The 2010 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final was the 113th All-Ireland Final and the culmination of the 2010 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, an inter-county hurling tournament for the top teams in Ireland. The match was held at Croke Park, Dublin, on 5 September 2010 and was a repeat of the 2009 final with Kilkenny taking on Tipperary. Kilkenny were attempting to win a fifth All-Ireland title in-a-row, a feat never achieved in either hurling or Gaelic football. This has been referred to as the "Drive for Five".Kilkenny v Tipperary SHC final preview . 4 September 2010. The game was watched by more than 80,000 in the stadium as well as a global audience on TV, radio, etc.Kilkenny aim for historic All-Ireland title. 5 September 2010. The Final attracted the highest ever Irish viewership for an All Ireland Hurling Final peaking at 1.236 million viewers in the final minutes of the match, with an average audience of over one million people during the game which was shown live on RTÉ2. The match was won by Tipperary by a score of 4–17 to 1–18.
Pre-match
Background Kilkenny were Leinster champions, having beaten Dublin and Galway to earn that title. They beat Cork in the semi-final on 8 August 2010. Tipperary lost to Cork in the first round of the Munster championship and went into the All Ireland Qualifiers, where they beat Wexford, Offaly and Galway, before beating Waterford in their semi-final on 15 August 2010.. 15 August 2010.
Kilkenny were bidding for their 22nd successive championship win and had not lost a game since losing to Galway in the 2005 All-Ireland semi-final. In 2009 Kilkenny became the first county since Cork in 1941 – 1944 to win the four in a row and was bidding for their 33rd All Ireland title. Tipperary, who lost to Kilkenny by five points in the previous years final were seeking their first All-Ireland title since 2001 and their 26th title in all.
The pre-match betting made Kilkenny favourites, with Bookmaker Paddy Power giving odds of 4/11 on a Kilkenny win, Tipperary were 5/2 to win with a draw at 12/1. Paddy Power also pledged to refund a wide range of losing bets on the match if Kilkenny were beaten, risking a potential five figure refund should Tipperary reverse the form book.
Before the senior final, Kilkenny beat Clare in the minor hurling final.Kilkenny 2–10 Clare 0–14 . 5 September 2010.
Team news Much of the pre-match build-up centred around the fitness of Kilkenny's Henry Shefflin, who had torn his cruciate ligament in the semi-final against Cork, an injury which generally takes several months to recover from. Shefflin attended noted physiotherapist, Gerard Hartmann, who specialised in such injuries, and recovered to such a degree that within 3 weeks, he took a full part in a Kilkenny training session watched by around 8,000 fans, without noticeable discomfort. Shefflin was then selected to start the All Ireland Final, but due in part to slippery conditions on the day, pulled up after 12 minutes in obvious pain, and had to be substituted. Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy opted to stick with the same team that had defeated Waterford in the semi-final, the team contained eleven of the players that started the 2009 final.
Referee Waterford-based referee Michael Wadding was named as the referee for the 2010 All-Ireland final on 17 August 2010. The Roanmore club man, who has been refereeing for twenty-one years, has previously taken charge of All-Ireland championship deciders at minor level in 1997 and at under-21 level in 2003. He was also the referee for the 2010 Leinster final between Kilkenny and Galway. Wadding, however, has been involved in three previous All-Ireland finals at senior level – twice as stand-by referee and once as a linesman.
The GAA opted against appointing high-profile referees as umpires for the final, as had been suggested in the wake of the controversial end to the 2010 Leinster Senior Football Championship Final between Meath and Louth. Instead, Wadding will use his usual team of umpires from his native club – Noel Cowman, Pat Byrne, Thomas Martin and Noel Crowley.
Match summary
First half A Henry Shefflin free cancelled out Eoin Kelly's opening score before two more Kelly points were added to by a goal by Lar Corbett after 13 minutes. Corbett shrugged off Noel Hickey to field a long ball from Shane McGrath before lashing the ball to the net from close range. John O'Brien added to Tipperary's lead after Brendan Cummins had saved a goal attempt at the other end by TJ Reid, Henry Shefflin lasted only 13 minutes as he succumbed to his cruciate ligament injury, which saw Michael Rice introduced as Tipperary increased their lead to 1–6 to 0–3 after 19 minutes following Brendan Maher and Eoin Kelly points. Richie Power hit 1–5 of Kilkenny's remaining first-half tally of 1–6 including a 32nd-minute goal after Eoin Larkin's thrust into the Tipperary defence. Tipperary's six-point lead of the 30th minute dwindled to one point at half time as Kilkenny's dominance began to translate into scores. Tipperary led by 1–10 to 1–9 at half time.
Second half TJ Reid leveled the scores straight after the interval but Tipperary responded with 2–1 in four minutes as Eoin Kelly's free was added to by goals from Lar Corbett and Noel McGrath. Corbett lashed his second goal to the roof of the net after being set up by a pass on the run from Noel McGrath. McGrath's instinct to follow up a long ball into the Kilkenny goalmouth proved inspired as he scrambled the ball to the net from close range for his goal. Kilkenny then hit four unanswered points to leave one point between the sides with 16 minutes left. Substitute Séamus Callanan then fired over successive points in the 59th and 62nd minutes, followed shortly afterwards by an Eoin Kelly free to extend Tipperary's lead to six points. Richie Power and John Mulhall then added Kilkenny points before substitutes Benny Dunne and then Séamus Hennessy scored long-range points for Tipperary . Lar Corbett then got his third goal in injury time from a pass from Patrick Maher to seal the county's 26th Liam MacCarthy Cup.
