Lacklustre Tipp stumble past Kerry in U20 championship

Munster U20 Hurling Championship - Round One

Tipperary 3-15

Kerry 0-13

Tipperary recorded a very hard fought victory over Kerry in Austin Stack Park, Tralee this evening, after a more than lacklustre display in ferocious conditions for hurling.

Tipperary boss Brendan Cummins will have more than set out his stall to the public in advance of the year, as the turn to the short passing and heavy running game was expected to come to the fore, but it certainly looked to be in dysfunction here, as a 12 point score line was more than flattering for a Tipp team that never got going at any point.

In the end, it took a late flurry of scores in the final ten or so minutes to down the Kingdom, who put up strong resistance throughout, with Tipp bagging 2-5 in this period to put a nice glean on the score, with the game set at 1-10 to 0-12 points in favour of Tipp at the 46 minute mark of the game

The first half presented clear teething problems for a Tipperary team looking to play the ball through the hands as they played into a gale force wind.

Peter McGarry was left in the square with little in the way of possession coming his way in the opening ten minutes, with the rest of the forwards filtered back to facilitate the running game, but some serious system malfunctions in the opening quarter gave Kerry the impetus.

Ed Connolly opened the scoring inside the first minute with a good score, with Felim O’Sullivan of Kerry getting his side's interest up and running from the next play.

Jack Leamy added the Premier’s second a minute later, but there was a real struggle for Tipp to get to grips with the tough wind, with puckouts and handpasses going astray left, right, and centre as Kerry got into gear, and between the fifth and 13th by scoring five unanswered points with at least three of those coming from errors from Tipp.

Indeed, Kerry were unlucky they didn’t rattle the net in the 10th minute when a poor puckout from Tipp gave Ronan Walsh a sight of goal and despite a deflection from a Tipp defender wrong-footing Jason O’Dwyer who showed great reflexes to save.

Trailing by 0-7 to 0-2, Tipp started to gradually get the eye in with the passing game, first with Peter McGarry pointing in the 15th minute after a Peter Creedon pass, before the Thurles man reacted best to a Shane Gleeson free which held up in the wind to field and strike over one handed.

Shane Gleeson had a great sight of goal soon after when he was played in in front of goals on 16 minutes by Jack Leamy, and a well struck left sided strike was excellently saved by Keltyn Molloy, but Tipp finished the half stronger despite this, with points from Eddie Ryan and two Shane Gleeson frees being supplemented by an excellent individual effort from Ed Connolly being whipped to the net at the second attempt in the 27th minute. Tipp ahead by a point at the break by 1-7 to 0-9 with the conditions to come in the second half.

Tipp management would have been hopeful that the advantage of the conditions might have signalled and upturn in performance from the majority of the first period, and to be fair, it did within the first two minutes when Shane Gleeson pointed an early free, before Peter McGarry came close to goaling only for his effort to cannon off the crossbar, with Jack Leamy’s follow up well saved by Molloy on the ground.

However, the cohesion just wasn’t coming as Kerry slowed the game with only two scores apiece for the sides coming in the net 12 minutes with the Tipp scores coming from Gleeson (free)  and Peter McGarry’s first score of the night on 46 minutes to give Tipp a slender 1-10 to 0-12 lead as a potential shock was on the cards.

The big moment came in the 48th minute when Tipp had their second goal of the game when Jack Leamy found Peter McGarry to break the Kerry defence and canter into the 14, before drawing the final defender and hand passed to Peter Creedon who applied a low finish to the net.

Despite the sloppiness of the play from a Tipp viewpoint, the heads visibly fell from a Kerry perspective and with Peter McGarry coming more into the game, the scores flowed as the bench was emptied to give fresh legs and injection to the energy on the pitch.

Kyle Shelly slotted three frees in succession between the 51st and 59th minute after being introduced, as Tipp put a probably undeserved gloss on the scoreline late on when another substitute in Sean Kenneally set Peter McGarry up at the far post to power home a strike and give Tipp a win on the night, if not the performance.

The pick of the Tipperary players on the day came in the form of John Campion at midfield who put in a great shift, and was a contributor for at least half a dozen scores during the game, while Peter McGarry came to life in the second half out around the half forward line, and looked far better running onto possession rather than standing around the opposition square.

To say this wasn’t a performance to get the pulses racing for Tipp supporters is an understatement, and with Waterford rolling into Thurles next Wednesday, there will have to be a serious upturn in performance levels before then.

Scorers: Tipperary: Peter McGarry 1-2; Ed Connolly, Peter Creedon 1-1 each; Shane Gleeson 0-4f; Kyle Shelly 0-3f; Jack Leamy, Eddie Ryan, Sean Kenneally, Conor Cadell, John Campion all 0-1 each.

Kerry: Ronan Walsh (0-5, 0-4f); Nathan Guerin (0-4, 0-3f); Kieran Carroll 0-2; Felim O’Sullivan, Dylan Moriarty, Darragh Slattery all 0-1 each.

Tipperary: Jason O’Dwyer (Clonoulty Rossmore); Conor O’Dwyer (Cashel King Cormacs), Ciaran Lloyd (Moyne Templetuohy), Luke Shanahan (Upperchurch Drombane); Cathal Quinn (Cashel King Cormacs), James Armstrong (Thurles Sarsfields), Michael Corcoran (Silvermines); John Campion (Drom & Inch), Darragh Stakelum (Thurles Sarsfields); Ed Connolly (Loughmore Casteiney), Eddie Ryan (Borris-Ileigh), Shane Gleeson (Kiladangan); Jack Leamy (Golden Kilfeacle), Peter McGarry (St Mary’s), Peter Creedon (Thurles Sarsfields).

Subs: Conor McKelvey (Silvemines) for Corcoran (inj); Kyle Shelly (Moycarkey Borris) for Gleeson; Conor Cadell (JK Brackens) for Ryan; Conor O’Brien (Mullinahone) for McKelvey (temp sub); Sean Kenneally (Moneygall) for Leamy; Conor O’Brien for Armstrong.

Kerry: Keltyn Molloy; Adam Segal, Darragh Conway, Kyle O’Connor; Darragh Slattery, Daire Nolan, Rory O’Mahony; Felim O’Sullivan, Ronan Walsh; Luke Crowley, Sean Brosnan, Nathan Guerin; Jack Sheehan, Colin Walsh, Kieran Carroll.

Subs: Dylan Moriarty for Walsh (inj); Charlie Keating for Crowley; Mikey Clifford for Slattery; Aidan O’Connor for Brosnan; Padraig O’Sullivan for Carroll.

Referee: Nicholas O’Toole (Waterford)