Tipp's revival in form gains pace

ALL-IRELAND SHC SEMI-FINAL: Tipperary 3-19 Waterford 1-18:A BRISK afternoon's hurling from Tipperary and the last fixture of a potentially historic hurling season clicked into place, as Waterford's barren pickings from the penultimate stage (seven defeats in eight since 1998) failed to improve.

Last year’s defeated finalists were comfortable winners of this All-Ireland semi-final and gave further evidence that their revival in form has gathered pace with a step-up on the quarter-final display against a Waterford side that couldn’t emulate the suffocating game plan that did for Cork in last month’s Munster final.

Importantly for the winners there was sufficient improvement in a few areas to maintain the momentum of their comeback since last May’s collapse in Páirc Uí­ Chaoimh.

It was a good day for manager Liam Sheedy, whose strategy for unpicking the hitherto impressive Waterford defence succeeded in opening the gates to an even bigger scoring total than they put up in the fast and loose win over Galway three weeks ago.

Noel McGrath was switched to centre forward in order to exploit Waterford’s tactic of playing Brick Walsh deep, in front of his full backs. The most obvious shortcoming of this arrangement is the space it gives the forward farther out the field and McGrath snapped up four points from play in the first half, as Waterford stuck to their guns despite the points whistling over.

The Munster champions have been defensively configured all season and scores hadn’t come easily against this alignment but there was sufficient movement and threat from Tipperary from the start to suggest that Waterford would have their work cut out.

Once that contest went indisputably in Tipp’s favour, there was little hope that Waterford’s attack could compensate. The disparity in scoring potential had been one of the key influences on the consensus that Sheedy’s side would win.

This was starkly illustrated by the fact that John O’Brien – hounded into submission by Tony Browne in this fixture two years ago but liberated yesterday by his switch into corner forward – hit as many points from play (six) as Waterford’s entire starting attack, five of whom were replaced by the end of the match.

Manager David Fitzgerald’s secret weapon, the teenage forward Brian O’Halloran, deployed for his pace to spice up the forwards got no change out of Paul Curran or, as the impact of the idea waned, out of Declan Fanning before getting called ashore.

Aside from the familiar heroics of John Mullane, none of the other forwards threatened much and it was left to Ken McGrath and Eoin McGrath coming in as replacements, admittedly with the match fairly set on its course, to hoover up a goal and three points between them in the closing stages.

The lack of menace turned out to be a tonic for the Tipperary defence, which played itself back into something closer to the form that helped turn last year’s All-Ireland final into an epic. Paddy Stapleton was under pressure from Mullane and lucky to see out the 70 minutes after picking up an early yellow card but there were good displays elsewhere.

The half backs in particular raised their game with Conor O’Mahony especially improved and Pádraic Maher settling into the left-wing back role.

The early stages were high-scoring and entertaining from the first point scored by Richie Foley within 50 seconds until Tipp began to pull away after the 20th minute by which point the teams had been level five times.

In those early exchanges Waterford’s attack showed flashes of potency: Shane O’Sullivan’s lovely pass for Mullane’s first score and a nice strike off the stick by Kevin Moran.

For Tipperary Noel McGrath, whose drifting off Brick Walsh caused such damage, and O’Brien were in a points scoring competition all afternoon and the latter sent over the one that opened up a two-point lead for the first time.

Two minutes later Pádraic Maher flighted a ball into Lar Corbett at full forward and he turned and kicked in the first goal that turned a tight match into a double-scores lead, 1-7 to 0-5, in the space of a few minutes.

Eoin Kelly’s frees kept Waterford ticking over but the margin was still six by half-time, 1-11 to 0-8 and the sense was that a blast such as Kilkenny produced at the start of the second half the previous week would close down the match.

That didn’t happen in a sluggish third quarter during which the Munster champions had the margin down to three at one stage. A worrying feature for Tipperary was that in the 44th minute Eoin Kelly sent a fourth free wide and had looked subdued under the energetic marking of Noel Connors, Waterford’s best defender.

That state of affairs didn’t however endure and at the start of the final quarter the contest was effectively over. Noel McGrath’s line ball was artfully controlled and touched past Tony Browne by Kelly who then fired in the second goal for an eight-point lead, 2-14 to 0-12.

There were some quick-fire exchanges of scores but nothing to suggest Waterford could make a meaningful inroad and then on the hour, Corbett got into space, drew the cover and flipped the ball to Kelly, who settled himself and buried the third goal.

By now Waterford were chasing goals and a fine save from Brendan Cummins denied Mullane for a 65. Eoin McGrath got in behind the defence in the 69th minute to flick a late goal when possibly Kilkenny were more on Tipp’s mind.

The five-in-a-row countdown begins in earnest.