When this year began Cork were tipped by many to be the side to lift Liam in September. A narrow defeat in last year’s final was a disappointing end to an otherwise excellent summer of 2013 and for many Jimmy Barry Murphy’s charges were set to make that final step this year. On Sunday that belief was shattered utterly as Tipperary dominated a Cork side that looked like they had little by way of a game plan and somehow lacked focus and desire in the biggest game of the year.
On tonight’s show Jamesie O’Connor and Denis Walsh of the Sunday Times joined us to discuss yesterday’s game
Jamesie summed up the difference on the day – one team showed up, and brought their best form, while the other seemed to take to the pitch having left their best dotted along the road from some superb performances at Croke Park last year.
“The question marks about their fullback line, they answered all those.,,the midfield battle they won hands down and they had some brilliant individual performances up front...Tipp brought their A game yesterday and Cork were out of sorts,” Jamesie said.
“The most frustrating thing from a Cork perspective today is just that the team[Cork] didn’t perform and never got anything like to the levels they showed in Corke Park last season, or in the Munster final or in the Clare match earlier this year.”
“Tipp were up for it big time and Cork just never matched their intensity or their work rate and they paid the price for it,” Jamesie added.
Such was the depth of disappointment of Cork’s that to comprehend what we saw from JBM’s team was, but what was far clearer was that Eamon O’Shea’s Tipp side have hit their stride with vigour and immaculate timing.
“They were much the best yesterday and they’ve had really impressive wins in a row,” Denis Walsh said.
Much of the praise for Tipp’s resurgence is aimed at manager Eamon O’Shea, with the coach having turned around a side that looked lost last year.
“For Eamon O’Shea to get these guys performing at this level is a huge compliment to him and it’s a terrific reflection on his perseverance with a group that was, you know, underachieving to a large extent earlier this year and certainly last year,” Walsh added.
The discussion went on to analyse how Tipp broke down Cork, where Cork fell short and how Tipperary can plan for facing Kilkenny in the final.
Listen to the full discussion via the player below or download on iTunes
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