GOALS TIPP BALANCE

TIPPERARY haven't forgotten how to perform at Croke Park - and even with 14 men they still have the hex over age-old rivals Kilkenny.

- By KARL O'KANE

It was six years, including a couple of covid seasons, since the Premier man had set foot out on the sod of GAA HQ, with Kilkenny hoovering up Leinster titles at the Jones' Road venue in every one of those years.

Not to mention numerous All-Ireland semifinals and a couple of finals, but none of these deterred a Tipperary side that finished bottom of the pile in Munster last year as they made it three Championship wins on the bounce against Kilkenny.

The other two were both All-Ireland finals, 2016 and 2019, but those heady days seemed in the distant past.

Many were left wondering where Tipp were going at the end of a turbulent 2024 season - year two under Liam Cahill. This summer they've got an emphatic answer to the All-Ireland final.

Buoyed by recent All-Ireland titles at minor and Under-20 level, the Tipperary juggernaut is rolling again, steered by the redoubtable Noel McGrath - a triple Celtic Cross winner - and a raft of lads with two medals to their name.

Yesterday, they had heroes all over the park as they toughed it out to set up an All-Ireland decider date with Cork in a fortnight-the first time the sides will ever meet in the final showdown of the season.

It looked though like Tipp's lack of big game experience at Croke Park, when the altitude is at its thinnest, might cost them as they trailed 0-8 to 1-0 after 14 minutes.

Eight scores to one and Tipp were scrambling to find any sort of foothold. They'd also had four wides, but tellingly two of them were half goal chances. A portent of what was to follow.

And so they pawed away at each other for 58 minutes until Darragh McCarthy was red carded, as James Owens pulled out a second yellow for a slap on the hand of Kilkenny goalie Eoin Murphy.

Kilkenny were one point up at the time. A minute later Tipp carved out a one on one for Jake Morris, exactly the man they would have wanted in such a scenario with his electric pace.