In times gone by, the month of May was seen as the graveyard month for championship aspirations. A bad draw, and you were capable of being dumped for the year, a decent draw and you might slip into the provincial final unnoticed. It’s a little bit different in the Munster Championship this weekend for Kerry and Tipperary. On face value, Kerry will be expected to win, but if the unlikely happens and they are caught, the world has not come to an end. The big question is, can Tipperary managed by a Kerry spy in John Evans, spring a surprise here?

A door opened for Tipperary in the first round in Munster against Limerick two years ago. Cormac Joyce Power kicked a monster point against the run of play, and Kieran O’Callaghan nailed a 45 to steer Limerick home. Tipperary were exposed badly in midfield that day. Having beaten Down in the Division 3 League final they underestimated the Limerick midfield pairing of John Galvin and Jim Donovan. By the time Kevin Mulryan was brought from the bench to spoil John Galvin, Limerick had an early lead built up. Last year, Tipperary struggled at midfield and were very naïve defensively in terms of not crowding things out. The final scoring tally for Kerry was 2-18, which tells its own story.

Kerry are having their own problems at midfield these days, but none more so than last year. They should have enough to pull through here, but it’s further down the line the questions will be asked. However, their defeat last year to Down indicated a side on the wane. Cork might have folded against the old enemy at headquarters in the past when Kerry might not have beaten others, but now they have won the Sam Maguire. Kerry cannot take beating them at Croke Park for granted anymore. They have shed a lot of marquee names in recent years, and climbed the steps on the first Sunday in September without Seamus Moynihan, Dara O Cinneide etc and a lot of men with medals jangling from their pockets have departed in the past couple of years and haven’t been replaced.

John Evans has ‘previous’ when it comes to beating his native Kerry on home soil, by winning the Munster Under 21 title there in 2010. To have an outside chance they need to break even at midfield, probably through spoiling, defend as a unit with a view to smothering the Kerry forwards, and cutting off the early supply of ball to the Kerry forwards. A lot of teams put bodies behind the ball, but if they aren’t serving any defined purpose, it defeats having them back there. In Barry Grogan Tipp have a freetaker capable of nailing all his frees from the ground. Allowing Kerry to score 2-18 will result in a Kerry victory. However, teams have proved in tricky qualifier games that if the score can be kept down and the game remains a dogfight, the result is not a foregone conclusion.

Kerry being Kerry will always aim to peak later in the year, and therefore now is a time to aim to catch them. Tipperary have been knocking on the door for a couple of years but haven’t come through. Barring an above par structured and defensively organised Tipperary performance, and a below par Kerry performance, one senses that the Kingdom will reign supreme on Sunday evening.