Sunshine, thunder, lightning and torrential rain all descended upon Glenisk O'Connor Park at various stages of this afternoon’s All-Ireland senior hurling preliminary quarter-final.
On the field of play, Tipperary were every bit as electric as the Tullamore sky, and they rained misery down on top of the heads of the home team, who looked every bit like a team that failed to bounce back from their heart-breaking defeat to Carlow in the Joe McDonagh Cup final.
The Premier County appear to be right in the thick of the race for the big prize, and 2-11 from the returning Jason Forde, not to mention incredible scoring displays from Jake Morris, Mark Kehoe and Conor Stakelum, suggest that they will pose problems for any defence.
In contrast, veterans Noel McGrath and Séamus Callanan didn’t make anything like the same contribution on the scoreboard directly, but the pair were incredibly creative, using the ball very well and helping to unlock an Offaly rearguard that was simply unprepared for what Tipperary brought to the table here.
Five points in the first five minutes gave a clear indication of what was to follow, and once Mark Kehoe pounced on an Offaly puckout to run in and fire the first goal, it was clear that the Premier men had arrived in Tullamore ready to run riot.
Even then, the 9,962 supporters wouldn’t have suspected that they were about to see Tipperary rack up the biggest total in the history of senior inter-county championship hurling – though by half-time, that was very much on the table.
Ten minutes had passed by the time Eoghan Cahill whipped over Offaly’s first point, and already Tipp were motoring with 1-7, and they showed no sign of letting up, continuing at a rate of a point a minute up to half-time.
Alan Tynan, Jake Morris and Conor Stakelum shot 12 points from play between them in the first half, five each for Morris and Stakelum, while two goals in as many minutes from Jason Forde and Seamus Callanan, both of which penalised Offaly errors, helped push the lead out to 25 points with less than half an hour gone, 3-24 to 0-8.
A strong run from Cillian Kiely saw Dan McCormack pull across the Kilcormac-Killoughey player and led to Johnny Murphy issuing a black card to McCormack for careless use of the hurl denying a clear goalscoring chance, and Eoghan Cahill’s penalty gave the beleaguered home supporters something to shout about.
To Offaly’s credit, they were much more competitive for long stretches of the second half, and goals from Cillian Kiely and Charlie Mitchell kept the margin at the around the 20-point mark for long periods.
Tipperary were always in control of the game and some wonderful scores from Bryan O’Mara, Morris and Forde proved that they were still a class apart, but with 10 minutes to play, it looked like the game would finish with a similar winning margin to what lay between the teams at the interval.
Late in the game the heavens opened however, and Tipp rained further misery on their hosts in the process too.
Two more goals from Kehoe, another from Forde and 1-1 from John McGrath off the bench turned a landslide defeat into a day for the record books, and sent out a clear statement of intent to Galway in advance of next weekend’s quarter-final clash.
Tipperary: Rhys Shelly; Eoghan Connolly (0-01), Michael Breen, Craig Morgan; Bryan O'Mara (0-01), Ronan Maher, Dan McCormack (0-01); Conor Stakelum (0-06), Noel McGrath (0-02); Alan Tynan (0-03), Jason Forde (2-11, 0-04 frees, 0-03 65s), Séamus Kennedy (0-01); Jake Morris (0-07), Séamus Callinan (1-00), Mark Kehoe (3-03).
Subs: Johnny Ryan for Morgan (47), John Campion (0-01) for McGrath (47), Enda Heffernan for Maher (47), Gearóid O’Connor for Callanan (53), John McGrath (1-01) for Kennedy (61)
Offaly: Stephen Corcoran; Ben Conneely, Ciarán Burke, David King; Jack Clancy, Jason Sampson (0-02), Killian Sampson; Eimhin Kelly, Sam Bourke; Brian Duignan (0-01), Eoghan Cahill (1-07, 1-00 pen, 0-05 frees), Adrian Cleary; Cillian Kiely (1-03, 1-01 frees), Paddy Clancy (0-01), Charlie Mitchell (1-01).
Subs: Paddy Delaney (0-01) for Bourke (half-time), Eoghan Parlon for Kelly (half-time), John Murphy (0-01) for P Clancy (40), Liam Langton (0-01) for Cahill (44), James Nally for King (67).
Referee: Johnny Murphy (Limerick)
