Kilkenny topple Tipp in semi

Kilkenny 1-20, Tipperary 1-16 By Mark Jones

Winning an All-Ireland title is hard enough, but retaining it is even harder. The hurlers of Tipperary knew that going into this summer’s championship, but they know it even better now. Kilkenny put an end to their dreams of back-to-back Liam McCarthy Cups in last Sunday’s epic semifinal at Croke Park with a performance that now makes the Leinster county favorites ahead of next month’s decider.

If Tipp are feeling the pain of defeat, there may be some consolation in the fact that they were right in contention until the last few minutes when Kilkenny surged clear with three points in succession. Those quick scores were a microcosm of the encounter — Tipp highly competitive, but Kilkenny always that little bit sharper.

And a first championship victory over Tipperary since 1967 also heralded the return of D.J. Carey. A full year after his last game at Croke Park, Carey’s decision to rejoin the panel, and manager Brian Cody’s decision to pick him, paid dividends. If the best forward of his generation started slowly, he began to exert more of an influence as the contest loosened up in the second half, and a total of 0-4 as well as a vital assist for substitute Jimmy Coogan’s goal was a good enough return for the faith shown in him.

However, Carey’s role was by no means the cornerstone of Kilkenny’s success, which sees them through to a fourth All-Ireland final in five seasons on Sept. 8. Center back Peter Barry was outstanding as he broke up attack after Tipp attack as well as comprehensively winning his personal battle with John Carroll. Elsewhere, captain Andy Comerford was a driving force in midfield and there was the attacking threat of Carey, Henry Shefflin and Charlie Carter, the latter being acclaimed by the Kilkenny supporters when he came on as a sub for Eddie Brennan in the 44th minute.

There was also an important cameo from Coogan, who was introduced in place of Brian McEvoy with a quarter of an hour left. Apart from his goal, which was created by a trademark Carey solo through the middle of the Tipp defense, Coogan also clipped over a superb point. In all, Kilkenny’s collective effort and opportunism won the day.

At halftime with the score at 0-10 apiece, Cody confessed that he left the tactics up to the players.

“I said very little — essentially you have to hand it over to the players and they said an awful lot of things to each other,” he said. “They have an ambition, a desire, a hunger. You pick the players, you have to trust them. But it’s great to be in the All-Ireland final. We have a different battle ahead of us now.”

Next month’ s opponents will no doubt be lapping up all the praise devoted to Kilkenny’s display. Clare will surely relish the underdogs’ tag like no other county, but if Kilkenny continue to make the sort of gradual progress they’ve shown this summer, then it is difficult to see them being deprived.

As for Tipperary, their spirit was more than evident, but several key players failed to make the sort of necessary impression. Despite matching the winners score for score for most of the game, Tommy Dunne was outhurled by Comerford at centerfield and the county’s rising talent, Eoin Kelly, struggled after an excellent start. Equally, Carroll was unable to make his usual impact and while Paul Ormonde, Eamonn Corcoran and Mark O’Leary had their moments, too many scoring chances went astray.

Carroll’s goal in the 48th minute after Conor Gleeson’s shot had been blocked was the catalyst for a determined Kilkenny response as Coogan quickly scored a point and a goal. However, Tipp were far from finished as Tommy Dunne, Brian O’Meara and sub John O’Brien all found the range to cut the gap to just one point with five minutes left.

“At that stage, we were getting on top again and I really felt we were going to win,” said Tipp manager Nicky English. “But then Henry Shefflin scored a marvelous point and the match changed again. We’re very disappointed but we’re proud of our players. They’ve been fantastic over the past few years. The final result went against us but we fought manfully. We’ll be back.”

Outplayed by Waterford in Munster, and now beaten by Kilkenny in the All-Ireland, it hasn’t been Tipp’s summer. You get the feeling it might be Kilkenny’s.

Dublin 1-14, Donegal 0-7

Replays are different, and this one was totally different. Deadlocked the first time out, the gulf between Dublin and Donegal was massive at Croke Park last Saturday as Dublin cruised into the All-Ireland football semifinal.

As so often happens after a drawn game, one team changes tack and the other hopes that the same tactics will work again. Dublin made the changes and reaped the rewards. In came Darren Magee at midfield to free up Ciaran Whelan, and out went the ineffectiveness of the half forward line as John McNally, Collie Moran and Senan Connell worked their hearts out.

Dublin were simply reborn as Whelan shook off the cobwebs of an inconsistent summer with a breathtaking performance. If his ‘rial dominance wasn’t enough, he scored four rampaging points from play, two with each foot. And if Dublin weren’t perfect, they still demonstrated the sort of well being which will fill them with confidence going into the semifinal against Antrim.

