In our hurling world this is the ultimate peak: occasions don’t come any greater than All Ireland final day and to be doubly involved makes it even more special.
Seniors and minors chase down history on a day of nervous expectation for the county. We dare to dream that the seniors can finally break the Kilkenny jinx and take a twenty-seventh title. The minors are strongly fancied to capture a twentieth crown.
Amazingly we go into the senior final as marginal favourites with the bookies. Tipperary is on offer at evens while Kilkenny is listed at 11/10. A few weeks ago those odds were reversed so one assumes the loss of Michael Fennelly has titled expectations fractionally Tipperary’s way.
There’s been an unusually subdued build up to this final. In the week immediately after the Galway win the open night for followers and the press event for the media were held and since then they’ve been in virtual lock-down. We can be a giddy county on these occasions so the management has wisely kept away from public glare.
Inevitably in these circumstances when there’s no other news feed available the rumour mill kicks into gear. And so during the week the County Board had to react to quash rumours of an injury to Seamie Callanan. I’m told there never was any injury scare with the full forward but that didn’t prevent whispers about a hand injury threatening his involvement in the final.
Tipperary select from a full deck then with all options available. Actually our line out has been very consistent throughout the championship the only disruption came from that red card that ‘Bubbles’ collected against Limerick. And that remains the sole issue ahead of team announcement later this week – ‘Bubbles’ or O’Meara to start?
It’s amazing the effect that sending off has had. Without it one assumes ‘Bubbles’ would be an automatic choice every day but now people are wondering whether or not he’ll be held in reserve. There are two trains of thought on this. One sees him as simply too good a player to be left on the sideline for any part of the game; others see O’Meara as the harder worker for the early intensity of a game and ‘Bubbles’ as an ideal springer later on. I’m in the former camp.
Kilkenny’s line out isn’t as automatic as we’d have been used to in past years. The loss of Michael Fennelly obviously disrupts their midfield and there are choices to be made in attack too. One assumes Conor Fogarty and T.J. Reid will start in the centre with Richie Hogan at number eleven. Liam Blanchfield was a revelation the last day against Waterford so he’ll probably start as well as Jonjo Farrell who has history with Cathal Barrett.
The match-ups will be fascinating at the start though the Kilkenny forwards tend to alternate a lot so in the course of a game a Tipperary defender could find himself marking a number of different players. Cody is always probing and searching to see where he might get an advantage.
Ritchie Hogan can be a key player for Kilkenny and by now we’re familiar with his methods. Nominally he’ll be playing centre forward but will drift away and has the potential to hurt a team with long-range points. I would assume that Ronan Maher will be detailed to do a holding job at centre back with others latching on to Hogan wherever he strays.
It will be interesting to see where Cody positions Walter Walsh, a player in great form at the moment. He might be tempted to use him against one of our corner backs who were perceived as having some difficulty the last day, or maybe he’ll match size for size with Paudie Maher.
For their part obviously Kilkenny will worry about our potential in attack. A likely full line of ‘Bubbles’, Callanan and John McGrath carries a lot of scoring threat against a Kilkenny inner defence that some view as vulnerable. At half forward one wonders will Michael Ryan be tempted to position ‘Bonner’ at wing with Noel McGrath doing a Richie Hogan type of job on Kieran Joyce at centre. The Kilkenny wing backs, Padraig Walsh and Cillian Buckley, are seen as major players and Tipperary will want to limit their influence.
Colin Fennelly got man-of-the-match the last day against Waterford and obviously he’ll need watching at full forward. Of crucial importance of course is the type of ball that arrives in to the forwards and in that regard work rate outfield can be critical. In a sense a team’s defence starts with its corner forwards.
Our bleak record against Kilkenny in past years is an unavoidable reality though obviously Michael Ryan and company will wish to focus on the days when we matched them stride for stride. Those were occasions when we brought a deep intensity to our play and took on Kilkenny at every opportunity. Kilkenny are old hands at grinding out victories even when things are going against them so we need to be able to match them in the physical exchanges in order to prevail.
I suppose you could put it this way: we certainly can win the hurling but can we win the battle? Michael Ryan has put a huge emphasis this year on mixing skill with endless graft. Dan McCormack probably epitomises the manager’s philosophy best. It’s a philosophy that now faces its stiffest test on Sunday. We’ll need to be relentless for the entire seventy-plus minutes paying particular attention to that third quarter where Kilkenny often do most damage.
It should be a titanic struggle and in all these games a few breaks here and there often decides the outcome. Let’s hope for a colossal effort and a smile from the gods to get us over the line.
The minor final will be a novel affair. Following their seventeen-point drubbing in the Munster final Limerick have regrouped impressively, taking out Wexford in the quarter-final and then Leinster champs, Dublin, in the semi.
Revenge can be a powerful motivation in sport so I’m sure it will be used in the Limerick dressing room in the build up to this game. A sense of hurt can be a useful driving force and Limerick were certainly bruised after that Munster decider.
In assessing Limerick it’s probably best to ignore that Munster final entirely because it was one of those off-days where things simply fell apart for them in the second half especially. A more accurate barometer of their potential can be found in other games. For example they beat Waterford in the Munster semi-final down in Walsh Park, something we failed to do in our opening bout of the campaign. Their All Ireland semi-final success over Dublin has to be noted too as an impressive performance.
There’s a long history of hotly-fancied Tipperary minor sides coming undone on the big day so I’m sure Liam Cahill and his management side will have drilled home that message in the past few weeks. Facile semi-final wins can be dangerous and in this case there’s a double risk because of the runaway nature of the Munster final.
Our semi-final win over Galway was almost freakish in its nature with all those goals skewing impressions. We managed just one goal against Limerick in the Munster decider so don’t expect another goal rush on Sunday.
There’s no doubt this Tipperary side developed and improved as the season unfolded so there’s every reason to hope that we’ll add to our nineteen All Ireland wins in this grade. Our last win came in 2012 while Limerick’s last success was in 1984 when they won their third title in the grade.
Full back Michael Whelan broke a finger in the semi-final win though I’m told there’s every hope he’ll be ready for the final. It would be the worst of luck if he was to miss out on the big day.
It’s a huge occasion for these teenagers so hopefully their heads haven’t been turned by previous results. If the focus is right they seem well capable of delivering and getting our day off to the best possible start. Good luck to all involved.
