Coronation hijacked.

Tipperary are All-Ireland senior hurling champions for the first time since 2019 after a stunning comeback win over 14-man Cork in the first final meeting between the neighbours.

The Munster winners came in as hot favourites against opponents they had hammered twice already this season and were six points up at half-time, but their record wait for Liam MacCarthy will extend to at least 21 years after the Premier devoured them in the second half.

John McGrath plundered two goals (taking his championship tally to 7-16) and their flawless 19-year-old freetaker Darragh McCarthy (1-13, 1-09fs) converted a penalty after Eoin Downey was shown a second yellow card for fouling McGrath with 15 minutes left.

It was 1-16 to 0-13 at the break but that was a scoreline embellished by Shane Barrett’s (1-04) superb goal just before the whistle.

Otherwise, it had been an even battle, the difference being Tipperary’s nine wides to Cork’s five.

Diarmuid Healy and Barrett bagged three points from play apiece as only McCarthy and Jake Morris managed more than one for the underdogs.

But the second half was astonishingly one-way traffic.

Tipp dominated possession, hitting 1-05 before Cork managed a point and another 2-05 before they got their second, and last score of the game, in the 66th minute.

Ronan Maher lifts the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

Tipperary are back on top again. #sundaygame pic.twitter.com/BXRg6O7kF7

— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 20, 2025

Healy had started the scoring after just 11 seconds but that proved a false dawn and there were more wides than points in a scrappy opening seven minutes. Tipp talisman Morris quickly replied but was off-target three times over the rest of the half.

Horgan (37), going for a first Celtic cross in his 18th season, inched Cork back ahead from a free but Eoghan Connolly replied from halfway. Barrett started to find his groove with back-to-back scores but McCarthy hit back with his first free – to what was a consistent barrage of whistles from the majority Cork crowd – and an equaliser confirmed by Hawk-Eye.

All the puckouts seemed to be going long, which suited Tipp’s strategy of deploying Bryan O’Mara as a sweeper. In the end, Cork’s previously lethal full-forward line of Horgan, Alan Connolly and Brian Hayes were restricted to a point from play each, Tipp captain Ronan Maher nullifying Hurler of the Year contender Hayes at full-back.

Niall O’Leary got forward for a rare score and twice Cork pulled two clear, through Healy, Fitzgibbon and Horgan (a free). McCarthy cut the deficit, then McGrath after fellow veteran Jason Forde channelled Brian Corcoran to handpass off his knees.

Connolly, playing wing-back, found himself forward in space but lashed the ball across the goal and wide, then Horgan hit a superb effort over his shoulder to make it a three-point gap.

Midfielders Willie Connors and Darragh Fitzgibbon exchanged points before Healy, having a superb debut season at 21, took his tally to three. Forde fired back from half-way but Horgan and Dalton frees made it a five-point advantage as Cork started to find their groove upfront.

Downey picked up his first yellow for a foul on McGrath before Tipp had a goal – correctly – disallowed when Forde was in the square before the ball. Still, they had managed to trim the deficit to three, McCarthy scoring his second from play, when Cork landed what looked like a sucker punch.

Shane Barrett finds the net for Cork. Massive moment in the game

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— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 20, 2025

Half-backs Rob Downey and Mark Coleman got forward to put Barrett into space and he collected on the run before rattling the ball brilliantly across Rhys Shelley and into the bottom-right corner.

A six-point gap felt an unjust reflection of the balance of play as Tipperary’s inaccuracy had cost them. It felt like a winning platform for the favourites, but in hindsight the goal may have given them false reassurance about their approach.

A minor schemozzle in the tunnel as the players left the field led to yellow cards before the resumption for Connors and Dalton but one team had all the fight in them after that.

Shortly after the restart, Horgan missed a free that would have put Cork seven up. Now playing with the aid of a reasonable breeze, Tipperary started to win every puckout. Conor Stakelum and Andrew Ormond (2) got the ball rolling. Healy dropped one short and Barrett hit the post from distance.

McCarthy chipped in from play and a free as his side scored five without reply in the first 10 minutes of the half. O’Mahony also hit the post after a gift of a sideline from the otherwise excellent Maher and Pat Ryan sent in the cavalry, in the shape of 35-year-old Seamus Harnedy.

