cc @balbec
Cheers pal I’ll read that later. Just going out for a spin now.
What did he say about it?
He said it was hard to believe
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GAA
Kilkenny will be determined to control the chaos
Tipperary must withstand the huge physical challenge today
Denis Walsh
August 18 2019, 12:01am, The Sunday Times
Tough to contain: Seamus Callanan will be vital for TipperaryMATT BROWNE
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Even though they will sit the honours paper today it feels as if they have been shown all the questions already. Kilkenny and Tipperary have played seven championship matches each since the middle of May so there ought to be no mysteries left. Every match tape has been sent to the lab, every pattern and preference has been exposed. The standard of punditry from former players and managers has reached such a heightened level now that common knowledge is a far more enlightened place.
In that case where are the angles? A few weeks after Kilkenny were eliminated from last year’s championship Richie Hogan made an interesting observation. “It’s nearly the more ignorant teams that are winning,” he said. “The team that sticks to their own plan and are more forceful with their own plan.”
Throughout the Brian Cody era Kilkenny’s plans have been an imposition on allcomers. Set aside their brilliance and their Hall of Fame players Kilkenny have been war-mongers above all else. “Hurling is a bullying game,” Cody has told his players many times over the years. “Bully or be bullied.”
In the semi-final they marched into battle behind that code. With their athleticism and monstrous tackle counts Limerick had overpowered most of their opponents over the previous 15 months but Kilkenny had no other theatre of combat in mind: they trusted completely in their ability to disrupt and destroy.
They will bring the same conviction to Croke Park today. From Jackie Tyrell’s autobiography it is absolutely clear that Kilkenny regarded this generation of Tipperary players as flaky. Savage aggression is not a strategy but it is an enabling mindset. Kilkenny will hunt and hit and descend in packs on the player in possession. Every turnover or spoiled shot will be like a dose of amphetamine. Nobody controls chaos like Kilkenny.
For Tipperary, that creates a challenge. They must engage in the fight but they have no desire to get bogged down in the trenches. Given Limerick’s embedded style they had no choice; Tipp have other ways and means. The semi-finals were a study in contrasts: Tipp’s game against Wexford was all about pace and fluidity. “You talk about physicality,” said Michael Duignan in the RTE commentary. “It’s too fast to be physical.”
In their first home league game this year, on a brisk Saturday night in Thurles, Liam Sheedy’s most animated response on the sideline came when three or four of his forwards terrorised a Clare ball-carrier; ultimately it was a free to Clare but he swung his clenched fists and roared his approval. Sheedy’s Tipperary team was never going to lack for fire but it was never going to be defined by it either: most of their players want to play ball.
For Tipperary to win today will require a degree of escapology: they will need to reduce the time that the ball spends in rucks and other crowd scenes and they will need the play to be as stretched as possible, against Kilkenny’s wishes. None of that is easy when your arms are buckled up in a strait jacket.
Cody blamed the Kilkenny forwards for the thrashing they took from Tipperary in the 2016 final: too many clearances were uncontaminated and the Kilkenny defence was helplessly exposed. In this year’s semi-final Kilkenny’s all-court defending seemed to be back to the levels of Cody’s peak years and yet Limerick engineered 35 shots at the target. Limerick’s shot selection and inaccuracy from distance was hugely destructive but their roster of outside shooters is inferior to Tipp’s. If they’re allowed 35 shots at the Kilkenny goal today they will win.
For their part Kilkenny’s productivity has improved markedly; in three games against Galway last summer they averaged less than 15 points; in the whole championship they broke the 20-point barrier in just three games; this summer the only game in which they failed to break that barrier was the final round-robin game against Wexford. Adrian Mullen has been terrific as the sorcerer’s apprentice, Colin Fennelly is having his best championship in years, Walter Walsh has come good, Richie Hogan might yet.
Tipp don’t have a simple solution for Fennelly on the edge of the square and they don’t have a viable alternative to Brendan Maher if he can’t handle TJ Reid; Ronan Maher failed in that role in the 2017 League final. They don’t want Padraic Maher at number three and they won’t want him coupled with Walter Walsh either.
Neither defence is bombproof. Huw Lawlor is a fine young player whose performance against Aaron Gillane was overstated: Gillane scored three points from play, was fouled for another 1-2 and committed three unfathomable wides that had nothing to do with direct pressure from his opponent. Can he manage Seamus Callanan?
Tipp will need their forwards to stand up to hardship and claustrophobic marking and make do with an imperfect service. It is a leap of faith we’re happy to take.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
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Enjoy kid. I still have to collect that Supermacs
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Advantage Tipp
Would imagine at this point most of the KK Crowd will leave after the Minor match.
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Ah that’s desperate in all fairness. What odds his replacement be MOTM?
Tipp by 10
Doesn’t matter, we’ve plenty more like him, we’ll end these fuckers today…war
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Callinan injured, won’t be starting. Bubbles a serious doubt too.
Mullen being disciplined for having a Coca Cola last night. Starts on the bench.
Revised prediction
chipp by 10
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Verney mugged off spectacularly here…
Mullen had a stomach bug & was barred from last team meeting.
Verney sold some pup here 
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Mullen will start. Paul Murphy might not
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Unreal, he had him in hospital fighting for his life