Sliding Doors Moments
Killinan End
The modern Munster championship has changed many an inherited dynamic. The regularity with which Limerick come to Semple Stadium to play Tipp is a very modern phenomenon. Between the Munster Finals of 1945 and 1973 Tipp and Limerick met fourteen times in the championship. Only two of these matches was not at a neutral venue, with almost all of the dozen games played in Cork. The memorable exception was the visit to Killarney for an epic Munster Final in 1971.
The Munster Final of 1973 is equally celebrated though, naturally, more so on the other side of the border. Despite the great rivalry that developed between Limerick and Tipp in the early ‘70s a Munster Final meeting was not an obvious outcome at the start of the 1973. Extra time had been required in a League semi-final replay in April so the friction between the teams was intensifying. But Limerick’s exit to Clare in Ennis the previous year put perspective on any ambitions as did a comprehensive loss to Wexford in the 1973 League Final. Tipp had to overcome Waterford in the first round and then face the reigning Munster Champions, Cork, in a prospective semi-final.
Tipp’s opening round against Waterford in Thurles was unimpressive. It was notable for the return of Jimmy Doyle – bookending his career as it had started at Minor level by playing in goal. In the absence of Roscrea’s Tadhg Murphy he would do so again a week later in the salubrious surroundings of Wembley Stadium against the All-Stars. By the time Tipp lined out against Cork in the Munster semi-final it had been established that Limerick, by dint of a two-point win over Clare, would await the winners in the Munster Final. That, at least, was an exciting prospect. Cork and Limerick hadn’t met in a decider since a famous game in 1956 when Christy Ring put the tin-hat on an already vaunted reputation. Tipp-Limerick would be a return bout after 1971’s one-point win for Tipp.
As time ebbed away at the Gaelic Grounds in that Cork game Tipp’s goose was certainly browning nicely. The game came on foot of a volcanic League meeting the previous December. But this was a tamer affair. Cork looked comfortable as the end was in sight with Tipp managing just a point in the first 22 minutes of the second-half. Then came one of the most remarkable turnrounds in any Tipperary match. Four goals in the last eight minutes sent Cork, the previous year’s All-Ireland Finalists and one of the championship favourites, crashing out.
The Munster Final pairing was a promoter’s dream. A point had separated the teams in the 1971 League Final and again in that year’s Munster Final. Their 1973 League semi-final had gone to a replay and extra-time. The first Tipp-Limerick championship game in Thurles since 1951 was never going to be less than a nail-biter. Raymond Smith immortalized this period in his ‘Book of Hurling’ whose publication coincided nicely with Limerick’s breakthrough. He called this chapter ‘Mardi Gras days again’ to capture the atmosphere as thousands poured into Munster hurling’s Mecca.
A new fervour was injected into the Munster Final. Killarney in the rain in ’71 is immortal but this was the home of football, and it was wet, very wet. The pull of the final two years later had many angles. It just Tipp’s second home Munster Final since 1945 – ‘an rud is annamh is iontach’ and all that. This July day in Thurles was hot and feisty, and Semple Stadium strained at the seams. Early indicators were alarming for Tipp as Limerick blitzed them with a couple of goals, one from Frankie Nolan and another from a ’21’ by Richie Bennis. Ned Rea, at full-back in the League Final was now at full-forward and was responsible for several what would now be called ‘assists’ for Limerick goals.
Limerick’s early seven-point lead evaporated as Tipp began to get to grips with their opponents. On a day when Francis Loughnane glistened and Babs Keating struck some great points Tipp roared back to lead 2-9 to 3-2 at half-time. Limerick must have been somewhat concerned at that stage, but they were sustained by goals. One of the photos in the Book of Hurling has the scoreboard late on at Limerick 6-4 Tipperary 2-16 – nine scores to eighteen yet the teams were level. The game’s posterity moment came when Richie Bennis scored a hotly-argued point from a ’70 with the last puck of the game. But it was the constant supply of Limerick goals that did for Tipp whose “marking in defence bordered on the atrocious” according to Jim O’Sullivan in the Cork Examiner.
Limerick 6-7 Tipp 2-18 it finished, and this was the ultimate sliding doors moment. Limerick won the All-Ireland and contested six of the next eight Munster Finals, winning three. Only one of Tipp’s starting team would hurl in another Munster Final – Noel O’Dwyer in 1984. The teams are worth recalling:
Limerick - Séamus Horgan; Willie Moore; Pat Hartigan; Jim O’Brien; Phil Bennis; Jim O’Donnell; Seán Foley; Eamon Grimes; Richie Bennis; Liam O’Donoghue; Mossy Dowling; Bernie Hartigan; Frankie Nolan; Ned Rea; Eamon Cregan.
Tipperary – Tadhg Murphy, Jim Fogarty; John Kelly; John Gleeson; Jimmy Crampton; Tadhg O’Connor; Len Gaynor; Séamus Hogan; PJ Ryan; Francis Loughnane; Mick Roche; Noel O’Dwyer; John Flanagan; Roger Ryan; Michael Keating.