking was a huge addition to Tipp’s armoury. Consider the extraordinary contribution of Diarmaid Byrnes to Limerick’s cause from such frees alone in recent years.

And, on the subject of contributions, Matt Hassett – one of the Greyhounds’ two legendary All-Ireland winning captains - will have smiled kindly on the ice-cool exploits of Toomevara’s latest young talent even against the mighty men of Limerick.

It was a weekend which yet again demonstrated the potent cocktail that is the Munster championship. Across the provincial border Kilkenny looked as impressive as they could against dire opposition. A very harmless way for Galway to lose their unbeaten round-robin against Kilkenny. Wexford avoided one of the potential banana skins which have dragged them down in recent years, while Dublin dodged a bullet against Offaly. Is it too early to say this is predictable? Certainly not a word you would care to use about Munster right now.