Hogan’s red card helps turns final into a turkey shoot for Tipperary

Inside Track with John McIntyre

TWENTY-ONE minutes into Sunday’s All-Ireland senior hurling final, Tipperary were trailing 0-8 to 0-3 and toiling all over the field. Jittery, mistake-prone and knocked off their stride by Kilkenny’s typical raw intensity, it was impossible to imagine at that juncture that Liam Sheedy’s men would end up carrying the day by a whopping 14 points.

In the least memorable and most one-sided decider since Waterford’s whitewash by the Cats in 2008, Tipperary completed a laudable resurrection from their Munster final humiliation at the hands of Limerick. They piled on the agony after Richie Hogan’s late first-half dismissal and having belatedly caught fire were in no mood for compromise.

In inflicting Kilkenny’s heaviest defeat in an All-Ireland final since they also lost to Tipperary in 1964 (5-13 to 2-8), the Premier men purged a lot of black and amber demons from their system. They hadn’t got the better of Brian Cody and his troops in a competitive fixture since the 2016 All-Ireland final, but this was redemption day for Tipp.

Naturally, the post-match narrative was dominated by Hogan’s red card for a head-high challenge on Cathal Barrett in the 33rd minute. Tipperary had already rallied from their bad start to take a one-point lead – thanks largely to Niall O’Meara’s superbly-taken goal – but their task was now about to be made a whole lot simpler.

Referee James Ownes took his time in adjudicating on Hogan’s challenge – his gut instinct was probably not to send him off in the sport’s biggest game of the year – but the Wexford official made the hard call in upholding the rules. Though head-high challenges have been outlawed, the frustration is the lack of consistency in dealing with the culprits.

If nothing else, Sunday’s ruling in such a high stakes match will pave the way for other referees to enforce the ultimate sanction. Of course, Kilkenny were livid over being reduced to 14-man and Hogan himself seemed astonished to be getting his walking papers, but the reality is that they subsequently dealt poorly with the team’s numerical disadvantage.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app

The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City  and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.