Dublin were embarrassed in Thurles on Saturday as reigning champions Tipperary easily swept The Dubs aside booking their place in the Quarter-Finals with a resounding 6-26 to 1-19 win.
Tipperary’s charge on Dublin was lead by Seamus Callanan who hit form scoring 3-11 against the hapless Dublin defence.
Tipperary were also aided by John McGrath and John O’Dwyer as they scored 2-2 and 0-4 respectively. As Tipperary rapidly took the game away from Dublin.
Embed from Getty ImagesDavid Treacy top scored with 0-11 for Dublin while Cian O’Sullivan grabbed himself well-worked goal. But Dublin didn’t take good goal chances and in the end, these missed chances proved costly.
Dublin trailed 4-11 to 1-09 at the break but the deficit could have been more if it wasn’t for Conor Dooley in the Dublin net pulling off some vital saves. Most notably from Dan McCormack a point blank range.
Embed from Getty ImagesThings got even worse for Dublin after the restart when the Dublin defence was caught napping once again and Tipperary got their fifth goal through Mikey Breen literally seconds into the second half.
Tipp’s sixth goal came through Callanan who finished with coolly after being unselfishly set up by O’Dwyer, to round off a humiliating day for Dublin.
The result is extremely frustrating for fans of Dublin Hurling who have seen their teams progress stagnate since losing to Cork in the 2013 All-Ireland Semi-Final.
Ger Cunningham hasn’t taken the county forward since he took charge in 2014 and Dublin have found themselves in some sort of Hurling Qualifier purgatory/ groundhog day in the championship ever since Cunningham took charge.
Embed from Getty ImagesWith Cunningham’s departure from Dublin imminent. One chapter in Dublin Hurling closes, another opens. As a result fans of the sky blues will be hoping 2018 will be the year Dublin hurlers finally unlock their potential.
Tipperary: D Gleeson; D Maher, T Hamill, J Barry; Joe O’Dwyer, R Maher, Pádraic Maher (0-01); B Maher (0-01), M Breen (1-00); J Forde (0-04), Patrick Maher, D McCormack (0-01); John O’Dwyer (0-04), S Callanan (3-11, 0-07f), J McGrath (2-2).
Subs: S Kennedy for R Maher (45), N McGrath for B Maher (49), S O’Brien (0-02) for D McCormack (49), M Cahill for D Maher (56), T Fox for Pádraic Maher (66).
Dublin: C Cooley; C O’Callaghan, E O’Donnell, F Ó Riain Broin; S Barrett, C Crummey (0-01), S Moran; B Quinn, N McMorrow; D Treacy (0-11, 8f), L Rushe (0-02), E Dillon; C O’Sullivan (1-01), R O’Dwyer (0-02), D Burke.
Subs: J Madden for Barrett (24), F Whitely for McMorrow (h.t.), D O’Callaghan (0-01) for Burke (h.t.), T Connolly for Moran (50), R McBride (0-01) for Treacy (58).
Ref: A Kelly (Galway)
And it`s over the bar 