Under 20’s aim to follow Minors to Munster glory

The Tipperary under 20 hurlers will aim to provide another shot in the arm for hurling in the county when they take on Cork in the Munster Final this Friday evening.

GAA: oneills.com Munster Under 20 Hurling Championship Final Preview

By Shane Brophy

TIPPERARY v CORK

TUS Gaelic Grounds, Limerick

Friday, 24th May

Throw-in @ 8.00pm

Referee: Niall Malone (Clare)

The venue has been confirmed as the TUS Gaelic Grounds after it was originally deemed unavailable, but the Limerick senior hurlers have agreed to bring forward the time of their training session ahead of their clash with Waterford on Sunday, to allow this game to be played at a neutral venue.

Per competition regulations, the final is designated as a neutral venue despite Tipperary and Cork having a home and away agreement which had ended following their lack knockout match-up in 2022, and it is believed that there was no agreement on starting a new one, which could have seen Tipp going to Cork or the latter coming to Thurles.

The venue will hold good memories for Tipperary, not only from the minor success last Monday evening, but also the Under 21 & 20 All-Ireland wins in 2018 & 2019 against Cork.

Those wins came at a time when Tipperary hurling was riding high at senior level but certainly a lift is needed, and this group of players certainly have the capacity to with many having won Munster and All-Ireland medals as minors two years ago.

Unlike the minors who headed into a final with the sting of a group stage loss to Clare behind them, their under 20 counterparts have the shoe on the other side facing a Cork side whom they defeated impressively 3-20 to 0-18 at Semple Stadium on May 3rd last. Sean Butler struck a hat-trick of goals, but manager Brendan Cummins was first to admit in the aftermath that wasn’t a true reflection of Cork’s ability on that evening.

“We got Cork on an off-night,” he said after that game.

“Away games have been really difficult in this. To be fair, the distance between the two teams is certainly not that.”

However, Tipperary have a bit of atonement to undertake themselves after losing their final game in the round-robin stage to Clare where they missed a multitude of chances before falling to a late one-point defeat.

The Tipperary management have been forced into one change from the loss to Clare last time out with Paddy McCormack's campaign at an end after sustaining a broken thumb with Ciaran Foley coming into the team.

Ronan Connolly is another concern after missing the Cork game through injury and lasted only until half time against Clare, but has been named on the bench.

Cork hurling is on a high and their under 20’s fed into last weekends senior success when they upset Clare away from home in the Munster semi-final. Cork were leading the game for long spells, including at 0-18 to 0-12 but the concession of 2-3 saw them fall three behind with three minutes of normal time to play. However, they showed their mettle as Ben O’Connor’s side dug deep to rattle off the next 1-3 with a goal from substitute Barry O’Flynn proving the winner in a four point win.

William Buckley is their star man with the centre forward scoring six of his nine points from play, and also shot three from play in the loss to Tipp.