Hurling analyst: Tipperary now face Cork in a Munster final. Many, including myself, and a lot of people from Tipperary, wrote them off on league form. Cork are still favourites, but Tipp are growing and proved yesterday the league truly is irrelevant come championship hurling. Plenty of heart is evident, but more importantly they have tradition.

The big three counties do not fear anyone. That is the salient difference between them and the rest of the country. They know it is up to others to come and beat them.

By no means is this the best team to come out of Tipperary, but they now have three championship games under their belts. With so many players returning they will be gung ho for Cork. Philip Maher may return, but John Carroll will be fitter. That's one player Cork doesn't like. Bringing him on in a Munster final is as big an impact as you can find. The two Limerick games proved hugely significant in the end yesterday.

Going into the game I thought the loss of Philip Maher combined with watching Tipperary the last two days that Clare's recent form would be adequate. The facts don't lie though and Clare have become a league, not championship, side. The pace of the game has found them out over the last two years.

Clare have big men, but they were playing too far out the field for Niall Gilligan to have a significant influence. He did grab a couple of nice scores and set up plenty so his team-mates let him down.

Two perceived areas of Tipperary weakness turned out to be their main strengths yesterday as the full back and full forward lines excelled.

John Devane must get a lot of credit for how he slipped back to full back, for the injured Maher, with such ease. Also, the moving of Eamonn Corcoran back to corner back could initially have been interpreted as a crutch for Devane, but within 10 minutes it was clear the two were more than holding their own. Diarmaid Fitzgerald at wing back was another to shine.

One noticeable difference was that Tipperary were at championship pace right from the outset. Eoin Kelly in particular was an immediate torn in the Clare defence. The first two balls that came in, he hit two points.

From then on the whole full forward line tortured Clare with Micheál Webster immense. He was taking on one of the great full backs of all time in Brian Lohan and gave him a torrid afternoon. Making Brian Lohan look ordinary is no mean feat.

Lar Corbett also caused huge problems. After five minutes the corner backs were switched. Kelly was afforded oceans of room early on and it ensured he settled nicely into the game's flow. Everyone will now look to expose Clare in a similar manner.

In fairness to Anthony Daly, he did make the switches to bring them back into the game, but the chances they missed proved crucial. Barry Nugent and Aidan Quinn being particularly guilty here. Brendan Cummins pulled off one fine save from Nugent, but he really should not have seen the first chance.

Clare lacked sharpness. Colm Lynch got a ball 30 yards out, on his own, with no one within 15 yards of him and he ballooned it wide. Tony Carmody got a great point starting off, but turned around and hit two atrocious wides.

In contrast, the Tipp midfield did an awful lot of work with Benny Dunne subduing Lynch. Seánie McMahon did exert an influence, but a great move by Ken Hogan was to bring Eoin Kelly out. Seánie was then forced to pay a lot more attention to what was going on around him. This knocked him off his game.

Where to now? Clare took an awfully long time to find their stride last year, but eventually put it up to Kilkenny. The senior players, Seanie Mac and the Lohans, would realise coming off the field yesterday that time just catches up with players.

Conditions are only going to get quicker as the summer goes on so they could get exposed one-on-one, but they're Bravehearts down there and will dig deep again.