All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final: Kilkenny v Tipperary (tomorrow, 3.30pm, Croke Park, live on RTE1 & Sky Sports 3)
BOY does that September Sunday six years ago feel like a long time ago - Lar Corbett rippling the Kilkenny net three times to kill the Cats’ drive for five, leaving Liam Sheedy’s heroes on top of the world.
With an All-Ireland U21 title added just a week later, Tipp were looking into the decade ahead with domination their destiny. The king is dead, long live the king.
The reality has been somewhat different. Of their six Championship meetings since, Tipp’s best result has been a draw in the 2014 All-Ireland final – and even then that was just postponing the pain as Kilkenny won the replay three weeks later.
Since 2010 we’ve had the bizarre sight of Corbett, Benny Hill-style, chasing Tommy Walsh around Croke Park, ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer’s narrow miss in the dying seconds of that drawn decider, and three different men wearing the Tipp bainisteoir’s bib.
A host of star names from both counties, men at the forefront of the battles that raged around the turn of the decade, have exited stage left. New blood has taken up the call to arms and gone to war.
The oldest rivalry in hurling has changed and evolved but two crucial factors have remained the same; Brian Cody is still calling the shots in Kilkenny, and the Cats just keep on winning.
Tomorrow’s final will be the fifth time in eight years these two have battled it out for the Liam MacCarthy Cup, and the slower-than-usual uptake of tickets suggests some fatigue amongst fans of these most familiar of foes.
A degree of war-weariness is understandable, but it is hard to escape that immortal line from the movie Gladiator - “are you not entertained?” – when considering any pre-match apathy. Every time Kilkenny and Tipperary meet, whether it is League or Championship, the result tends to be explosive.
Even if the quality doesn’t always shine through, the intensity, the ill-feeling, the bone-shaking hits always make it a contest worth watching. So should we expect any different tomorrow?
In terms of the kind of score for score action witnessed in their first final encounter two years ago, a repeat seems unlikely. Even for Kilkenny and Tipperary, that was something special.
Cody’s reaction to watching that game from the sidelines was to make sure it didn’t happen again, dropping his wing-forwards and midfielders very deep in the replay to stop the supply into the deadly Tipp inside line.
As has so often been the case, the Cats boss got his match-ups spot on when it mattered. They made it a dog fight, and when it comes down to who wants it more, Kilkenny are seldom found wanting.
Part of Eamon O’Shea’s backroom team that day, Michael Ryan watched on while another attempt at glory fell by the wayside.
Last year they were beaten by Galway in the last four. O’Shea’s reign ended in tears, his attempts to wrest control away from the Nore ending in failure. Something had to change.
In came Ryan, and in his first year in charge he has gone for a more physical, direct approach. More has been demanded from their decorated forward line, more graft right across the field.
They might not be trying to beat Kilkenny at their own game, but the Premier men have certainly added some of their attributes.
As a result, tomorrow’s game is unlikely to have the explosive, scoreboard-troubling opening 20 minutes of past encounters when the roar of the crowd was enough to send the adrenaline of 30 men into overdrive.
Tipp won’t want to let Kilkenny build any kind of lead, while the Cats will want to gradually grind down their opponents before finishing them off with that oh-so-familiar second half onslaught.
On paper, the Premier men look to carry the greater goal threat and they will need to realise that if they are to break Kilkenny’s stranglehold on the top prize. Tipp have rattled the back of the net 10 times in their four games so far, while Kilkenny have managed only half of that tally.
At the other end though, despite concerns about the Cats’ full-back line, they have been water-tight, shipping just those two goals in their semi-final replay win over the Deise. That said, they have yet to come up against an inside forward line with the potency Tipperary possess.
A crucial factor in their defensive effort could be the absence of midfielder Michael Fennelly. The influence of the Ballyhale colossus cannot be quantified in any kind of statistical analysis, the protection he provides the Kilkenny full-back line more akin to an invisible safety net.
With the likes of Cillian Buckley and Padraig Walsh providing a screen, it is up to Ryan and Tipperary to find a way to draw those men out and leave their deadly forwards one on one with the Kilkenny backs.
If they find a way to do that, the likes of Seamus Callanan, John O’Brien and John O’Dwyer can inflict serious damage.
On the flip side of that, Cody will also have had a good look at how Tipp have been shaping up this year. He is the master when it comes to taking away another team’s strengths and punishing their weaknesses.
Callanan, like Lar Corbett before him, will find himself well shackled. The Tipp forwards’ main supply line this year has been Padraic Maher, superb against the Tribe last day out, wing-back Seamus Kennedy and the rampaging Michael Burke in midfield.
Walter Walsh has the physical attributes to tackle Maher, TJ Reid could be detailed to look after rookie Kennedy, while Conor Fogarty may be tasked with curbing the influence of the impressive Burke.
As always the potential for an engrossing, energy-sapping encounter looms large. The fact that, for the first time since 2011 both teams contesting an All-Ireland final come in unbeaten, adds an extra layer of intrigue.
Yet, despite the settled look of this Tipperary team, the enormous talent within their ranks, it is hard to shake the feeling that Kilkenny will just have that edge – both physical and psychological – when the game is in the melting pot. The Cats by two.
