Old timers win a new day

This was supposed to be a formulaic plot, beginning, middle, end. No surprises. All summer long hurling has moved inexorably towards the conclusion we pencilled into our imaginations last spring: a final showdown wherein Nicky English's fine young Tipperary team succumb bravely to the collective genius of Kilkenny. Cut and print. Done and dusted.

There is something pigheaded about Wexford this season though, something pigheaded and perverse and oddly beautiful. They were wounded badly in the Leinster final but every since they keep staggering into shot, stealing other peoples lines, causing mayhem. In certain lights they are starting to look heroic.

They came to Croke Park a few weeks ago to shoot the scene whereby the are massacred by Limerick. That had to be rewritten. Yesterday they came back to play the foils for Tipperary. They stole the show with a wonderful second half performance which built on the excellence of full back Daragh Ryan, featured two goals from a defender and saw the romantic reintroduction to the big time of Martin Storey. Best of all? There's a sequel at Croke Park next Saturday.

This was a game hurling needed after the weekend had been pirated by footballers. Limerick flared against some blue skies earlier but that has been sole novelty of this season in another game's shadow. Yesterday Wexford opened up some Tipperary weaknesses which Limerick had tentatively explored. And there was even a smear of controversy about the finish.

Mitch Jordan hadn't long scored the equalising point yesterday when Pat O'Connor blew the whistle to end it all. There was three quarters of a minute of injury time still to burn and immediately the cassandras began chorusing about the GAA and its money. Last night, it emerged that O'Connor had only intended to play three minutes, but that news will hardly satisfy suspicious minds.

It may not be the point of the argument, but both teams deserved another day. Tipperary had dominated the first half with their flinty confidence and the sprightly cool of their young forwards, Mark O'Leary and Eoin Kelly in particular. The teams had been going at it tit for tat in the opening passages, level five times indeed, but Tipperary had suddenly opened their shoulders in the 20th minute and pulled away.

Just past the half hour mark John Carroll pulled on a ground ball and drove it to the Wexford net and it looked like the end of the adventure for Wexford.

Yet the second half brought the best goods. Martin Storey added this strange addendum to his career to the sounds of rolling delirium from the stands. Seconds later his old comrade Larry O'Gorman stole his thunder with an extraordinary goal, flicking the ball over the shoulders of a Tipp corner back, meeting it on the other side and driving to the net for his first ever championship goal.

Tipp were impressed but confident that they had conjurors of their own. They have, but hurling is one of those games wherein a team suddenly bursting with passion can become a better team by mere dint of will. Fifteen minutes into the half Rory McCarthy batted home a goal reminiscent of the one he scored against Limerick some weeks ago and even though Eoin Kelly replied with a point immediately, you sensed that Wexford were playing, as O'Gorman likes to say, as a band of brothers.

Wexford had begun to realise that they were getting more than small change out of the tactic of hoisting ball in on top of the Tipperary full-back line. Little surprise then when O'Gorman pulled tartly on just such a stray with minutes remaining. Goal, and all momentum to Wexford. Points by Adrian Fenlon and Mitch Jordan wrapped the business.

"I didn't know how much I'd missed it until I came back today," said Storey, whose senior debut at this level took place back in 1986. Yesterday his contribution was as much to the happy vibes of the second half as anything else and he freely confessed he didn't expect to start next week, "but this Wexford team have never failed to fight, we got a draw today and the chance to fight again."

For Tipperary it was a sobering end to an afternoon which had been swinging their way. Nicky English looked pleased and displeased all at once.

"Wexford showed spirit and heart. They got a couple of goals; then we found it hard to get back. We're delighted to get a draw."

If the final act of the weekend led to a draw the business of Saturday had arisen from two draws. Wexford might note this morning that romance seldom survives to replays. Last weekend's surprise packets, Dublin and Westmeath were dispatched without too much ado by Kerry and Meath respectively on Saturday.

In Thurles, Kerry corner-forward John Crowley filleted Dublin singlehandedly. Two goals and two points may not be the most he'll ever score but seldom will he play in a game where each score he takes wounds the other side so badly.

On Saturday he killed off Dublin's good start with his first goal, thieved Paddy Christie's confidence with his second, kickstarted Kerry's second-half effort with his first point, and finally scored a point which was emblematic of the entire game. Vinny Murphy was shaping to pick out a pin-point pass when SΘamus Moynihan simply shouldered him into touch. The line ball went to Crowley. Crowley swung it over. All over bar the shouting.

Crowley's rival for the footballer of the year awards this summer is Ollie Murphy and the Meathman scored a similarly defining point to end Westmeath's epic summer on Saturday. Murphy turned in a sublime performance to help Meath into the All-Ireland semi-final, an outcome which looked unlikely when they started the summer with a creaky draw against the same opposition on June 3rd.

That semi-final smells good already. Crowley and Murphy duelling it out at either end. Trevor Giles and Maurice Fitzgerald bringing the four most educated feet to the party. Both teams have deficiencies, Kerry have been narcoleptic all summer, Meath have been having half back trouble.

Football will have the limelight again, but for this weekend at least hurling's empire fought back.