English lessons are just what Keating ordered

National Hurling League: Having survived an apparent mid-league crisis, the Tipperary hurlers find themselves on home turf this Sunday, reportedly feeling mean and moody again and eager for their place in the semi-final. They easily beat Galway in a challenge game last Sunday, and further fine-tuned their preparations last night under the former All-Ireland-winning player and manager Nicky English.

English remains on good terms with the current manager, Michael (Babs) Keating, who sees Sunday's quarter-final against Offaly in Thurles as an important marker of recent progress - and also a good opportunity to call on English's own experience.

It's five years now since English guided Tipperary to a league-championship double in 2001, the last time the county enjoyed such lofty heights. After Keating took over as manager last October it was informally agreed English would offer occasional advice. And last night, for the first time under Keating's present regime, English took charge of a Tipperary training session.

"Well, Nicky always said that if he was available then he'd be there to give some advice," says Keating. "So the plan was for him to get down this week. He's a busy man, you know, but hopefully he'll be there for us again."

English is based in Dublin but would be well known to most of the Tipperary panel. He suggests his input will be fairly straightforward, but his appearance at training last night could hardly have been better timed.

"The idea was to go down and help out with a couple of coaching sessions," he explains. "That's basically it. It's not specifically about helping out for Sunday. It's just about helping out in a general way and no big deal really.

"I think Babs just wants to get some extra bit of input. So it's just about giving one or two coaching sessions. And I suppose to show him the way I might do things, and see what he thinks of that."

Keating, meanwhile, is looking forward to the challenge of playing Offaly, who are clearly being revived under manager John McIntyre and whose eight-point win over Waterford last Sunday indicates they have semi-final ambitions of their own.

"This is exactly the kind of game we wanted at this time of the year," adds Keating. "It was something we were always aiming for, because I think the quarter-final spot was always our ambition.

"And yeah, it's very nice for us to be playing at home. But I suppose it's a little unfortunate for Offaly. In fairness to them, they didn't blink about coming to Thurles.

"Obviously there'll be some arrangement made between the two county boards, but Offaly find themselves in the position where they don't have a suitable field, with the capacity of Birr limited.

"In fairness, I think John McIntyre and the Offaly county board realised that this hurling league needed a bit of a lift at the moment, coming into the spring.

"There hasn't been much interest in the hurling league to date in terms of crowds and that.

"And I think it would have been another disaster to split the two games on Sunday and play them apart somewhere."

Although Keating was playing down last Sunday's 4-18 to 1-15 challenge win over Galway ("We got a few handy goals, to be honest"), there is plenty of evidence Tipperary have put to rest many of the concerns about their early-season form.

Their win over Laois the previous Sunday was notable for the fact it was over so early; Tipperary led 2-11 to 0-4 at half-time.

Along with his selectors, John Leahy and Tom Barry, Keating has also taken on Brian Murray to look after the main elements of physical fitness. A former athlete of note (he has run 3:42 for 1,500 metres), Murray would know plenty about peaking at the right time.

For good measure, Eoin and Paul Kelly are returning to full fitness and Micheál Webster is reinstalled at full forward, so Sunday's game is one Tipperary are definitely relishing.

With the Waterford-Limerick quarter-final also on the bill the hurling league gets its first big day out of the year.

"It's an attractive double bill alright," says Keating. "It's nice as well when you consider how close Offaly, and particularly Offaly hurling, is to Tipperary. And my understanding is that the winners play Kilkenny, which is something else to aim for."

Keating has announced seven changes from the team that eased past Laois last Sunday week, welcoming back the Kelly brothers along with Brendan Cummins, Michael Ryan, Declan Fanning, Benny Dunne and Colin Morrissey. Dunne was thought to be doubtful because of a leg injury but was passed fit at training last night.

Team captain Ger O'Grady will start at left corner forward. The players to lose out on this occasion are Damien Young, Eamonn Buckley, Conor O'Mahoney, Hugh Moloney, James Woodlock, Eoin Brislane and Darragh Egan.

TIPPERARY (SH v Offaly): B Cummins; P Curran, P Maher, M Ryan; E Corcoran, D Fanning , B Dunne; P Kelly , S McGrath; C Morrissey, J Carroll, K Dunne; E Kelly, M Webster (Loughmore), Ger O'Grady.

NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE BETTING: 4/5 Kilkenny; 4/1 Clare 11/2 Waterford; 8/1 Tipp; 10/1 Limerick; 12/1 Offaly.