McGrath Cup Quarter Final – Tipperary 2-9 Cork 1-9

Losing start for Cadogan as Tipp finally rock Rebels

By Denis Hurley for the Irish Examiner newspaper

Cork 1-9 Tipperary 2-9

A Cork dual player picking football over hurling is rare but a Tipperary victory over the Rebel county in competitive senior football is even rarer. Eoin Cadogan made his football season debut at full back following his decision to drop inter-county hurling from his CV for 2013. However he could do little to prevent Tipperary from earning their first competitive victory over Cork since a Munster championship game in Clonmel back in 1944.

Now that 69-year drought is over, in fairly emphatic fashion it must be said, it says much about the footballing aims and aspirations of the county that manager Peter Creedon was not reading much into the result. “It’s a nice win for us in January,” he said, “we’ve been training hard since November. “It was good to be able to have nine or 10 of our championship team to call on, but I wouldn’t read too much into the result. We weren’t going out trying mad for the win, we just wanted to go out and play a game of football and see what we could learn about the young players, some of them showed quite well. “Cork kicked bad wides, it’s grand, we got what we wanted. We weren’t too bothered about the McGrath Cup at the start of the year. We just said we’d mix up the seniors and the U21s and see where we go. “If Cork had upped the pace a bit, I think that we might have struggled.”

But it was Cork who struggled, as, despite naming a strong starting 15, they never led and would have lost by more but for a late revival as Tipp flagged. Cadogan did relatively well tracking Philip Quirke and often found himself in the middle of the park where his driving runs achieved more than some team-mates in attacking positions. Damien Cahalane, who played wing-back in the second half, also had his moments and Andrew O’Sullivan worked hard in midfield, but Cork struggled. 12 wides were registered and at times the forward division was too static.

While obviously pleased to have secured Cadogan’s exclusive services, Counihan was not happy with the performance and the manner of the defeat. “It’s been a difficult decision for Eoin to make, but we’re happy to have him,” he said. “We’re disappointed with the loss, there’s no point in saying otherwise. We shouldn’t have been complacent but can I really say yes to that? I’m not sure. “Some of our lads will be very disappointed with the decisions they made. We all have to question ourselves, but I don’t want to take from Tipperary, they were fully deserving of their win.”

There can be no denying the last statement, for Tipp were far better. Full-back and captain Paddy Codd was outstanding, alongside him Andrew Morrissey worked incredibly hard, and in attack familiar names like Barry Grogan, scorer of 1-5, and Philip Austin had their good work augmented by Quirke. He kicked two superb early frees, with Grogan also finding his range, and with Donncha O’Connor almost solely carrying the Cork scoring burden, the visitors led by 0-7 to 0-4 at half-time. Cork attempted surgery at half-time, with Aidan Walsh, Pearse O’Neill and Paul Kerrigan introduced, and the opening minutes of the second half yielded points from Liam Shorten and Ciarán Sheehan, now at full-forward, as the gap was cut to a point.

Tipp got a break with a penalty for a foul on Austin. Grogan sent Ken O’Halloran the wrong way before adding a point and then Bill Maher nabbed a second goal, profiting from work by Austin and Liam McGrath to make it 2-8 to 0-6. As the end neared, though, Tipp flagged and sub Fintan Goold kicked two Cork frees before Sheehan cut the gap to three points when he goaled in injury time. Cork piled on the pressure in the search for an equalising goal, but had Tipp been denied it would have been an injustice. They had done enough.

Scorers for Tipperary: B Grogan 1-6 (0-4f), B Maher 1-0, P Quirke 0-2f, P Austin 0-1.

Scorers for Cork: C Sheehan 1-1, D O’Connor 0-3 (0-1f), L Shorten, F Goold (0-2f) 0-2 each, B O’Driscoll 0-1f.

TIPPERARY: P Fitzgerald; A Morrissey, P Codd, J Coghlan; A Campbell, S Kennedy, J O’Callaghan; G Hannigan, S O’Brien; P Austin, L McGrath, A Matassa; B Maher, P Quirke, B Grogan.

Subs: L Egan for Campbell (45), K Bergin for Matassa (inj. 53), B O’Brien for Maher (53), D Lowry for Austin (inj. 59), D Lynch for O’Callaghan (66).

CORK: K O’Halloran; J McLoughlin, E Cadogan, D Cahalane; M Shields, B Shanahan, N O’Leary; A O’Connor, A O’Sullivan; J Fitzpatrick, C Sheehan, O Mulrooney; B O’Driscoll, D O’Connor, L Shorten.

Subs: P Kerrigan for D O’Connor, P O’Neill for Mulrooney, A Walsh for Fitzpatrick (all ht), F Goold for O’Driscoll (65), S Kiely for O’Leary (70).

