Emmet Moloney writes for the 'The Irish Farmers Journal' and is a former sports columnist with 'The Kerryman'.

The greatest team of all time? Today’s Kilkenny side are deservedly receiving lots of praise. Are they beatable? Of course they are. And Tipp are the team to do it, writes Emmet Moloney...

Attitude is the first thing you look for in a great team. The Cats have had it for years now. It manifests itself in many different ways. Work-rate, discipline and commitment – those are the traits that epitomise attitude. Skill, strength and fitness are there thanks to physical preparation, but attitude is between the ears. And that’s where greatness is created.

We can’t fault Waterford for their attitude last Sunday. It was their best performance in three years of hurling but it still wasn’t enough. It probably would have beaten any other team in the country, but you need the breaks and the Déise couldn’t take them. They exit the championship with their heads held high – and rightly so. Gone was the messing and in was the full-blooded hurling we know they have in them. What a pity that the only ball that landed on top of Dan Shanahan came off a post. He still managed to catch it!

Sunday was the true worth of Waterford. How close did they come? Damn close, but only Brian Cody can tell you just how tight it was. A hell of a lot closer than Dublin or Galway – that’s for sure. Sunday was for keeps and Kilkenny just kept it.

And now the baton is passed to Tipperary. They will beat Limerick this Sunday, despite the banana skin laid out in front of them. They have to beat Limerick. The Shannonsiders will bring heart and commitment to the table but it won’t be enough; Tipp will bring class – scoring class. On a bad day, they will still top any total Limerick ring up.

This is why Tipperary are the one team out there who can beat the All-Ireland champions. They have forwards. Killer forwards. They can score goals and they would trouble the best of back lines.
If there is one slight Achilles heel in the champions it is their full-back line. Without Noel Hickey in the number-three jersey they are conceding goals.

The movement of the Tipp forwards is such that it takes a monumental effort to stop them. You must have pacey defense men to cope. They drag backs far from goal and then use the space that creates. Watch the goals they score this Sunday and how they are dispatched. More often than not, the loose man is fed following a solo run from distance.

It’s something kids aren’t taught enough by coaches. Too often we watch minors and under-16s win the ball and look to drive it straight away. Take your four steps, then look to use the ball. Watch the Premier half-forward line. Tipp take their four steps and have their options weighed up by then. If there’s a green flag on, then they will look for it. Seamus Callinan and/or Lar Corbett will be involved and expect Eoin Kelly to be at the end of it.

Work in progress
Writing off Limerick is always a dangerous exercise. But this year they are not even close to the finished product, despite being seventy minutes from an All-Ireland final. The draw has been kind to them but the wind never won a match for anyone, they’ve had to go and win those games and so they did. But they haven’t come up against a side of this quality in this kind of form.

I don’t buy the argument being thrown around that Tipperary always struggle to beat Limerick. Every game is different and this is not the Tipp team that Babs cobbled together a couple of years ago. This is a serious side. A team that fired 3-18 against Clare and 4-14 against Waterford in a Munster final. You cannot see Limerick coming near to that tally.

Liam Sheedy would probably prefer Tipperary to fall into the final and only win by one or two points on Sunday. Any manager would. Usually that is the best way to win a semi-final but I suspect this Tipperary team are a little different. And they appear to play to their own tune most of the time.
Their manager has been put to the pin of his stress levels so far in the championship, yet his team don’t seem to care. After their blatant lessening of the accelerator against Clare, they went and did the exact same against Waterford. This crowd play their own game.

They will want to win in style and let Kilkenny know they are coming. Traditionally the Cats struggle to beat Tipp in finals. Between those two, that’s important.

Attitude wins matches and Tipp’s has been a little complacent in their two championship outings to date. And that was with their big scoring totals. But neither of those was knockout and Sunday is Croke Park. Twelve months ago this very same team fluffed its lines against Waterford in a semi-final. They won’t do that this Sunday.

Playing surface
A word about the pitch in Croke Park. It is not a disgrace. And it was not a disgrace that U2 paid the GAA a badly needed fortune to rent the field. We needed the money, these days of all days. Listening to some bar-stool poets you’d swear the state of the field is the biggest national disaster since John O’Donoghue headed for Cheltenham.

People need to cop themselves on. There is a fair chance that this year’s All-Ireland senior finals will not be sold out. Left, right and centre the country is slipping into a financial abyss. Now more than ever, the GAA is needed in our towns and rural communities. As usual, it will have to protect itself as it has done for 125 years. So we have to take every chance when it presents itself.

In 18 months, the white elephant on Lansdowne Road will be open and there’ll be another GAA revenue stream closed off. God only knows what is ahead of us between now and then. Make hay while the sun shines is the best policy and that means rent the field.

Get over it.

To catch Emmet's latest column, get 'The Irish Farmers' Journal' every Thursday...