There was still one point in it when Jake Morris went for the equaliser from the 45. Patrick Collins batted it back from over the crossbar but John McGrath got to the ball first, showing his peerless composure by declining the riskier ground stroke, instead lifting, stepping around the keeper and firing past Eoin Downey on the line.

Barrett immediately responded with his fifth score of the day but Tipp were in top gear now. McGrath added another after Stakelum robbed Niall O’Leary and McCarthy nailed a free from centre-field.

A one-two in the 53rd minute left Cork on the canvas. Connolly lobbed it in long from his own 45. McGrath briefly had a hand on Downey’s back but caught the ball and got goal side as the full-back fell across him on the edge of the small square. Second yellow for Downey. McCarthy drove the penalty high and left past Collins.

John McGrath produces this magnificent catch. Foul, Eoin Downey sent off for a second yellow. Darragh McCarthy converts. Drama.

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— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 20, 2025

The Toomevara youngster, having the game of his life after a red card of his own against Kilkenny, added two more points, one from play as Horgan was withdrawn for another veteran, Conor Lehane.

Then, on the hour, the killer blow.

Ciarán Joyce turned it over on the Tipp 45 and Connolly went long again again. This time the ball dropped just outside the small square and McGrath was in between Sean O’Donoghue and Collins to flick a delicious volley to the net – 3-22 to 1-17.

Forde quickly added his second point and the Cork fans were stunned into silence. It wasn’t supposed to go like this.

John McGrath scores a third goal for Tipperary.

We may never have seen the likes of this….

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— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 20, 2025

The game was gone and Murphy’s law was kicking in remorselessly. Fitzgibbon looked to have scored a point but Hawk-Eye overturned it. Harnedy hit the crossbar. Connolly handpassed past Hayes when he probably should have gone for goal himself. Coleman sent a third effort at a point against the woodwork.

Harnedy did split the posts in the 66th minute but that was the last Cork score as they tried in vain for goals.

Rhys Shelly, whose puckouts had been so pivotal to the turnaround, had his own Hollywood closing credits. He became the first goalkeeper to score from play in an All-Ireland final, then stopped Lehane’s injury-time penalty after Maher had pulled down Hayes.

The last word went to substitute Noel McGrath, a fourth All-Ireland making him the most successful Tipperary player in over half a century.

A 21-point turnaround in the most dominant half witnessed in a hurling final.

Tipperary’s 29th title, surely one of the sweetest given their struggles last year, takes them to within one of second-placed Cork on the honour roll, and maintains their record of winning in every decade since the foundation of the GAA.

For the Rebels, it’s back-to-back All-Ireland heartbreak, and five final defeats since their last victory in 2005. The way they lost this one, after going so close in 2024, will be particularly crushing.

Cork: Patrick Collins; Niall O’Leary (0-01), Eoin Downey, Sean O’Donoghue; Ciarán Joyce, Rob Downey (capt), Mark Coleman; Tim O’Mahony, Darragh Fitzgibbon (0-02); Diarmuid Healy (0-03), Shane Barrett (1-04), Declan Dalton (0-01f); Patrick Horgan (0-04, 3fs), Alan Connolly (0-01), Brian Hayes (0-01).

Subs: Séamus Harnedy (0-01) for Dalton (44), Damien Cahalane for Healy (56), Conor Lehane for Horgan (58), Shane Kingston for Connolly 64), Tommy O’Connell for O’Mahony (67).

Tipperary: Rhys Shelly (0-01); Robert Doyle (0-01), Eoghan Connolly (0-01), Michael Breen; Craig Morgan, Ronan Maher (capt), Bryan O’Mara; Willie Connors (0-01), Conor Stakelum (0-01); Jake Morris (0-02), Andrew Ormond (0-02), Sam O’Farrell; Darragh McCarthy (1-13, 0-09fs), John McGrath (2-02), Jason Forde (0-02).

Subs: Seamus Kennedy for O’Mara (50), Alan Tynan for Morgan (56), Noel McGrath (0-01) for O’Farrell (60), Oisin O’Donoghue for Ormond (66), Darragh Stakelum for C Stakelum (66).

Referee: Liam Gordon (Galway)