Referee: S Joy (Kerry)

Team News

The Cork Senior Football team to play Tipperary in the McGrath Cup Quarter-Final on Sunday at 2pm in Páirc Uí Rinn will line out as follows:

1. Ken O Halloran (Bishopstown)

2. John McLoughlin (Kanturk)

3. Eoin Cadogan (Douglas)

4. Damien Cahalane  (Castlehaven)

5. Michael Shields (St. Finbarr’s)

6. Brian Shanahan (Carbery Rangers)

7. Noel O’Leary  (Cill na Martra)

8. Alan O’Connor (St. Colum’s)

9. Andrew O’Sullivan (Castletownbere)

10. James Fitzpatrick (Carbery Rangers)

11. Ciarán Sheehan (Eire Og)

12. Odhran Mulrooney  (Douglas)

13. Barry O’Driscoll (Nemo Rangers)

14. Donnacha O’Connor (Ballydesmond)

15. Liam Shorten (Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh)

Subs:

16. David Lordan (Ballincollig)

17. Sean Kiely (Macroom)

18. Conor O’Driscoll (Ilen Rovers)

19. Paul Kerrigan (Nemo Rangers)

20. Pearse O’Neill (Aghada)

21. Denis O’Sullivan (Ballinascarthy)

22. Fintan Goold (Macroom)

Contact Munster GAA PRO Ed Donnelly at pro.munster@gaa.ie for more information

For the Record

Fixtures and Results

Preliminary Round

Saturday January 5^th

@ Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney       Kerry 4-22 IT Tralee 0-10

Sunday January 6^th

@ Miltown-Malbay                            Clare 1-19 LIT 1-2
@ Cork IT GAA Grounds                 Cork 1-15 CIT 0-10

Quarter-Finals (Extra time)

Sunday January 13^th

@ Foynes                                          Limerick v Clare                                                        @ 2:00pm

@ Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney       Kerry v UCC                                                              @ 2:00pm

@ Pairc Ui Rinn                                Tipperary v Cork                                                       @ 2:00pm

@ WIT GAA Grounds Carriganore Waterford v UL                                                          @ 2:00pm

Semi-Finals (Extra time)

Sunday January 20^th

Limerick or Clare v Kerry or UCC

Venue Permutations

Limerick v Kerry – Kerry venue

Clare v Kerry – Clare venue

Limerick v UCC – Limerick venue

Clare v UCC – Clare venue

Cork or Tipperary v Waterford or UL

Venue Permutations

Cork v Waterford – Waterford venue

Tipperary v Waterford – Tipperary venue

Cork v UL – Cork venue

Tipperary v UL – Tipperary venue

Final (Extra time)

Sunday January 27^th

McGrath Cup Senior Football – Odds and Ends

Since 2000, Cork’s McGrath Cup success rate is 89% (best of any county) with 17 wins out of 19 in the competition.  In the same period, Kerry have won 12 of their 14 matches (a 86% success rate).

Despite a goal-less final, there was an average of 2.4 goals per match in the 2012 McGrath Cup competition (22 goals scored in total). This contrasts with 16 goals scored in the 2011 competition over 11 matches (an average of 1.4 goals per match).

The record of the Third Level Colleges in the McGrath Cup since entering in 2005 is Won 21, Lost 47 (31% success rate). None of the six colleges have a winning record in the competition during that period. UCC have the best record, winning 7 of their 15 matches (47% success rate) while UL have won 5 of their 12 matches (42% success rate).

Since 2011, the record of Third Level Colleges when playing an Inter-County team in the McGrath Cup is Won 2, Lost 14 (13% success rate)

Kerry have not lost a match in the McGrath Cup since the 2006 final where the Kingdom lost to Cork by 1-9 to 0-6 at Pairc Ui Rinn.

Limerick footballers have won 1 of their last 6 matches in the McGrath Cup. Waterford have won 1 of their last 5 matches.

Tipperary is the only team to have won at least 1 match in the last 3 years of the McGrath Cup with a 66% record during that period, Won 6 Lost 3.

Clare footballers have won 5 of their last 7 matches in the McGrath Cup over the last two seasons. During that span, Clare have scored 4 goals and conceded 4 goals.

McGrath Cup Senior Football Roll Of Honour

Clare (12) – 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2008

Cork (6) – 1998, 1999, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Limerick (5) – 1985, 1987, 2001, 2004, 2005

Tipperary (3) – 1989, 1993, 2003

Kerry (3) – 1996, 2010, 2011

Waterford (1) – 1981

London (1) – 1988

Visit the Munster GAA web site History section to view the complete Roll of Honour since the competition began in 1981 – https://munster.gaa.ie/history/mcgrath-cup-football/

McGrath Cup

Presented by Joe McGrath on June 21st, 1981 for the promotion of Senior Football in Munster

McGrath Cup – 2013 Scorers