Tipperary are through to the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship quarter-finals.
Tipperary ran riot over Offaly yesterday, registering a 17 points win at O’Moore Park, Portlaoise in front of 9,500 spectators, leaving the final score board reading – Tipperary 5-25 (40 pts) – Offaly’s 1-20 (23 pts).
Within the first five minutes of this game, Tipperary were demonstrating an altogether superior level of hurling, with Lár Corbett, Seamus Callanan and Patrick Maher waltzing around their opponents in classic Tipperary fashion.
Callanan set up Lar Corbett for his first opening goal and 90 seconds later Patrick Maher (Man of the Match) had made it 2.00 (6 pts) to nil, before even half of the Offaly team had got a feel of the sliotar.
Offaly eventually answered with 3 points courtesy of Brian Carroll, but these were quickly cancelled by D. Maher, S. Callanan and J. Woodlock, to leave the score at 2-03 (9 pts) to 0-03 (3 pts) after just 14 minutes of play.
Offaly responded with points from D. Currams, C. Parlon, B. Carroll and S. Dooley, but Corbett rifled home his second goal in the 27th minute to open up a five-point lead. Both Corbett and Callanan added further Tipperary goals before half-time with the final score at the first period reading, 4-09 (21 pts) to 0-11 (11 pts)
Offaly came on in the second half with obvious intent on rectifying earlier issues. Colin Egan tapped home a goal for Offaly within a minute of the throw-in and together with Carroll hauled the opposition back to within four points after 48 minutes.
With a score line which had reached 4-11 (23 pts) to 1-16 (19 pts) and Offaly in arrears, once again Tipperary sprung into action and in the space of less than six minutes had fired over six unanswered points via the stick work of Corbett, Bergin, O’Dwyer and Stapleton, thus restoring to Tipperary a 10 point lead.
Callanan would eventually ‘seal the deal’ with a fifth goal in injury-time, thus ensuring an overall 17 point margin before the full-time whistle. Latter player however was forced to go off injured after he was caught across the wrist area by Niall Wynne while driving this latter shot on target.
Tipperary Scorers: S. Callanan 2-10, (16 pts), L. Corbett 2-2, (8 pts), Patrick Maher 1-1 (4 pts), K. Bergin 0-4 (4 pts), D. Maher 0-2,(2pts) and J. Woodlock, J. O’Dwyer, N. McGrath, E. Kelly, J. Forde & T. Stapleton 0-1(1 pt) apiece.
Tipperary Team: D. Gleeson, P. Stapleton, P. Maher, M. Cahill, B. Maher, J. Barry, C. Barrett, K. Bergin , J. Woodlock , G. Ryan, P. Maher, J. O’Dwyer, N. McGrath, S. Callanan and L. Corbett.
Subs: D. Maher for G. Ryan; T. Stapleton for C. Barrett; E. Kelly for J. O’Dwyer; S. McGrath for J. Woodlock and J. Forde for P. Maher.
Referee: Alan Kelly. (Galway)
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