Final Snippets
September 02, 2010Club Representation on Tipperary Panel
The 33 players on the Tipperary Senior Hurling panel represent 21 clubs between them as follows:
Thurles Sarsfields - 4, Mullinahone - 3, Toomevara - 3, Drom and Inch - 2, Killenaule - 2, Borris-Ileigh - 2, Kilruane MacDonaghs - 2, Nenagh Éire Óg - 2, Burgess - 1, Loughmore-Castleiney - 1, Templederry Kenyons - 1, Ballybacon Grange - 1, Clonoulty Rossmore - 1, Éire Óg Annacarty - 1, Ballinahinch - 1, Kildangan - 1, Lorrha and Dorrha - 1, Newport - 1, Portroe - 1, Moneygall - 1 and Uppercurch Drombane - 1.
Average Age of Tipperary Players
The average age of the Tipperary panel is 25 years and 8 months. The average age of the last Tipperary starting 15 to win All-Ireland Senior Hurling honours in 2001 was 24 years 2 months with 10 players aged 24 or less. Brendan Cummins was the third oldest player on that team aged 26 trailing only Declan Ryan (33) and Eddie Enright (27). Brendan is now the oldest player on the Tipperary panel aged 35 years and 4 months. Noel McGrath is the youngest at 19 years and 9 months.
2 Years in a Row
The last time Tipperary appeared in an All Ireland final for the second year in succession was in 1989 when they defeated Antrim to win their 23rd title and their first in 18 years. Tipperary's winning margin against Antrim was 18 points and Nicky English's scoring contribution was also 18 points (2-12). Incidentally they were also in the Under 21 final that year.
Encore
It is unusual for an All Ireland Hurling final pairing to be repeated the following year and the 2010 final will be the first time it happened since Kilkenny and Cork came face to face and shared the honours in 2003 and 2004. Prior to that it happened in 1982/83 Kilkenny v Cork, 1976/77 Cork v Wexford, 1973/74 Kilkenny v Limerick, 1946/47 Cork v Kilkenny, 1941/42 Cork v Dublin, 1935/36 Kilkenny v Limerick, 1928/29 Cork v Galway, 1919/20 Cork v Dublin, 1904/05 Kilkenny v Cork and 1901/02/03 Cork v London.
Double All Ireland appearance
The 8 under 21 players on the Tipperary panel will be involved in 2 All Irelands finals in 6 days with the under 21 final taking place on September 11th. They are Padraic Maher (U-21 captain), Michael Cahill, Michael Heffernan, Seamus Hennessy, Brendan Maher, Patrick Maher, Noel McGrath and Brian O'Meara.
Best attended Tipp v Kilkenny championship games
2009 Final 82,106
1964 Final 71,282.
1945 Final 69,459
1950 Final 67,629
1991 Final 64,500
1967 Final 64,241
1971 Final 61,393
2003 Semi Final 60,087
First and Last
When Kilkenny beat Tipperary in the 1922 Final , played on September 9th 1923, it was the last occasion that the counties played without numbers on their jerseys. If identification wasn't hard enough, many of the players wore caps, in the fashion of the time. Played with the Tipperary v Sligo All Ireland Football Semi Final of 1922, the crowd was calculated at 26,000. Kilkenny's two late goals by Paddy Donoghue and Dick Tobin won the day, after the teams had been level at half time. Team captain, Wattie Dunphy, became the first Kilkenny man to receive the Liam Mac Carthy cup.
Both Sides
The last hurler to play in the Senior Championship with Tipperary and Kilkenny was Denis Byrne (Graigue/Ballycallan (Kilkenny) & Mullinahone (Tipperary). Having played with Kilkenny and captained them to the Leinster title in 1999, he changed club and county allegiance in 2003, making his championship debut for Tipperary v. Laois, at Portlaoise, in a qualifier game on June 14th. Denis lined out at full forward and scored 0-6. He also played against Galway in the next round and came on as a substitute against Offaly in the Quarter Final victory at Croke Park. He didn't play against Kilkenny in the semi final.
