Three Cork players left in his wake and the goalkeeper bearing down. This was some finish.
Tipperary’s U20 hurlers claimed the Munster final after edging Cork in a white-knuckle ride at Semple Stadium on Tuesday evening.
The Premier County denied Cork successive Munster titles after stunning them with a crucial 1-1 in added time. Jake Morris, who has already lined out for the senior side, was the matchwinner with a crisp finish past Ger Collins with 30 seconds to go in injury time.
Jake Morris with a match winning goal for Tipperary! pic.twitter.com/KIJonrcA7o
— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 23, 2019
Morris finished with 1-4 while fellow forward Conor Bowe registered the same tally, with all his scores coming from play.
Goal of the game goes to Tipp super-sub Kian O Kelly, who ravaged the Rebel defence with a devastating goal just before half-time. O’Kelly was called from the bench and pitched into the final after only 19 minutes.
His goal was O’Kelly’s only scoring contribution in Tipperary’s 3-15 to 2-17 victory, but what a sublime one it was.
First up, after a sideline cut from the far wing, he got to a breaking ball first and wrestled off his marker. Another Cork defender swooped in to block his path to go, but O’Kelly dipped under that challenge:
O’Kelly was past three Cork defenders now but he still had to get control of the sliothar, at pace, as he bore down on goal.
With the defenders breathing down his neck, and Collins rushing from his line in a desperate attempt to prevent the goal, O’Kelly improvised with one last hop before finishing over the Cork goalie:
The score was beautiful to watch and put Tipp ahead by a point before Cork tagged one back to leave the scores level at the break.
That left it at 2-7 to 1-10 but the drama was only bubbling to the surface back then. Check out that O’Kelly score here:
Kian O'Kelly with Tipperary's second goal! pic.twitter.com/I4kSY0bcEi
— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 23, 2019
Following the match, captain Craig Morgan told Tipp FM, “I always believed. Even in the first have when Cork got the [early] goal, it was just re-set and go again. When they got the goal in the second half, it was re-set and go again. There’s always the next ball all the time… just trust the process.”
Morgan, O’Kelly and Tipperary have Wexford up next and that should be another classic.
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