Kilkenny v Tipperary. Croke Park, Sunday, 3.30pm. RTÉ 2, Sky
Finals are always a clash of competing narratives. For want of better imaginations, we mostly frame them in verses of versus. Find a counterpoint and mine it to a husk.
The mistake we make on the outside looking in, though, is that we too often pin the wrong storyline on the wrong team. It certainly feels like there’s a bit of that with this one.
Kilkenny gonna Kilkenny. That sum it up about right? Blather away all ye like, lads. Let the tallymen declare it too close to call. In the end, the returning officer will give the same result as always and the dreary version of The Rose of Mooncoin they have on tap in Croke Park will bring the mood down in seconds flat.
Arriving off the back of two full-body X-rays against Waterford at the semi-final stage, it would appear for all the world as if Kilkenny have had their wobble and now they will do what they do best: perform on the one day of the year when performance is paramount.
They have one player playing in his first All-Ireland final, Tipperary have five. You know what you’re going to get from Brian Cody’s side.
Savage intensity
Do you, though? Yes, their fidelity to the first principles of work and composure and Cody’s beloved savage intensity are awesome at times.
However, nobody who has been to Kilkenny's games this summer can say they have been dazzled by the quality on show. Richie Hogan is the 7/4 favourite for Hurler of the Year, while every other Kilkenny player is available at 25/1 or bigger.
The flashes from TJ Reid and Colin Fennelly, Walter Walsh and Eoin Larkin have only arrived in the nick of time in some instances. And while the fact that they have done it before should offer a certain confidence that they will again, it's not the money in the bank that it once was.
Without Michael Fennelly to do their fetching and carrying for them, who can say what funds are available anyway?
If Kilkenny pull this off, it won’t be the same old story. It will be a remarkable All-Ireland and a brilliant three-in-a-row. Oddly, and for once, they will have legitimate cause to grouse afterwards about being written off: functional beyond belief, and all that.
Kilkenny gonna Kilkenny? It’s no sure thing.
Tipperary have to get out from under their spell at some point. It’s all very well being part of a rivalry but occasionally it helps if you win a game or two. Mick Ryan will be the eighth Tipp manager to share a sideline with Cody, but only Liam Sheedy can say he beat him in the championship.
Ryan’s reconstruction of the Tipperary team in his short time in charge has been radical in one sense. The level of player turnover has been redolent of a team in crisis rather than one who missed an All-Ireland final by a puck of a ball last year and Liam MacCarthy by the width of a post the year before. Changing a third of the team in a finger snap is usually a panic move.
But Ryan has a simple endeavour in mind: he has built a team that can face up to Kilkenny. The All-Ireland final replay between them in 2014 was a chastening experience because Kilkenny were able to ramp everything up to the point at which Tipp’s eyes popped. Ryan’s guiding principle has been to stop that happening again.
That's why Dan McCormack is playing, it's why Michael Breen is playing, it's what Seamus Kennedy was spirited away from the footballers for. They didn't always do the right thing against Galway but they never took a backward step either. It's not in them.
Marginal edge
And so to tomorrow, a game that can only be physical and frantic because that’s what both sides have decided will beat the other. Both full back lines will be tested in the air: Kilkenny’s because of what Clare did to them in the league semi-final back in April, Tipperary’s because Fennelly and Walsh have a couple of inches to spare over whoever will be against them. You would have to imagine a clean sheet will win an All Star for the goalie who keeps it.
Tipp probably have a marginal edge in snap-shooters: Noel McGrath and John O’Dwyer are exceptional when it comes to nailing shots in tight areas. But nobody finds space better than Hogan, and Liam Blanchfield could be the traditional Kilkenny springer. Reid and Séamus Callanan both face a day when they know any miss will count double, given the other’s reliability. In the end, it will likely come down to which side can take the best aim when the game loosens out.
To take a pick, we’ll go with Tipperary. In the past, performing to type would have meant a sparkling day’s hurling but ultimate disappointment at the hands of a more ravenous, more ruthless Kilkenny team. But that’s not the Tipperary Ryan has constructed for 2016.
Tipp gonna Tipp, then. But in a good way.