Dethroning the champions
When Kilkenny met Tipp in the 1964 All Ireland final they were defending the title, won against Waterford in a high scoring decider (4-17 to 6-8) the previous year. The Leinster champions were favourites to win the game, but were beaten by double scores 5-13 to 2-8. Tipperary led by 1-8 to 0-6 at half time. The game was refereed by Aubrey Higgins from Galway - the last time a Connacht man refereed the All Ireland final.
Tipperary had previously dethroned Kilkenny in the 1958 semi final, again after the black and amber had beaten Waterford in the previous decider.
Kilkenny have also dethroned Tipperary on two occasions, the 1909 Final and the 2002 All Ireland semi final respectively.
Hurling Hotbed
During his time as a student, at St Kieran's College, Kilkenny, Eoin Kelly played in two Colleges' All Ireland Finals. Despite scoring 1-7 in the 1999 final at Croke Park, he lost to a St Flannan's College team, captained by Ballinahinch's Dermot Gleeson and powered by Toomevara's Benny Dunne, who scored 0-3. There was a happy ending to the 2000 Final at Nenagh, when Eoin, who lined out at centre forward and scored 0-7, avenged the previous year's defeat. His colleagues on that winning team included current Kilkenny senior hurlers Tommy Walsh, Brian Hogan, Jackie Tyrrell and Michael Rice, who is now a teacher in the college.
Eoin's story
Tipperary's captain Eoin Kelly has played against Kilkenny on three occasions in the championship, but has yet to play on the winning team. His scoring returns are impressive, with 0-25 recorded, for an average of 8 .33 points per game.
Managers Debuts
Liam Sheedy made his Senior championship debut for Tipperary against Down in the 1997 All Ireland quarter final at Clones. It was the first quarter final in the new back door system and Tipperary won by 3-24 to 3-8. Liam lined out at right half back and held a place on the team until the end of the 1999 campaign.
Brian Cody made his Senior championship debut for Kilkenny at left half back in the 1973 All Ireland final loss to Limerick. Following their Leinster Final win over Wexford, Kilkenny lost four players through injury and emigration before they played Limerick. Brian had captained the All Ireland winning Minor team the previous year.
Interestingly, neither Manager played championship hurling against his upcoming opponents.
Padraic Maher - The 840 Minute Man
All Star full back and captain of the Tipperary U-21 team, Padraic Maher, is the only player to have played for all 70 minutes in each of Tipp's 12 games in League and Championship this year. He is also the only player to have played in all 12 games. Padraic also became the first player from Thurles Sarsfields to captain Tipperary to a Munster U-21 title this year. Mullinahone clubmates, Eoin Kelly and Paul Curran have each played in 11 games. Kelly missed the League game v Waterford while Curran missed the League game against Cork. That was the only League or championship game Curran missed in 2009 and 2010.
Golden Gate
Tipperary's victory over Kilkenny in the 1950 decider might not have produced the highest final attendance but the gate receipts of £6,103 -14 -2 set a new record for a hurling final.
Overdrawn
It is fifty one years since the All Ireland Hurling final ended in a draw and it was a Waterford man, Seamus Power, a North Tipp Senior Hurling Championship winner with Roscrea in 1949 who scored the equalising goal. The Decies beat Kilkenny in the replay by 3-12 to 1-10 for their last All Ireland success.
A Star Trio of Counties
The late Mick Ryan (Roscrea) won a Kilkenny County Senior Hurling title with Dicksboro in 1950. They beat Éire Óg (city) in a final replay by 4-6 to 1-5. He lined out at centre forward in the club's first victory for twenty four years. His team mates included Dan Kennedy, who had faced Mick in the All Ireland final a couple of months earlier. Mick died in 2007, but is remembered fondly in Tipperary, Kilkenny and Cork, where he played successfully with Blackrock and St. Finbarrs in hurling and Clonakilty in football.
