By Irishexaminer.com Maurice Brosnan
That game is dictated by the ticking clock. Every action, every play is bound to its countdown. Officials and players must have it in their eyeline at all times. Elite sport all revolve around a single currency. In both gridiron and small ball, the most precious asset is time.
It was a hurler who consistently finds it in abundance that instigated a post-match controversy around the final tally on that board. In front of the Cusack Stand, Noel McGrath found enough time to emerge from a ruck, take a look at the posts, swing off his right and send Hill 16 into a blue delirium. Not even the nearby umpire鈥檚 decision to wave it wide could deter their Premier euphoria. That error had a seismic impact on Kilkenny鈥檚 final chase.
Championship fury is stoked by two unforgiving masters: the score and the ticking hands. In this instance, Kilkenny鈥檚 understanding of one essential truth was wrong.
17:28. Kilkenny 0-29, Tipperary 4-20. Ois铆n O’Donoghue, on his knees in front of the Hill, having stepped inside David Blanchfield and hung the sliotar in the roof of Eoin Murphy鈥檚 net. McGrath鈥檚 wide that was somehow given on the scoreboard came subsequently. Suddenly, the margin wrongly read as four.
Would Eoin Cody have tapped over rather than gone for goal with the next attack? What of the final two minutes which were littered with the black and amber trying and failing to force a final pass as they chased what they thought was a three-point deficit? John Donnelly beat Rhys Shelly with a last-gasp effort only for Robert Doyle to block the ball on the line.
Had he tapped over, would James Owens have allowed the resulting Tipperary puckout and the chance for a outfit with a man advantage to find an equaliser? Surely Tipperary wouldn鈥檛 drop so deep if their advantage was less?
What a cruel shame that such a thrilling contest could conclude in such avoidable circumstances. The entire team of matchday officials gathered in a huddle after the final whistle for some urgent discussions. For hours afterwards, confusion reigned. The initial soundings from within the ground was that 4-21 was the correct tally. Just before 20:00, officials emerged and a statement landed: Tipperary鈥檚 total was 4-20. Cue uproar.
The only reality that the main combatants knew was what the live numbers were telling them. Their efforts in the face of that will now be overshadowed by the inevitability that is human error. Everyone involved made their fair share of mistakes on Sunday. But there can be no tolerance for some of them.
Before the storm came the blast. Every small win yielded a deafening volley. Jake Morris dunted Huw Lawlor in his race to gather a sideline and the Hogan Stand lifted. That noise only amplified when he collected Jason Forde鈥檚 sideline for his first point.
Alan Tynan was first called upon as a temporary sub. His diving block drew another chorus: Tipp, Tipp, Tipp, Tipp. The bellow that greeted Noel McGrath was inflamed by a flareup between Adrian Mullen and Eoghan Connolly. No winners in that scrap. Two yellows declared a square draw.
The only certainty is that time never waits. That leads to all sorts of recklessness. Darragh McCarthy is a bright prospect with a big future. He is also a young man striving to make the most of a precious chance. The corner-forward hit the game鈥檚 first wide. After 21 minutes, he notched their second goal. He created the third for Forde.
He converted frees; he missed more. He won another invaluable opportunity to stem a run of four successive Kilkenny points and handed over placed ball responsibility to Forde. But a fourth minute challenge on Paddy Deegan loomed over all of that. As much as it all hurtles forward, you can鈥檛 escape the past.
For the second time in the game, McCarthy leaned out and his hurley flick caught an opponent. Eoin Murphy dropped his stick and clutched his knuckles. A second yellow was dished out. The U20 All-Ireland winner was forced to sit on the bench, clutching the cross around his neck for 960 agonising seconds. For the second time in this season, Noel McGrath made a beeline for him for a consoling and celebratory embrace.
Kilkenny鈥檚 problem was not so much time as it was a threat to the net. The digitised zero directly beside their label never flickered. Derek Lyng鈥檚 men hit 40 shots for 30 points. They had a 75% conversion rate, TJ Reid didn鈥檛 miss a single placed ball (Tipperary missed five). They just couldn鈥檛 produce a green flag and couldn鈥檛 constrain them at the other end.
Eoin Cody thought he had one. He dropped to his knees in despair when he realised that the whistle had sounded and play would be brought back for a Tipperary free. Even still, who is to say their approach would not have steered them right had the digits been correct. That is the central problem with this semi-final. We鈥檙e all reliant on the scoreboard, all of the time.
On the balance of play, Tipperary were deserved victors. Yet, while time waits for no one, there must be room to pause and avoid costly errors like this. A scoreboard can be simple and it can be moved. The only thing it can never be is wrong.