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The strangest hurling league of recent years finishes in Nowlan Park this Sunday and there couldn’t be a more fitting venue for the meeting of Kilkenny and Tipperary in such a final.
The hurling spring has been disrupted and disjointed – spoiled by weather that made fast hurling next to impossible to play, and difficult for spectators to watch such was the inclement nature of the last 10 weeks.
With the dust and snow settled, we are left with the most familiar of final pairings, the Premier and the Cats.
Few would have picked these two to survive the attrition, both having lost their opening ties, Kilkenny losing their first two outings. It was back then the whispers started about the suitability of the greatest manager the game has ever known to actually manage!
When will people learn?
Cody has. Last Sunday in Wexford Park the Black and Amber changed tact, playing it short countless times, even passing back to Eoin Murphy on occasion and often going diagonal to renderWexford’s sweeper obsolete.
When Kilkenny had the best team ever assembled the plan was simple, move it on quick and let your team mate win his own ball.
Not any more.
The renowned banisteoir has cut his cloth to measure and in doing so these past few weeks has revealed his evolution as a manager!
Of course that statement is only half in jest. Brian Cody is simply doing what he has always done and that has been to prepare his players to go out and win matches playing to their strengths. He has new ones now but they work the old way.
The win over Wexford was Kilkenny’s biggest for some time. In their pomp the Cats loved to send a message or two for the year ahead during the league. They rarely wasted an opportunity to burst balloons, Tipp and Cork being the usual beneficiaries of the lesson. It should be taken as a mark of respect by Davy Fitzgerald and Wexford that the Cats were as fired up as they were last weekend.
Of course Tipperary can punish sides too when the mood is on them and I strongly believe it will be upon them on Sunday afternoon. They have some thoughts to transmit to the Cats as regards Nowlan Park, rarely a happy hunting ground for them.
In Cody’s time in charge, Kilkenny have never lost to Tipperary in a league final, winning the four finals the pair contested in ‘03, ‘09, ‘13 and ‘14.
They’ve also added added four more titles during Cody’s reign for good measure. Cody has always valued the league title and when set beside their championship record, it isn’t hard to see why. In Kilkenny it is the currency of momentum.
Tipp on the other hand have lost four finals since their last title back in 2008 and need few reminders of the damage that was done 12 months ago when Galway punctured their tyres in Limerick.
Tipp's depth
Remarkably, the last time Tipp beat Kilkenny in a league final was 50 years ago. Such things matter in the heartland of hurling and that will be mentioned in both dressing rooms at some stage this week.
It will be highlighted in the aftermath as well. It should be.
As usual Tipperary have been one of the most impressive sides, mainly because they have reached this final without coming close to starting their best championship side. While they usually have about 10 of their core starters on the field, they’ve played an entire league without Seamus Callinan starting, while, Noel and John McGrath, Bubbles and the Mahers have also been used sparingly.
Jason Forde has seized his chance to make a strong case for championship inclusion, he will look to round that off by getting some change out of Padraig Walsh on Sunday. If he does that he will give Michael Ryan the type of headache managers enjoy.
REID RELIANCE
Brian Cody’s migraines are easing with the recent displays of the likes of Martin Keoghan and Richie Leahy. They look like players that can live with summer intensity and such men are never all that easy to find.
But can Kilkenny prosper if TJ Reid isn’t around? Or if he is being man marked out of a contest? Right now it is hard to see where they could mine a decent scoring total without the Ballyhale genius. He is definitely the best pound for pound hurler in the country and this means the pressure on him to deliver is huge. In every game.
It also means the template for beating the Cats starts with the nullifying of TJ. While easier said than done, it just might be all you have to do. I’d bet good money that Pat Gilroy and Anthony Cunningham are talking of nothing else in their quieter moments. Remember, it is just five weeks from Sunday before Dublin and Kilkenny meet in the Leinster hurling championship.
If that isn’t enough time for Colin Fennelly, Paul Murphy and Richie Hogan to have themselves right for Parnell Park, then the Cats will find Dublin a nuisance.
They’ll get their wake-up this Sunday too. For all the hard work and endeavours of Walter, Ger Aylward and the returning Conor Fogarty, they are just too dependant on Reid. Tipp will see to it that he is quietened.
After Tipp’s loss to Galway and the manner of it last year, they cannot take a step back in Nowlan Park.
Their extra time win over Limerick will, by summer’s end, turn out to be grade one form. In that game they showed the flair and economy that makes them All-Ireland favourites in the eyes of shrewd punters.
Going to the master’s house and ringing his bell holds great appeal for them six weeks out from the Munster championship. They are long overdue a definitive performance on this ground and there is a cup that matters to be given out at the end of 70 proper minutes.
They could win well and have the squad to do so, but that won’t happen. The proud belligerence that will never leave Kilkenny while the master still stalks the line, will keep the margin to respectable levels, but there will be one nonetheless.
Tipp to win. Message to be sent.
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