Marksmen Supreme
When you consider that Kilkenny's Eddie Keher shot an amazing 0-14 in the sixty minute 1963 All Ireland Final against Waterford, it was always possible that he would surpass it in the years ahead. The introduction of the eighty minute games (1970) improved his chances and in the 1971 Final against Tipperary, Eddie scored 2-11 in Kilkenny's three point loss to establish a new record. The games were reduced to seventy minutes for the 1975 championship and it took a tour de force from Nicky English in the 1989 Final when he scored 2-12 against Antrim to break Keher's eighteen year old record. Eoin Kelly's performance in last year's 70 minute final with 0-13 is very worthy of mention among final scoring achievements.
Out of Munster
During his inter county championship career, Liam Sheedy only played against one Leinster team -Wexford in the 1997 All Ireland Semi Final.
Michael Ryan only played championship hurling against Kilkenny on one occasion. That was a successful outing in his first year on the team - the 1991 All Ireland final - when he lined out at left corner back. Tipperary won by four points 1-16 to 0-15.
Missing each other
Following their meeting in the 2003 All Ireland Semi final on 17/8/2003, Tipperary and Kilkenny didn't meet again in the championship, until the Final of 2009. During that time Tipperary played twenty six games against eight different counties .When you consider the number of top flight teams there are and the total of games Tipp played, their avoidance of Kilkenny was amazing . During that sequence, Tipperary played Limerick 8 times, Cork 6 times, Waterford 5 times, Clare 3 times , Galway, Offaly, Wexford and Dublin once .
Final referees
Both counties have provided several referees for the All Ireland Senior Hurling final and the details are-
Tipperary -
Seamus Roche 2005
Willie Barrett 1990 & 1994
George Ryan 1979 & 1985
John Moloney 1974
Bob Stakelum 1955
Phil Purcell 1947
Willie O' Donnell 1941
JJ Callanan 1940
Kilkenny-
Paschal Long 1984
Paddy Johnson 1976
Jack Mulcahy 1954
John Lalor 1914
John Mc Carthy 1900, 01 & 03
JJ Callanan was the only All Ireland winning captain (1930), who also refereed an All Ireland Final.
Patrick White (Offaly), who refereed the first All Ireland Final between Tipperary and Galway, which was played at Birr, on April 1st 1888, was a native of Blakefield, in the parish of Toomevara. He was living and working in Birr at the time and Galway (Meelick) had no objection to his appointment or performance.
Michael Wadding's day
Having been linesman and standby referee for last year's decider, Waterford's Michael Wadding takes charge of his first All Ireland Senior Final on Sunday. A member of the Roanmore club in the city, Michael, becomes the fifth Waterford man to referee the Final and the first since John Moore took charge of Cork v Galway, in 1990. He holds the distinction of refereeing Tipperary's first ever Qualifier game in the Hurling Championship, a 2-19 to 1-9 win over Offaly, at Portlaoise, on July 13th 2002.The previous final referees from Waterford were -
Dan Fraher 1892.
Willie Walsh 1915,1916,1917,1918,1919,1921 and the second replay, in 1931.
Vincent Baston 1945
John Moore 1990.
On the two previous occasions (1916 and 1945) that a Tipperary v. Kilkenny All Ireland Final was refereed by a Waterford man, the Premier County emerged victorious.
On this date
There were two previous Finals between Tipperary and Kilkenny played, on September 5th. Tipperary won both, the 1937 decider in Killarney and the 1971 Final at Croke Park.
Liam 2
The original Liam Mac Carthy Cup was first won by Limerick (1921) led by Bob Mc Conkey and Tipperary's Declan Carr (Holycross-Ballycahill) had the pleasure of being the last man to receive it, after Tipperary's win over Kilkenny, in the 1991 decider. The new Liam Mac Carthy Cup was presented to Liam Fennelly after Kilkenny beat Cork in 1992 and of course, Liam had also received the original Cup, in 1983, when Kilkenny pipped Cork. Tweet
