Overview
The All-Ireland hurling final was the final match of the 1991 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. The match was contested by Tipperary and Kilkenny on 1 September 1991 at Croke Park, Dublin, and had an attendance of 64,500. It was Tipperary's third appearance in the championship decider in four years, having lost and won the respective finals of 1988 and 1989. Kilkenny were lining out in their first final since losing the 1987 decider to Galway. Furthermore, it was the first championship meeting of these two great rivals since 1971, when Tipperary were the winners.
Tipperary were red-hot favourites and not just because of their traditional hoodoo over their nearest neighbours. The team's performances in the provincial championship and their comprehensive defeat of Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final resulted in the premier county being given the bookies nod. Kilkenny had struggles through each of their provincial games and only scraped past Antrim in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Match report
At 3:30pm match referee Willie Horgan of Cork threw in the sliotar and the game was on. Kilkenny took the game to Tipperary from the throw-in, with veteran hurler Christy Heffernan causing havoc for the Tipp defence, a group of players who had been lambasted for their earlier performance against Cork. On this occasion, however, they rescued the team from wave after wave of Kilkenny attack. Defensive grit kept Tipperary in the game in the first half and both sides left the field at half-time with 0-9 apiece.
The second-half saw Tipp get the breaks as the vital score of the match had more than a touch of luck about it. Michael Cleary, Tipp's ultra accurate free-taker, had been impressive all throughout the year. Ten minutes into the game he miss-hit a controversial twenty-metre free. The sliotar skewed into the Kilkenny net at the hill 16 end past a flat-footed Kilkenny defence. It was the score that gave Tipperary a lift and took the wind out of 'the Cats'’ sails. Tipperary always had a few points to spare over their rivals after that incident, with Pat Fox finishing off a wonderful championship campaign with an insurance point that gave his team a merited 1-16 to 0-15 victory. It was his fifth from play as he collected the man of the match award. Declan Carr had the honour of collecting the Liam MacCarthy Cup on the occasion of Tipperary’s twenty-fourth All-Ireland victory. [2]
