Tipperary to edge battle of Munster

ALL-IRELAND SHC SEMI-FINAL Waterford v Tipperary:ALTHOUGH THE shadow of Kilkenny envelops tomorrow's second GAA All-Ireland semi-final, the familiar meeting (fourth time in as many championships) of these counties is as intriguing and hard to call as last week's semi-final was wholly predictable.

All-Munster semi-finals at this stage of the championship have been commonplace in the past 13 years, and oddly, the provincial champions have lost these matches more often than not.

The thumbnail version of this match is it will be decided by how much farther down the road Tipperary are after a difficult summer spent trying to retrieve the form that brought them so close to upsetting Kilkenny in last year’s final.

Waterford are seen as a constant: hard to beat and set up to frustrate the opposition. With a defence performing at pretty close to full function and a less formidable attack, but all around the clanking of heavy industry, the Munster champions are likely to beat most of what Tipp have provided this season.

Quite where Tipperary’s massive favouritism originates is hard to discern but the general view appears to be they will kick on from the epic win over Galway and do enough to get a second crack at Kilkenny in next month’s final.

This also assumes Waterford will not improve, although they actually have over their championship matches to date.

Although manager David Fitzgerald continues to treat team announcements with all the transparency of the Third Secret of Fatima, there is speculation that measures will be taken to strengthen the attack, with both or either the teenage Brian O’Halloran and veteran Ken McGrath said to be showing well in training.

As things stand, the principal task facing Tipperary will be quelling the threat of John Mullane, whose switch to full forward has worked very well for the player although, as has been noted in the county, it also takes Shane Walsh away from the position that most suits his serendipitous talent for picking up goals.

Improving the Waterford attack will be facilitated by the ill-fitting nature of the Tipperary defence.

Although the calamities of Páirc Uí­ Chaoimh have been analysed away like a bad dream, Pádraic Maher still wakes up these days as a wing back rather than in the number three jersey where he won last year’s All Star.

The consequent reshuffling has left the back-six less formidable than last year and Maher himself looking uncomfortable at certain times.

Maybe Liam Sheedy believes it’s too late to start disrupting things again but if Cork is the yardstick, Paul Curran hadn’t any notably better fortune when he moved to full back that day and perhaps Maher should have been given another chance to reclaim his form in the position.

The point about Tipperary’s potential is they have options if they come under pressure from Mullane and whatever other combination of forwards Waterford deploy.

It is at the other end of the field the match is most likely to be decided. Waterford’s defence has benefited from the exceptional individual performances of Eoin Murphy, Noel Connors and Michael Walsh and already the talk is of how Tipp plan to configure their front six.

John O’Brien is rumoured to be a likely starter at full forward, which given his fate two years ago on Tony Browne, would make sense, with Noel McGrath switching to centre forward to contest the ball with Walsh and to try and disrupt his opponent’s influence.

The lack of certainty in Tipperary’s ranks is also evident at centrefield, where last year, there was a settled pairing but this summer the sector has reflected the turmoil caused by having to travel the qualifier route, although Shane McGrath’s restoration there was an important turning point in the Galway match and beside him, Brendan Maher has been playing very well.

They will still have their work cut out against Richie Foley and Shane O’Sullivan, who have been an unheralded success in the middle for Waterford, emulating the performance levels of the defence for diligence and ball winning.

Tipperary’s firepower is the more impressive of the two sides and if they are unlikely to quarry 3-17 out of Waterford’s defence, they are equally unlikely to need quite that much, and in Eoin Kelly, Lar Corbett and Gearóid Ryan they have a range of sources from which to score.

The outcome is finely balanced but between their room for improvement, undoubted quality and the sheer will to survive, so noticeable in the quarter-final victory over Galway, Tipperary can turn the tables on their opponents and reach an All-Ireland final through the qualifiers.