No idea mate.
If Jimmy Cooney had not blown up early ye would have won that All Ireland. I think Clare were a better team in 98 than 97. 99 loss to Clare in the replay is probably one of the sorest defeats for many Tipp people.
True but one couldn’t say Flynn missed that free really . It was a huge distance out .
In fairness karma did them. They didn’t deserve to win the All Ireland after the way they carried on in the Munster Final and it’s aftermath.
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Ger Lock “lost the run of himself” that summer. What is forgotten is that in the drawn semi final Clare got a very very soft free to equalise the game .
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Fuck Clare
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Clare lacked a real consistency in 1998 and 1999, they were the best team in the country when they were firing on all cylinders both years but struggled to stack performances together.
The last 15 minutes against a coming Cork team they utterly rotivated them in 98, followed it up with a flat munster final before hammering Waterford in the replay, flat the next day out against Offaly and could easily have lost then were well on top in the replay despite offaly closing the gap with a couple of goals somewhat against the run of play they would have seen it out only for Cooney blowing it up early, then flat as pancakes the third day, yet could have won it only for a couple of outstanding saves from Stephen Byrne.
99 followed a similar pattern.
5 worst defeats following Tipp in no particular order.
1993 Loss to Galway in AI semi final - Ken Hogan Howler. Knew the game was up when there was a bad collision between 2 Tipp players. It was the beginning of the end for childhood heros like Nicky English and Pat Fox.
1996 10 points up against Limerick in Munster Final and throw away a lead. Writing was on the wall when Frankie Carroll pointed from the sideline and they went on to win replay aided by 2 Owen O Neill kicked goals.
1997 - Leahy with a chance to win the game and scuffed his shot. Jamesie O Connor with the winner.
1999 - Hammering at the hands of Clare in munster championship replay. Most pathetic showing from a Tipp forward line in loving memory.
2002 - Munster Final. Waterford announce themselves as the kids on the block and blitzed Tipp that day. Only for Benny Dunne it would have been a hammering.
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There’s a lot of only for or would have there Big Mick. A lot of what you mentioned were unforced errors and if you’re going to win a championship you can’t have as many instances as that to sow doubt.
Clare were the most exciting team and story of the 90’s but it was clear in '98 they and Ger Loughnane were their own worst enemies. The whole siege mentality and everyone is agin us thing was a stupid culture to engender given the amount of neutral support and goodwill they had.
I loved them, but by the Lynch saga I had my doubts. To the extent I was glad for Offaly in the end (a difficult thing to write).
And it was all self inflicted by Clare.
Thanks for reminding us of those johnny.
It was, but I have no doubt they would have beaten Kilkenny in the final. I hold no ill feeling to Offaly abd don’t begrudge them the 98 A/I they got the breaks and we’re good enough to take them.
I don’t think there’s any question you would have beaten Kilkenny in what could have been a bloodbath of a final (which could have been very entertaining).
I was at the 96 draw with Limerick. It was a startling turn around. Liam Cahill missed a sitter at the start of the second had and Tipp fell asunder after that.
It wasn’t a great Kilkenny team, but a lot of that was self inflicted. I remember being at the Dublin KK game in 98 in Parnell Park and seeing John Power about 10 spaces from me on the terrace. There was plenty left in Power and he went on to win an All Ireland in 2000.
My pleasure.
Yeah I remember that. It was a complete systems failure. We were getting beaten in nearly every position. Nicky had a chance to win it towards the end but Mike Nash grabbed hold of his jersey. Everything went against us in that second half. It was some feat to come back with just points, with every point raising the decibel level further. It was the first time in my life I learned about the value of momentum.
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Didn’t he retire and then do a DJ or was he dropped? @Fran @Locke ? Whatever, clearly insane not to involve him. A fantastic hurler, an absolute nightmare to play against. We fucking hated him.
Thankfully ye haven’t spent a quarter of a century whining about it at every opportunity, unlike some counties.
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I think he was dropped by Kevin Fennelly.
Sheedy was lucky to ever hurl again after this belt. Delighted Davy buried the penalty down his throat afterwards