Ian O'Riordan talks to Eoin Kelly about Tipperary's recent improvement in form

Beyond his obvious and celebrated talent it's easy to see what drives Eoin Kelly. When you win your first All-Ireland senior hurling title as a teenager you expect to win a couple more, and while he's still only 24, the years are slipping by and Kelly wants that second title, sooner rather than later.

And despite his relative youth, Kelly has a fair idea of what it takes. Tipperary need to build the sort of winning momentum they had back in 2001, when they won a league-championship double, and that takes him to Sunday's National Hurling League semi-final against Kilkenny.

That Tipperary have got this far is more about the shifting of momentum. They looked to be going backwards in the early rounds of the league, before a heavy defeat to Galway marked a turning point. Since then they've almost fast-forwarded themselves into form.

"The start of the league is always difficult," says Kelly, "with players coming and going and so much else going on. We're only really coming together as a team now. Like there was good pace to the game against Offaly last Sunday, and we were delighted to win that.

"Talk to any hurler and they'll tell you they want to be in Croke Park in July, playing in the quarter-finals. But then you want confidence coming into those quarter-finals as well, and that's why the league and of course the Munster championship is still so important. I don't think any of the gloss has gone off the Munster title. No way."

Kelly doesn't make a big deal about Tipperary turning their form around so quickly. There was a lot of criticism of them so there was no lack of motivation, but he reckons it was the simple things, like manager Michael "Babs" Keating taking them on a quiet weekend in Dungarvan, and then an increase in the training sessions, including one last week under former manager Nicky English.

"I feel the intensity has gone up in the last few weeks. None of that criticism bothered us, to be honest. Our aim all along was to get through to the quarter-finals. But I suppose that comes back to the expectations on Tipp every year. The supporters are always thinking about winning the All-Ireland, and that's why they'd look at us during the league and think to themselves how we might be going in September. But we just take it game by game.

"And our full team is only coming together now. Like last Sunday it was nice to get a feel of the 13 or 14 players that probably will be playing championship. Getting Micheál Webster back was a big asset. With his size he's always going to be a danger around the square, even if he's not winning possession.

"Having Nicky come down was excellent as well. It was actually our first night back training inside in Semple Stadium, so it was great to get a good hurling session in there with, like the high-intensity drills and that, which we hadn't done much of in the recent months. He has a great relationship with Babs, and they just share the love of Tipp hurling. Anything Nicky could do to help out of course Babs was going to use it.

"We also have Brian Murray in with us as well doing the fitness training, and he's excellent; very enthusiastic. He was in America for eight years and has brought a lot of things back, like the stretching exercises and refuelling after games and that. All those little things have been coming together now."

Tipperary will probably need to raise their game again on Sunday to beat Kilkenny, who easily handled them in Thurles at the end of February: "They were very impressive when we played a few weeks back. Without Brendan Cummins it would have been a total whitewash for us. And they didn't have too many of their main guys. They just find great hurlers every year. They love coming to Thurles as well, and we'll just have to see how we can counteract them.

"But everyone is happy with the way things are going at the moment. Babs knows what he wants from the players, and what he wants from the team. If he didn't see what he wanted I don't think he'd be travelling down from Dublin two or three nights a week. He has the enthusiasm and the experience, and hopefully a trump card up his sleeve as well.

"And we'd still be taking something positive out of last year. It was only the last 10 minutes against Galway that we fell away a bit. Maybe that was fitness. That's what we think anyway. But we definitely had the beating of Galway last year, and look how far they went."

The only possible downside of Tipperary's return to form is the potential clash with Limerick in the league final on Sunday week - just two weeks before they meet in the championship.

"Well, we wouldn't mind too much. I know in 2001 Tipp played Clare in the league final and again in the championship, and it didn't do us any harm that year, did it?"