Tipperary's final tally of 4–17 is the biggest total ever scored against Kilkenny in a 70-minute final (the 5–17 for Tipperary in 1971 was in an 80-minute decider). Lar Corbett became only the second player in modern times and first since Eddie O'Brien in 1970 for Cork to score a hat-trick in a final. Tipperary's win continued their unique achievement of having won a Senior Hurling All-Ireland in every decade since the GAA's foundation in 1884.
Match details
KILKENNY:1 P. J. Ryan2 John Dalton3 Noel Hickey4 Jackie Tyrrell5 Tommy Walsh6 John Tennyson 7 J. J. Delaney8 James Fitzpatrick 9 Michael Fennelly10 T. J. Reid (captain) 11 Henry Shefflin 12 Eoin Larkin13 Eddie Brennan 14 Richie Power15 Aidan Fogarty Substitutes:16 David Herity17 Michael Kavanagh18 James Ryall19 Michael Rice 20 Derek Lyng 21 Martin Comerford 22 Richie Hogan 23 Paddy Hogan24 Damien Fogarty25 Canice Hickey26 Seán Cummins27 P. J. Delaney 28 John Mulhall 29 Eoin Guinan30 Richie O'NeillManager: Brian CodyTIPPERARY:1 Brendan Cummins2 Paddy Stapleton3 Paul Curran4 Michael Cahill5 Declan Fanning 6 Conor O'Mahoney 7 Pádraic Maher8 Brendan Maher 9 Shane McGrath 10 Gearóid Ryan 11 Patrick Maher12 John O'Brien 13 Noel McGrath14 Eoin Kelly (captain) 15 Lar CorbettSubstitutes:16 Darren Gleeson17 Pa Bourke18 Jody Brennan19 Séamus Callanan 20 Benny Dunne 21 Darragh Egan22 Timmy Hammersley23 Michael Heffernan24 Séamus Hennessy 25 Pat Kerwick26 Shane Maher27 Hugh Maloney28 Conor O'Brien 29 Brian O'Meara30 David Young Manager: Liam Sheedy Man of the Match: Lar Corbett
Linesmen: Brian Gavin (Offaly) James Owens (Wexford)
Sideline Official Cathal McAllister (Cork)
Umpires Noel Cowman Pat Byrne Noel Crowley Thomas Martin
Trophy presentation This was the first final in many years where there was no pitch invasion by the fans at the full-time whistle. This was because of a new barricade which prevents fans on Hill 16 from entering the pitch. The trophy was presented from the Hogan stand to Tipperary captain Eoin Kelly by GAA president Christy Cooney. Immediately after Kelly's acceptance speech, Tipperary substitute Pat Kerwick sang 'The Galtee Mountain Boy'. The Tipperary team then paraded the cup around the stadium in a lap of honour.
Man of the Match Lar Corbett was named the All Ireland hurling final 'Man of the Match' by the Sunday Game panel. Other nominees for the award were Tipperary left back Pádraic Maher and centre forward Noel McGrath. The award was presented to Corbett at the Tipperary victory banquet in Dublin's Burlington Hotel on the night of the final, and was judged by panel members Dónal O'Grady, Pete Finnerty and Michael Duignan.
Reaction Kilkenny manager Brian Cody admitted that his Kilkenny team were second best to a 'driven, spirited, genuine and full of hurling' Tipperary in the All-Ireland final,'We have no excuses and no begrudgery in the slightest. No doubt about it, the better team won the All-Ireland final' he said. Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy was delighted with his team's performance saying "Powerful. Great bunch. they are three years in the journey, there has been a lot of twists and turns and highs and lows. First week in June and a lot of people said we didn’t do qualifiers. I think we saw today what this team could do. We felt today that we were in a very good position. Whether you like it or not, five-in-a-row brings its own pressures. We needed 33 players to do this. I am delighted for that group because I feel they have shipped a lot of criticism unfairly. I am a Tipperary man and a proud one and we put everything we had into this".
Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins said "This time last year we were sinking, we were really disappointed after losing the final. This year makes it all worthwhile, I have huge belief in this group, huge trust in this family, I just knew the lads and I knew by the looks on their faces in that losing dressing-room last year. "My aim all year was to win the semi-final because I felt if we won the semi-final, no one would stop us in the final. Kilkenny are a super team, but I knew if the guys got back into that arena after what happened last year they wouldn't leave it go." Hat trick scorer Lar Corbett said after the game "It is no good coming up here and scoring three goals and losing to Kilkenny, the win, that is what it is all about. It is the whole year wrapped up in 70 minutes. What can you say? It is unbelievable".
Sunday Game analyst Cyril Farrell thought that Henry Shefflin's injury was a serious setback for Kilkenny, writing in the Irish Independent he said "credit where it's due, this was a marvellous performance by Tipp, they did to Kilkenny what the Cats have done to so many teams over the years by keeping the pace and intensity at a high level and by crowding the ball carrier". Former Tipperary player and manager Nicky English writing in the Irish Times thoughtthat Tipperary got a day when everything went right and the few breaks that any team needs, "Tipperary were quite magnificent in the intensity and skill they brought to Croke Park yesterday to finally prove that Kilkenny, a great team, weren’t invincible".