Tipperary 2-17 Dublin 1-15
It was Liam Cahill himself who conceded ahead of Tipperary’s bid for a first All-Ireland minor hurling final place since 2012 that his side had a habit of switching off and playing in patches.
He meant it in a concerned way, of course, but it was an impressive purple patch of six points without reply in the concluding stages of this contest that decided the game in their favour.
A determined Dublin side were actually a point ahead with just 12 minutes remaining but couldn’t live with Tipp in that period as they scored six fine points without reply.
Free-taker Lyndon Fairbrother was in the thick of the action with seven points overall and four points in that late Tipp scoring spree which decided the contest.
The Munster champions’ reward for the show of character is a final clash with Galway on September 6.
It won’t be all plain sailing in the meantime though as nine of Cahill’s side are also on the football panel that will contest an All-Ireland semi-final later this month.
Cahill was encouraged by the spirit of his team late on. “We weren’t coming up here thinking it would be game over at half-time, we went in lively pegging just as we’d planned for,” said Cahill. “They rolled up their sleeves again in the last quarter and got over the line.”
Tipperary: P Hayes; E Heffernan, E Moloney, J Quigley; K Hassett, B McGrath, D Peters; D Carey (0-1), L McCutcheon; G Ryan (0-1), A Tynan (0-1), C Darcy (0-1); T Nolan (1-3), D Gleeson (1-0), L Fairbrother (0-7, 5f).
Subs: R Mulrooney (0-2) for McCutcheon (25), J Skehan for Darcy (47), M Connors for Gleeson (47), S Neville (0-1) for Ryan (61).
Dublin: E Skelly; C Hendricken, D Butler, C Ryan; D Gray, P Smyth, E Foley; M Oliver (0-10, 7f, 1 65), C Sammon; C Dowling (0-4), M Maguire, E Conroy; A Considine (0-1), F Whitely (1-0), E Dunne.
Subs: C O'Sullivan for Dunne (40), G King for Whitely (43), D Ryan for Gray (45), C Burke for O'Sullivan (59), S Hickey for Sammon (60).
Referee: P O'Dwyer (Carlow).