Once Ray Cosgrove scored the game’s only goal — his sixth in the last four championship outings — in the 27th minute to make it 1-5 to 0-2, Donegal were in deep trouble. As Dublin stifled the supply into Brendan Devenney and Adrian Sweeney, there was simply no attacking threat and no Plan B and the demoralized Ulster county finished with their lowest championship total since the 1993 Ulster final.

Coman Goggins recovered from the drawn match to comprehensively outplay Sweeney, which was grist to Dublin manager Tommy Lyons’s mill.

“Well, is Goggins a defender?” he pointedly questioned journalists. “You’re poor judges, lads. You give him an All-Star one year, and then you write him off the next.”

As for the contest itself, Lyons emphasized his players’ work rate.

“We pushed them back, we defended from number 15 back through the lines, we never let them get going properly,” he said.

If Goggins was able to snuff out the threat of Sweeney, there was also a vital contribution from Paddy Christie, who got the better of Donegal’s other dangerman, Devenney. With the pair reduced to a total of four points and with Dublin so dominant throughout the pitch, many of the Donegal supporters in the 79,000 attendance had headed for the exits long before the finish.

As Darren Magee battled away at centerfield leaving Whelan to destroy the Donegal defense, Magee’s brother, Jonny, cut off any avenues for Donegal’s third midfielder, Paul McGonigle. Leading by 1-6 to 0-3 at the interval, Dublin were in complete control and by then both Donegal’s starting midfielders, Jimmy McGuinness and the injured John Gildea had been replaced.

Afterward, Dublin were making all the right noises about the need for improvement and about the fact that they’d won nothing yet and, appropriately, the brilliant Whelan was the spokesman.

“We knew that we underperformed, right through the team, in the drawn game, and this time it was about working hard,” he said. “Our six forwards tackled hard to make sure that Donegal didn’t get the supply of ball, but even so we made a lot of errors. It’s the first round of the All-Ireland series as far as we’re concerned and we know we’re not the finished article. We increased our performance level and we’ll have to keep it there.”

Following Cosgrove’s first-half goal, points flowed from Alan Brogan, who was unlucky to see a shot come back off the bar, Whelan and Connell as Donegal failed to make any impression with their hand-passing tactics.

“I think Dublin are capable of going all the way,” said defeated manager, Mickey Moran. “I thought they were really awesome and it would be very difficult to find a weak line. They were so solid all over the field.”

Armagh 1-16, Sligo 0-17

Armagh booked their place in the All-Ireland football semifinal, but last Sunday’s replay at Navan was not without controversy as an angry Sligo were insistent that they should have been awarded a penalty in injury time.

Sligo’s Sean Davey was certainly stopped in his tracks by three Armagh defenders in front of goal following a strong run by Dara McGarty. However, as Davey was grounded and as his teammates appealed for a penalty, referee Seamus McCormack waved play on and then blew for full-time almost immediately.

“If that wasn’t a penalty, then I don’t know what is,” Davey said later.

Tempers were so frayed that McCormack had to be given a police escort as he left the pitch and Sligo chairman Joe Queenan and selector T.J. Kilgallon had to be restrained from expressing their anger. However, manager Peter Ford refused to dwell on the penalty incident.

“When you concede 1-16, you’re always going to struggle and too many of their forwards had our backs under pressure while we were finding it hard at midfield as well,” said Ford, whose team had beaten New York earlier in the season. “Overall, we had our chances but hit too many bad wides. Still, there was nothing between the two teams. Two points separate us over two matches, and that’s the big disappointment.”

If Sligo had come back from six points down in the drawn game, it was too much to ask them to do it again this time. Only behind by two points at the break, they were soon seven in arrears after several defensive errors, and while they battled to cut the deficit, Armagh always looked likely winners.

With Oisin McConville contributing an impressive 0-6, there were also good displays in attack from Steven McDonnell and Barry O’Hagan, while Paul McGrane was by some way the dominant figure at midfield. Ronan Clarke scored the game’s only goal early in the second half and Diarmuid Marsden got the better of Paul Clancy, who was substituted with a quarter of an hour left.

“We used the ball much better than in the drawn game,” said Armagh’s manager, Joe Kernan, “and we had to be gutsy because Sligo just wouldn’t throw in the towel. We certainly have a hill to climb because you’d probably think we couldn’t beat Dublin, but we’re going back to Croke Park to give it everything we have.”