High rollers won't want to blink first

Munster SHC Semi-final: Tom Humphries on a heavyweight face-off in Cork, where even the safety net of the qualifiers will only partially ease the pain of defeat

Leeside and two big guys from the old school sitting down and facing each other across the table with a big pile riding on the turn of the cards. Babs, last of the high rollers, knows the fickle ways of the world. Justin McCarthy knows too but scarcely cares.

Of the same stock and generation, they have much in common this past while, and tomorrow as he heads to Páirc Uí Chaoimh Justin McCarthy might look at Babs's recent travails and take heart.

There's a few pucks of the ball between being a mug or a messiah.

Before Tipp manhandled Limerick out the gate a few weeks back, Babs's decision to go back home was being viewed, even by allies, with scepticism. On the sidewalk a fine crowd had gathered waiting to see if Babs would get so bluff and confident he'd take a trip on a big banana skin.

"In reality Babs took a big chance coming back," says Nicky English. "He didn't need to do it. He didn't need it. Some of the criticism before the Limerick match, particularly in one article I saw on the Sunday morning, well, it was vitriolic. He didn't deserve that. I was delighted he got out of Thurles with his head held high."

Limerick were given a lesson, and lo, it came to pass that Tipperary, lamentable in the weeks after their league exit, were suddenly viable contenders. Instead of the mouldering body of Tipp hurling getting a wash, Eoin Kelly was anointed as saviour.

And Babs? Never lost a chicken to a fox yet, boys. Cute as they come. Nobody ever doubted it.

Afterwards in the gloaming of the tunnel 'neath Semple, Babs did his best to abstain from speaking with the hounds of the press. Twice he passed the pack, wearing an expression of high dudgeon, and once he explained his reasons, something to do with being misquoted out of context.

Finally though, the convivial, garrulous side of himself could be contained no longer and he was to be found holding court in the corridor with a towel around his waist and decent one-liners dripping from his lips.

Championship Sunday in Semple Stadium with the dust settling and Babs standing looking appreciatively at a swaying sea of microphones. God was back in his heaven and all was well with the world.

Therein lies one of the key differences between the two men who gamble today for a guaranteed place on the floor when the dance of the last eight begins in Croke Park later this summer.

Babs can't resist company and in that context almost anything is forgivable. Justin McCarthy would be more inclined to stare down his detractors in a war of wills. He's a man at home with the loneliness of his convictions and his passion.

Not that Justin McCarthy isn't sensitive to criticism. This week the Waterford side have the shutters closed tight when the media come calling. On the local scene where such actions have drastic consequences things are very bad.

The Waterford radio station WLR run a Sportscall type of programme and the views of callers have offended McCarthy. Tom Ryan, the former Limerick manager, was on WLR a couple of weeks ago and contributed his tuppenceworth in characteristically candid fashion.

Justin McCarthy's voice hasn't been heard on WLR since.

If Waterford win tomorrow it is unlikely McCarthy will come to the corridor in Páirc Uí Chaoimh swaddled in a towel and conferring gracious forgiveness.

If Waterford win . . . Justin McCarthy's legacy, in the short term at least, depends on how his side do tomorrow.

There was a feeling within parts of Waterford last year, despite the good start the championship brought, that McCarthy had stayed on a year too many already. A county-board committee was set up to look at the management position, but McCarthy's name was the only one to enter the frame.

"He was available from the time the Cork match finished," says one former player, "and they went for him again with no freshening up even."

"No surprise," says Nicky Cashin, who is entering his third championship as a selector to McCarthy having been brought in as a man whom many saw as a future manager.

"He wasn't let go. We wouldn't let him go. He is fantastically determined. He has an absolute love of hurling. He'll be involved as long as he lives in some shape or form.

"He's too valuable to have just let go. Good men like him are very scarce on the ground. He's a top-class motivator and his record proves it."

More than that though. McCarthy's autocratic style ruffles the feathers in the clubs and it is known anyway that Mount Sion men would like to see Jim Greene in charge of the county team. Greene brought his club to three county titles in a row before Ballygunner ended their run this year. Clubmen through the county bridle and chafe at the limits put on club hurling activity by the county manager.

And then there is the style of man management characterised as "Justin's way or just go way home".

Waterford are a city team with a barely constrained streak of flamboyance running through them. McCarthy manages by and large to keep the lid screwed on tight but some players would yearn for a more easy-going regime.

Tomorrow will bring whatever proof is required for one side to get ahead in the argument.

