At the end, the scoreline was an imposter. The game looked over before veering in a different direction and then jack-knifing in a heart-beat. Tipp could have levelled the match in stoppage time but Waterford responded with a devastating barrage of scores to disappear over the horizon. Gone in 90 seconds.
It was incredible contest which underlined all the admirable qualities and traits of both teams, Waterford expanding their burgeoning reputation as a real force under Liam Cahill, Tipperary evoking all the class, spirit and characteristics which made this team great when at their peak.
It is unknown if a batch of Tipp’s great warriors — some of whom are among the greatest players the county has ever produced — will grace this stage again. A rebuild is inevitable, especially if this was Liam Sheedy’s last stand. But if those warriors do depart, they went out on their shields.
The match looked over when Waterford led by eight points but Tipp went into full attack mode and chased the game down with a flurry of points. The margin was down to three with 90 seconds remaining when a John McGrath rocket was brilliantly stopped by Shaun O’Brien. From the resultant puckout, Neil Montgomery got inside the Tipp cover and scored a brilliant goal. Points from Montgomery and Colin Dunford knocked Tipp out cold before they knew it.
This was mostly all about Waterford and a first championship victory against Tipp since the 2008 All-Ireland semi-final. Their running game was devastating. Their big players were brilliant, especially Austin Gleeson. Their bench came up with 1-5 from play late on but Waterford shot the lights out all afternoon; 3-25 of their total came from play; they had 14 different scorers from play.
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Waterford only had five more shots (51-46) but Waterford’s conversion rate of 67 per cent compared to Tipp’s 57 per cent told a large part of the game’s story, as did the four goals Waterford nailed compared with Tipp’s two. Tipp had four chances to score goals in the second half and failed to take any.
Tipp’s stick-passing and overall execution levels were not as slick as they needed to be. Similar to the Munster final, Tipp also really struggled in the third quarter when they were outscored by 1-7 to 0-3. The real frustration though, is that Tipp were right in the game at that point and were in no way over-run like they were against Limerick in the third quarter; they only converted three of eight scoring chances; Waterford bagged eight from eight, with the goal from a controversial penalty — nailed by Stephen Bennett — decisive.
Waterford just matched Tipp in every department. Tipp dominated on puckouts for most of the match but Waterford still sourced 2-9 from their own puckout and mined 0-4 off the Tipp restart. Tipp scored more from dead-balls but Waterford did not need to as they were scoring so freely.
Tipp went into the match as marginal favourites but there was still always that lingering hunch of how instructive the league meeting in June would be, when Waterford ran Tipp into the ground.
This match largely played out as expected, with Tipp always struggling with Waterford’s pace and running game and being dependent on their own attacking individual brilliance.
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For Tipp, the writing was on the wall from the opening ten minutes when Waterford completely blitzed them. Waterford led by 0-5 to 0-1 after just five minutes. The lead could have been more but Bennett’s goal shot was brilliantly blocked by Brendan Maher and three passes — the key one from Noel McGrath — and 18 seconds later, Séamus Callanan had the ball in the net at the other end.
From the next sequence of play, Gleeson’s goal shot went wide and Callanan had the ball in the net again from the puckout. Tipp hit the next two scores but Waterford had the deficit wiped out by the 11th minute when Waterford cut the Tipp defence open again, with Gleeson on the end of a neatly necklaced three-man move before hammering the ball past Barry Hogan.
The game was level at the first water break, 2-6 to 1-9. Tipp were getting to grips with the space Waterford had created, but Dessie Hutchinson was devastating when in possession; he nailed 1-2 from his five first-half plays, his goal a crisp ground strike in the 22nd minute. Jack Prendergast created the opening and also had a massive assist for Gleeson’s goal.
The increasing wide count from both teams did suck some energy from a pulsating contest, but it was hard to sustain such devastating shooting quality. Waterford led by four points approaching the half-hour mark but Tipp’s dominance on puckouts gave them a consistent foothold and a strong finish to the half only saw them trail 2-14 to 2-13 at the break.
Waterford were far more clinical in the third quarter and the match was threatening to get away from Tipp. They dug in and had the margin down to three with 90 seconds remaining. McGrath had a chance to bring it to extra-time but then the game short-circuited in a puff of smoke.
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And Tipp were gone.
Star Man: Austin Gleeson (Waterford).
Tipperary: Hogan; Barrett, Padraic Maher, Heffernan (Kennedy – ht), Cadell, B Maher,
R Maher (0-3); Flynn, Breen (0-3); Forde (0-12, 7fs, 2 65s), N McGrath (0-1), McCormack (Connors 0-1 – 49min), Morris (Kehoe 0-1– 44min), Callanan (2-0) (J McGrath 0-2– 56min), O’Dwyer (0-4) (O’Meara – 53min).
Waterford:O’Brien; Kenny, Prunty, McNulty (0-1); C Lyons (0-1), Shane Bennett, K Bennett 0-2; Barron (0-4), Hogan 0-3 (B Power – 66min);
Fagan (0-2) (D Lyons – 64 mins), Prendergast (Montgomery 1-2– 60min), Stephen Bennett (1-3, 1-0pen, 1 f); Hutchinson (1-3), Gleeson (1-3, 2 s/ls)(Dunford 0-1), Curran (0-1) (Kiely 0-2– 44min).
Referee: C Lyons (Cork). Attendance: 6,000