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

As rivalries go, this All-Ireland hurling final is as deep as it gets. Tipp think they were robbed last year, and the Cats were quite put out at the suggestion that they weren’t the best team, writes  Emmet Moloney...

The hurling year is nearly over, and we are left with the same two teams that finished as number one and two last year. No surprise there, even if it has taken Tipp on a more circuitous route this summer. Writers of their obituary back in May, take note: form is temporary.

As invincible as Kilkenny have looked this year (possibly as a consequence of their close call last year), we still feel they are vulnerable when certain considerations are factored in. That means Henry and Tommy. Brian Cody has never gone in for mind games. He is a straight man who doesn’t believe in talking nonsense, just ask Marty Morrissey! So don’t expect Henry Shefflin to be written out of the equation and then to be unveiled at the throw-in wearing number 11. If the Cats say they are giving Henry every chance to play, then that’s what they’re at.

If it is announced some time before then that Henry is out, it would be most un-Codylike if that wasn’t the case. The same applies for Tommy Walsh. Kilkenny don’t do dummy teams.
Henry’s diagnosis – if it is, as we have heard, a tear in his cruciate ligament – is not good. In fact, it should mean he is out till about Paddy’s Day at the earliest. It would take a miracle and possibly the risk of permanent damage for him to play. Unlikely.

By Monday night, the Kilkenny County Board was issuing bulletins about Tommy Walsh’s shoulder. No wonder it is injured, the man has been carrying teams on it for years now! Walsh, unlike Shefflin, will probably play, as this ailment can be dealt with in short order.
Of all the 20 or so players Kilkenny need to win the five in a row, these two are the most crucial. Sit a Tipp man down and tell him he could take any two starters out of the Cats line-up and these are the two he would come up with. As if the contest needed any more drama.
Waterford have played their part this year, but the lack of ambition in their game plan is a long way from paying off.

The Déise’s style this summer worked against Cork and garnered a not to be sniffed at Munster title, but Tipp are miles ahead of the Rebels up front. Davy Fitz’s tactics are the standard blueprint for football teams: get men behind the ball and stifle opponents. It relies on getting your noses in front and staying there. It relies on backs’ ability to hit long, accurate balls to isolated and outnumbered forwards. In Gaelic football it is the norm because it works. You dispossess and outmuscle opposing forwards, and then you work the ball slowly, via the hand pass, up the field. By the time you have made three or four passes, those that originally funnelled back are now dashing forward. In today’s game, they are called “the runners”, and your men are ordered to hit them with the ball. And quickly too, before the other side have all their men back. It’s a form of stalemate that is common and frustrating to watch. It will form the backbone of the Cork versus Dublin game in Croke Park this Sunday. The bigger, stronger and faster you are, the better.

Of course, in hurling it is somewhat flawed, as the ball just moves too quickly. Having eight or nine backs against six forwards is fine when the ball drops in your half. Inevitably, you have one forward contesting in the air, with one back whose job is simply to stop him winning it cleanly, as he knows there is a spare back to clean up that break. But the spare back isn’t starting a hand passing movement that could take 10 passes to make 50 yards; no, he is driving it as far as he can as quick as he can.

Sitting in Croke Park last Sunday, you could feel for John Mullane. Tipp attacked and were broken down, Waterford’s spare man swept up and drove it Mullane’s way. By the time the sliotar started dropping, Mullane had about three Tipp men just waiting to tackle/pounce. They too were spare, thanks to the Déise’s citing of midfielders and half forwards on defensive duty. These guys were supposed to be bypassed by long clearances, but that’s much easier written down than done. It took Waterford almost 68 minutes to generate a proper goal chance. It didn’t work. Tipp have too much class up front. Noel McGrath, John O’Brien, Eoin Kelly and the ruthless Lar Corbett are too cute in that kind of form.

Tactics in hurling are not something for the purist, who prefers to believe that all dressing room advice should be to “go out lads and just hurl”. Those who say Brian Cody or Liam Sheedy have no use for tactics should get their heads out of the sand. Anything that gives a team an edge will be contemplated by a manager. Davy Fitz isn’t the first and won’t be the last to try and change the way his team play. Cork’s short game, for example, played right into his hands, but he will learn from this and put it to good use down the road.

Cody and Sheedy will say all the right things over the next few weeks, and they will probably mean most of it. Of course they want to win, and of course nothing will be taken for granted. Get used to hearing those clichés, as the two are forced to answer the most asinine of questions.

Here is the truth, though. As rivalries go, this is as deep as it gets. They won’t harp on it publicly, but Tipp think they were better than Kilkenny last year but were robbed of an All-Ireland. This is the game they want, to settle some family business. The Cats, on the other hand, have won four All-Irelands in a row and think the best team won last year. They think that tends to happen each year. They were quite a bit put out at the suggestion that last year they weren’t the best team, that Tipp somehow threw Liam McCarthy at them, that they were “lucky”.

More family business to take care of. I can’t wait.

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