All-Ireland SHC Final: Glory for Tipperary

All-Ireland senior hurling championship final

TIPPERARY 3-27 CORK 1-18

By Paul Keane at Croke Park

We dare you to say you saw this one coming.

Tipperary are All-Ireland senior hurling champions for the 29th time after a most remarkable second-half performance, perhaps one of the very greatest ever on the grand stage.

Down by six points at half-time against a Cork side widely backed to end their 20-year wait for MacCarthy Cup success, Tipp dug incredibly deep and mined out a quite remarkable 15-point win with their bare hands.

In just his seventh senior Championship game, Toomevara's Darragh McCarthy stood up with a brilliant individual display, blasting 1-13 overall.

The more experienced John McGrath was just as totemic at the point of Tipp's sharpened axe, cutting through the Cork defence for 2-2 and winning a penalty that McCarthy converted.

In all, Tipp outscored Cork by 3-14 to 0-2 in the second-half. If that seems like a typo, it's not. Tipp were that good and dominated to such an extent that the pre-match favourites were made to look a very ordinary team.

To think that Cork beat Tipp comfortably in not just the Allianz League final earlier this year but also in their Munster round-robin meeting.

When the dust settles and Cork reflect on their season, they will take some consolation from those wins, as well as the trophies they've won in 2025.

But right now it will be desolation for Pat Ryan and his players, and everyone on Leeside, after back-to-back MacCarthy Cup final defeats and their third in five seasons.

Shane Barrett's goal just before half-time left the Munster champions in a great position with that 1-16 to 0-13 advantage.

But it turned out a Tipp side desperate to end its own six-year wait for success was just getting going.

They reeled off 1-5 without response immediately after the restart to put themselves into a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

Cork briefly got the margin down to a point in the third quarter after a Barrett score but, amazingly, that was one of just two second-half points the Rebels scored.

At half-time, we wondered if Barrett might go on to take the Man of the Match award given the 1-3 he had fired in the opening 35 minutes or so.

By full-time there was a long list of Tipp players who had stormed well ahead of him in the reckoning. McCarthy was simply outstanding but so was McGrath while Michael Breen, captain Ronan Maher and Willie Connors put in Trojan defensive shifts on a famous day for Tipp hurling.

Goalkeeper Rhys Shelly had a second-half to remember too, booming over a long-range score and saving a stoppage time penalty from Conor Lehane.

At that stage, even a goal would have been mere consolation for Cork who will spend the winter wondering just how this game got so badly away from them.

Sure, Tipp had the stiff wind behind them in the second-half but they conjured a performance for the ages to leave Cork supporters open-mouthed and stuck for answers.

The second yellow-card shown to defender Eoin Downey in the 54th minute didn't help but Cork were already taking on water and sinking fast at that stage.

Tipperary manager Liam Cahill deserves huge praise for how he has turned things around.

When he took over almost three years ago to the day, Tipp were fresh off a three-season spell when they'd won just two of their 10 Championship games.

And there was no instant switch to turn things on in Tipp. As recently as last year, Tipp failed to win a game in Munster and didn't qualify for the All-Ireland series.

But the impact of U-20 All-Ireland winners McCarthy and Sam O'Farrell this season has been huge and Cahill made a number of savvy personnel and positional tweaks throughout this year's Championship which paid off handsomely too.

He set his team up with a seventh defender this time, Bryan O'Mara, in a bid to stifle Cork's clear goal threat and it worked a treat.

Barrett did get through for that three-pointer late in the first-half but, by and large, Tipp were solid at the back where O'Mara floated between the two defensive lines. Willie Connors dropped to wing-back and Sam O'Farrell to midfield to accommodate the sweeper, leaving five in attack.

Tipp skipper Maher picked up Brian Hayes, holding him to just a point while Robert Doyle tracked Alan Connolly, keeping him to a point too. Breen was terrific on Patrick Horgan.

Still, Cork were sitting pretty at the interval with that significant lead and led for the majority of the first-half.

It was all a bit chaotic and frenetic initially with both sides coughing up possession and firing wides, 13 in the first-half between them.

Darragh Fitzgibbon drilled two first-half points for Cork, as did Diarmuid Healy while Barrett took his tally to 1-3 for the half when Rob Downey burst out of defence and fed Mark Coleman who tossed the sliotar to the centre-forward for an excellent goal.

We wondered if Tipp might pay for all the misses, eight in total in the half.

But it turned out they were just getting going and a team that simmered throughout the first-half suddenly came bubbling to the boil with that awesome second-half display.

Conor Stakelum got Tipp's first point of the second-half. Then Andrew Ormond got back-to-back scores and just like that the Barrett goal had been wiped out.

Tipp got a goal of their own in the 46th minute. McGrath struck it, capitalising on poor defending when Jake Morris' effort which dropped short wasn't dealt with, allowing him to steal in and strike to the net.

That was his 21st Championship goal. His 22nd arrived in the 60th minute when he flicked in from close range after a long Eoghan Connolly delivery.

In between, McGrath won a penalty off Eoin Downey - resulting in Downey receiving his second yellow card and his marching orders - for McCarthy to drill home expertly.

Tipp were flying now and sniping scores from all angles. Even goalkeeper Shelly got in on the action. Veteran Noel McGrath came on in the 60th minute for his 79th Championship appearance. He hit the very last score of the game for Tipp and threw his arms aloft, savouring a famous win and his fourth All-Ireland medal. A truly magnificent achievement. A truly magnificent performance and undoubtedly worthy All-Ireland winners.

Tipperary scorers: Darragh McCarthy 1-13 (0-9f, 1-0 pen), John McGrath 2-2, Jake Morris 0-2, Jason Forde 0-2, Andrew Ormond 0-2, Eoghan Connolly 0-1, Robert Doyle 0-1, Willie Connors 0-1, Conor Stakelum 0-1, Rhys Shelly 0-1, Noel McGrath 0-1.

Cork scorers: Shane Barrett 1-4, Patrick Horgan 0-4 (0-3f), Diarmuid Healy 0-3, Darragh Fitzgibbon 0-2, Brian Hayes 0-1, Alan Connolly 0-1, Declan Dalton 0-1 (0-1f), Niall O'Leary 0-1, Seamus Harnedy 0-1.

TIPPERARY: Rhys Shelly; Ronan Maher, Robert Doyle, Michael Breen; Bryan O'Mara; Eoghan Connolly, Craig Morgan, Willie Connors; Sam O'Farrell, Conor Stakelum; Andrew Ormond, Jake Morris; Darragh McCarthy, John McGrath, Jason Forde.

Subs: Seamus Kennedy for O'Mara 50, Alan Tynan for Morgan 56, Noel McGrath for O'Farrell 60, Darragh Stakelum for Conor Stakelum 65, Oisin O'Donoghue for Ormond 66.

CORK: Patrick Collins; Sean O'Donoghue, Eoin Downey, Niall O'Leary; Ciaran Joyce, Robert Downey, Mark Coleman; Tim O'Mahony, Darragh Fitzgibbon; Declan Dalton, Shane Barrett, Diarmuid Healy; Patrick Horgan, Alan Connolly, Brian Hayes.

Subs: Seamus Harnedy for Dalton 44, Damien Cahalane for Healy 56, Conor Lehane for Horgan 58, Shane Kingston for Connolly 65, Tommy O'Connell for O'Mahony 67.

Referee: Liam Gordon (Galway).