Improved Kilkenny trumps wiser Tipperary

GAELIC GAMES:ON THE threshold of history it appears almost pedantic to start agonising over the nuts and bolts of the occasion. Nonetheless part of the appeal of tomorrow's GAA All-Ireland hurling final is the anticipation surrounding the match, largely based on the storming contest that the teams brewed up 12 months ago.

It is probably surprising in the light of all that has happened since, from divergences in form to the most protracted All-Ireland injury saga of recent times, that the teams enter this year’s final with their respective ratings almost unaltered from last year.

Kilkenny are again 2 to 5 whereas there has been virtually no budge in Tipp’s outsider status, available at 5 to 2 in 2009 and now at variously 9 to 4 or 12 to 5.

This reflects the weighted assessments of tomorrow’s range of possibility: an improved Kilkenny to cope with their injury problems and push on towards an historic fifth successive All-Ireland and conversely a gifted young Tipperary team wiser from experience signalling a changed order in hurling.

Pay your money and take your chances.

The case for Kilkenny is easier to argue. Their defence is distinctly improved compared to last year. There may have been if not reservations, then at least curiosity about the sort of form in which Noel Hickey might return at full back but he has been solid and immensely beneficial, allowing JJ Delaney out to his best position and giving the champions the two best wing backs in the game.

Regardless of how the centre back situation evolves, it will be hard for Tipp to gain much of a foothold here. Patrick Maher is young, energetic and physical but Niall McCarthy had been Cork’s best forward of the championship and he could hardly impact on Tommy Walsh so it’s a tall order for a rookie in his first final.

Gearóid Ryan looked to have arrived at senior level with his display against Galway but struggled to replicate that in the semi-final. JJ Delaney’s not the marker you’d immediately wish for if trying to bounce back.

Assuming Noel McGrath goes to centre forward his mobility and skill is going to be an issue for John Tennyson but either way, it’s unlikely that he’ll find the harvest as bountiful as he did when playing off a centre back saddled with the tactical responsibility of sitting in front of his full backs, as Brick Walsh was.

Eoin Kelly had a phenomenal match last year but hasn’t enjoyed the smoothest of seasons to date. Pace was never his strong point but in the quarter-final against Galway when he was back to near his best he was nearly hooked by Donal Barry – despite being given a nice bit of space by Patrick Maher – before his dynamite finish.

Although his final tally against Waterford was a respectable 2-3 – including a gem of a goal – back injury undermined his free-taking and may inhibit him again tomorrow. Neither Jackie Tyrrell nor Noel Hickey is likely to yield much to a less than fully-fit forward no matter how good.

Tipp need Lar Corbett to initiate the kinetic patterns that so disorientated Kilkenny last year and at the same time hope to get him on the end of some chances closer in.

But there have been nights at training in Nowlan Park when the Kilkenny forwards can’t score off their defence so, even more than last year, scoring chances and scores will be hard-earned.

Prospects in the back nine are probably less fraught but not by much. Shane McGrath and Brendan Maher are in good form but are up against not just two phenomenal centrefielders but potentially three with Michael Rice, the best in 2009, having to start on the bench.

The importance of Shefflin can’t however be overstated. His ice-cold temperament standing over placed balls is a given, an apparently infinite resource of reassurance to his teams especially when they’re under pressure. Richie Power threatens the same potency but confirmation of its realisation can’t be confirmed until he’s actually called on to perform in these high-stakes circumstances.

What can’t be as easily reproduced is the sheer force of personality on the field, the constant exhortations, commendation for effort, rebuke for poor decision making that are as much part of his natural game as the prodigious striking and calculation in orchestrating the attack.

Balancing that is the rising form of the rest of the forwards. Eoin Larkin started this season more weakly but is finishing in better form than 12 months ago when he had a good final and Aidan Fogarty will hardly be as quiet this year.

Whereas Liam Sheedy and the whole county are banking on not just the ability to recapture the form of last year’s final – a performance that the team gave only on that one occasion – but an improvement to match the champions there must be a concern than any readjustment of relativities will work the other way.

Kilkenny have been burying teams this season in a manner they didn’t in 2009. It can be reasonably argued that none of the teams they dismissed played as well as they did last year – Dublin and Galway – and Cork were on their last legs in the semi-final but the evidence to date places Tipp closer to the rest of the field than to the champions.

This is not like Kerry a month ago – a great team now in need of overhaul and missing key players. Kilkenny are remorselessly regenerating. Tipp have tweaked three changes on last year’s final team but it is Brian Cody who has made the greater number of unforced changes.

The build-up to the All-Ireland has been more of a circus than Kilkenny are used to in late August and there has been far greater uncertainty than any manager would want but between the fortress of a defence and a well of forward talent the champions can overcome whatever adversity fortune – and Tipp – can throw at them.

Substitutes

KILKENNY: David Herity, Michael Kavanagh, James Ryall, Michael Rice, Derek Lyng, Martin Comerford, Richie Hogan; Paddy Hogan, Canice Hickey, Damien Fogarty, Seán Cummins, John Mulhall, Michael Grace, Eoin Guinan, Richie O’Neill, Pat Hartley, Niall Walsh, Brian Hogan, PJ Delaney.

TIPPERARY: Darren Gleeson, P Burke, Jody Brennan, Séamus Callanan, Benny Dunne, Darragh Egan, Paddy Fanning, Timmy Hammersley, Michael Heffernan, Shane Maher, Hugh Maloney, Conor O’Brien, Brian O’Meara, David Young.