'We had a terrible game in-house': Tipperary turned it around to claim famous All-Ireland win

TIPPERARY PRODUCED A masterclass to take down Cork in yesterday’s All-Ireland hurling final, yet a week before their preparation saw their first-choice side beaten by their second string in training.

A defensive reconfiguration saw Tipperary play with Bryan O’Mara as a sweeper in front of Cork’s danger men in the full-forward.

The ploy paid off as Tipperary shut down the Cork trio of Horgan, Connolly, and Hayes, but last week in training they had struggled to adjust to the new system.

“Liam and Mikey put in massive work in the background, we just got told last week as to what you were going after,” remarked defender Eoghan Connolly.

“We actually trained last weekend and it didn’t actually work out for us, we had a terrible game in-house, the A versus B. But we got our match-ups right on Sunday and thankfully got the result.

“Absolutely, (beat us) by an awful score as well. There was wicked heat inside in Thurles last weekend and it was probably our first time playing with a plus one in a long time, since the Clare game I think, so it just took us a while to get to grips with it. But even by Friday evening we were training and we couldn’t get enough of it.

“I have been involved since 2021 and I’ve been on the B team for a few years of that, it’s just the competition, them boys are mad for a jersey as well, they are all so competitive so it just drives everybody’s standards that bit higher.”

Connolly marked Moneygall’s Joe Fogarty in the in-house game.

“He’s sick, he’s actually a carbon copy of Seamus Harnedy. I got an awful licking off him last weekend, I was even half worried as to what my form was at, to be honest.”

The Cashel King Cormacs clubman endured a difficult first half marking Diarmuid Healy but grew into the game in the second half and became one of Tipperary’s most prominent players.

At full-time he was crowned an All-Ireland senior champion, replicating his achievement in 2018 at U21 level with Tipperary against Cork.

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