Babs Keating climbed out of a hole a few weeks ago when Limerick were beaten. A win over Tipp will do the same for McCarthy tomorrow. A defeat will make the charm of the qualifiers a very hard sell.

There is a view, spreading quickly among the populace, that the provincial championships are these days a busted flush given the forgiving nature of the qualifiers.

Munster stands as refutation. Cork, by Joe Deane's admission, need the shortest possible route to September. Tipp and Waterford need the bump a Munster final appearance would give. There's a lot of chips on the table tomorrow.

Avoiding the demeaning and dangerous side roads of the qualifiers would in Tipp's case validate Babs's return and confer on him the reputation of Midas. For Waterford to pull the same stunt would go some way to justify McCarthy's prolonged stay and get the county excited again about a summer which will see the old gunslingers coming back to town one by one as injuries heal and suspensions expire.

Babs has time to build some more though. Justin McCarthy would probably need an All-Ireland win in order to be offered another year. Odd to say about a man with such a CV, but in the saloon where Justin McCarthy sits the name above the door is Last Chance.

It's like that in some counties. Years of failed crops and dustbowl fields are forgotten at the first big harvest celebration. Nobody recalls the bad times.

Two Munster titles gave rise to such expectation in Waterford that the failure to top either one off with so much as an All-Ireland appearance has frustrated a lot of the people who back in the 1990s would have sacrificed valuable limbs for the chance to grip a provincial bauble.

Waterford have had five years of Justin McCarthy and it seems as if the county's appetite has outgrown what either he or his team can realistically deliver. It's true that five years with Waterford is a good stretch even for a man who likes his missionary work. And the persistent whispering that three years would have been enough to leave them wanting more shouldn't detract from McCarthy's achievements.

Nicky Cashin is among those who dispute the theory that five years is too long and things have gone stale.

"No. Justin works very closely with Gerry Fitzpatrick. There's always new drills and new angles to keep things fresh. It has worked so far . . . The man's energy is phenomenal. I go there to training after work and I'm like a wet rag and he's there jumping out of his skin. He just has this drive and determination and natural energy about him. His health is great. He looks after himself well and he gives off a lot of enthusiasm."

Apart from the two Munster titles and a few epic days out, McCarthy's legacy is such that it shouldn't be judged in the short term. Waterford have good coaching structures in place laid down by Colm Bonnar some years ago, and if the game hasn't grown much in the past few years the quality of the coaching is decent and there was severe disappointment this year that Peter Queally's highly promising minor team were turned over by Cork.

Still the players are emerging slowly and despite the many absentees for tomorrow most observers were quietly surprised at the quality of the side McCarthy put down on paper on Thursday night.

"I think the depth is coming," says Cashin. "Our panel this year is the strongest in my three years. If you look at our bench on Sunday the subs are the strongest I have seen. We are getting there."

Given the possible losses to retirement this summer of Paul Flynn, Tom Feeney and Tony Brown it's about time for the cavalry of youth to come over the brow of the hill.

Tipperary's graph seems to point upward. Nicky English has taken the team for a couple of sessions this year and has noticed.

"I was happy to. He asked me last November and December to go down and give them a few sessions. Didn't think it would happen. I was happy to go down. I'm still very interested and very happy to help out. I did two sessions, one before the Limerick game and one since and I thought the first time they weren't that impressive. I though in the one since they had come on a lot - the win had given them a huge amount.

"The work ethic that was switched on against Limerick needs to be maintained. That would be as much as I could say but Paul Ormonde, Larry Corbett, Benny Dunne and Paul Kelly are not far off playing. Larry Corbett was very impressive in training last time I was there."

That feeling of wellness which suffuses everything Tipp do these days will have been noted by Waterford. A win tomorrow gives them ownership of the feeling for some time.

The qualifiers, on the other hand, have never been particularly kind to either team. Lots on the line. Everything to play for.

Championship statistics

LAST CHAMPIONSHIP MEETING: Waterford 4-10 Tipperary 3-12 (2004 Munster semi-final):

A late goal by sub Paul O'Brien gave Waterford victory by the narrowest of margins. Eoin Kelly scored 2-8 (2-4 from play) for Tipperary.

TOTAL CHAMPIONSHIP WINS: Tipperary 25, Waterford 8, Drawn 1, Walkover 3 (Tipperary).

BABS KEATING'S CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD: 1987-94: Played 26; Played 17; Drew 2; Lost 7.

JUSTIN McCARTHY'S CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD: 2002-2005: Played 16, Won 8, Drew 1, Lost 7.