Walsh’s dramatic intervention for Cork ensures Tipperary’s efforts are in vain

CORK 0-16 TIPPERARY 1-11

Aidan Walsh was the hero as Cork edged past Tipperary in the closing stages of their Munster SFC semi-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening.

For the bulk of the game, it looked as if Conor Sweeney’s goal for Tipp just before half-time was going to be the difference and give the visitors their first championship win over Cork since 1944.

But three points from Walsh in the 67th, 70th and 72nd minutes helped to turn things the way of the hosts before Barry O’Driscoll added the insurance score.

For Cork manager Brian Cuthbert, there is a lot of room for improvement ahead of the Munster final against Kerry.

“I’m delighted we won it but in terms of our performance we’ve a mountain to work on,” he said.

“We had a long gap, fair enough, but we knew we were going to have that and we planned accordingly. Would we change anything with how we planned for it? No, I felt we did everything we should have done coming into the game.

“Sometimes championship does that to players mentally, it’s easy to revert to type and we’ve a lot of straight talking to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

“Fortitude and heart is not something these guys are lacking and I thought we showed our experience there at the end,” he said.

Tough game

“You’d have to credit Aidan Walsh for what he did, kicking points from his left and right to win the game for us, when he’s hardly kicked a football for us lately. I said leading into this game if we could get a tough game it would be better and it’ll stand to us in two weeks.”

After a slow start – they had trailed by 0-5 to 0-2 early on – Cork looked to have kicked into gear when five unanswered points put them 0-9 to 0-7 in front as half-time approached.

Had John Hayes found the net with his goal chance in the 35th minute, they might have had things easier but instead Peter Acheson kept his shot off the line and moments later Tipp turned the game on its head.

From a wonderful ball in by impressive midfielder Steven O’Brien, Sweeney was able to slide the ball past Ken O’Halloran and it meant a one-point lead for the visitors at half-time.

Early second-half points from Sweeney ensured that they stayed in front as Cork laboured – four of their starting forwards would be replaced – and though Tipp began to display a nerviness in front of goal, they still led by two when sub Brian Mulvihill pointed in the 67th minute.

Enter Walsh, however, to dash their hopes. Having come so close, Tipp manager Peter Creedon now has to lift his side for the qualifiers. "We left a lot out there tonight. There are demands on Steven O'Brien and Colin O'Riordan for the U21 hurlers as well."
CORK: K O'Halloran; M Shields, T Clancy, N Galvin; J Loughrey, P Kelly, J O'Rourke; A O'Sullivan, F Goold (0-1); M Collins (0-2), P Kerrigan (0-1), B O'Driscoll (0-2); D Goulding (0-3f), B Hurley (0-1f), J Hayes (0-1). Subs: A Walsh (0-3) for O'Sullivan (34 mins), E Cadogan for Goulding (half-time), C O'Neill (0-2, frees) for Kerrigan (46 mins), C O'Driscoll for Collins (51 mins), D Óg Hodnett for Hurley (53 mins), C Vaughan for Clancy (62 mins).
TIPPERARY: P Fitzgerald; P Codd, C McDonald, G Mulhair; C O'Riordan (0-1), R Kiely, P Acheson (0-1); S O'Brien (0-1), G Hannigan; P Austin, I Fahey, B Fox; C Sweeney (1-4, 0-3f), M Quinlivan (0-1), B Grogan (0-2, frees). Subs: B Mulvihill (0-1) for Fahey (44 mins), J Coghlan for Austin (58 mins), C McCullough for Grogan (60 mins), H Coghlan for Hannigan (66 mins), A Campbell for Mulhair (69 mins).
Referee: F Kelly (Longford).