JOE casts its eye over some of the memorable moments that defined the 2010 Hurling Championship.
2010 was all set to be the year when Kilkenny confirmed their status as the greatest hurling team of all time by winning their fifth Liam McCarthy Cup on the trot. Unfortunately for the Cats, a determined Tipperary side put a shock Munster exit to Cork behind them and trumped Brian Cody’s side in what was yet another titanic encounter between two great teams.
Tipperary’s success was the story of 2010, but there were plenty of other thrills, spills and controversies in what was an excellent championship campaign. JOE takes a look back at five of the most memorable hurling moments from the year just past.
1. Waterford’s Munster Final success
It took 160 minutes of hurling to separate Cork and Waterford in this year’s Munster final, with the result that due to wet conditions in Thurles, became the first ever Munster final to be played under floodlights. Dan Shanahan’s goal (below) in the second half of extra time sealed a deserved win for the Déise and sent the delirious Waterford fans into raptures.
2. Tipperary edge out Galway in thrilling encounter
The All-Ireland final was yet another titanic clash between Tipperary and Kilkenny, but arguably the best game of the championship in 2010 came two games earlier at the end of July, when Tipp and Galway went hell for leather in Croke Park and were separated at the end by a stoppage time point from Lar Corbett, for whom everything he touched turned to gold this year. The lead changed hands on several occasions in a pulsating encounter which featured an exhibition of score taking and was played in the right spirit.
Tipp had been gradually gaining momentum through the qualifiers and showed the form against the Tribesmen what would blow away both Waterford and Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final and final.
As for Galway, the game showed that they could indeed mix it with the big boys, as doubts had been raised about their ability after following up their league success with a mediocre championship. That was of little consolation to their manager, Tipperary native John McIntyre, who cut a heartbroken and disconsolate figure when giving an interview to RTE after the game (see below).
3. The Henry Shefflin saga
The greatest player of the modern era was forced off in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Cork after 25 minutes with a cruciate ligament injury to his left knee, the same injury he suffered in the All-Ireland Final win of 2007, but to the opposite knee.
The standard recovery time for an injury acknowledged as one of the worst in sport is nine months to a year, but with Kilkenny seeking an historic five All-Ireland titles in a row and Henry being Henry, Brian Cody, Shefflin himself and thousands of optimistic Cats supporters weren’t about to give up hope.
King Henry pulls up only minutes into the All-Ireland final
Cue weeks of will he or won’t he start speculation, miracle cures, trips to renowned physio Ger Hartmann before Shefflin was deemed to have made a Lazarus-like recovery and was named in the team to face Tipperary on the first Sunday in September.
As we all know now, however, the gamble backfired spectacularly as Shefflin had to withdraw with a recurrence of the injury after only 12 minutes. Kilkenny looked slightly lost without their on-field leader and were overcome by a rampant Tipperary side. The five in a row dream was over.
4. Tipperary All-Ireland win – A changing of the guard?
Although arguably not the classic that the two sides produced in 2009, the All-Ireland Final this year was still a fantastic advertisement for hurling at its very, very best. Going into the game, Tipperary had absolutely nothing to lose. Kilkenny were raging hot favourites and were on the verge of immortality, which would have been assured with a fifth Liam McCarthy Cup on the trot.
The Premier County had showed 12 months earlier, however, that they were a coming team and that the prospect of Kilkenny did not unnerve them as much as it did other teams. Liam Sheedy’s side produced the complete performance to capture their first All-Ireland title, but the signs are that it’s not going to be their last.
Their annihilation of Galway in the under-21 decider the following weekend, containing five players that had started the senior final six days earlier, showed that the supply line in Tipp is functioning well and that there could be plenty of glory days ahead for the Blue and Gold. Kilkenny, although far from dead and buried, have a squad in which a number of their star performers are either pushing 30, or on the wrong side of that figure. It may be a tad premature, but they may have to surrender their place at the top of the hurling ladder to the new kids on the block.
5. The dropping of Seán Óg
Cork GAA and controversy go hand-in-hand and Denis Walsh ensured that the Rebels weren’t going to be out of the news for too long when in October he announced his decision to drop Seán Óg ó hAilpín from next year’s senior hurling panel.
JOE columnist Seán Óg had far from a vintage year, but he was also far from the worst performer in a struggling Cork side and even though he is 33 now, he has always kept in magnificent shape and showed no signs of a lack of appetite for the cause. The decision to drop ó hAilpín has already had far-reaching implications.
Some players are believed to have approached Walsh to try and get him to change his mind, while Seán Óg’s younger brother Aisake has decided to return to Australia, revealing that the treatment of his brother was a major factor in the decision.
Walsh has already announced that he will not reconsider his decision and in fairness, his authority will have been massively undermined if he does so. If he doesn’t return, it will be strange to have a championship without Seán Óg, one of the most iconic figures in the GAA in modern times.
