PADDY STAPLETON - Tipp can't win without bringing the right intensity

 

BACK MAN'S JOB
Paddy Stapleton

 

Intensity. The most generalised term in the hurling dictionary.
You can describe it as competitive spirit. You could say it’s an appetite to work as hard as humanly possible. You might say it is the state of going for every ball as aggressively and as fast as you’re capable of. Whatever it is, we can’t win without it against Kilkenny. Brian Cody has stoked the flames of intensity in the rookie Kilkenny ranks once more and it is up to us to match it. Of course, there are tactical areas to consider in the lead up to this game, but if Tipp fail to at least break even in the work-rate stakes between the two 40-metre lines then we will be in trouble. The encouraging thing for us is that we are suited to playing Kilkenny more than a Wexford or a Limerick in terms of style, but if one player blinks for the 75 minutes then we are dead in the water.
Although Kilkenny showed almost superhuman work-rate against Limerick, I don’t see it being as simple as just imposing that will on the Tipperary lads this Sunday. First of all, Tipp had their own epic battle recently and will relish the chance to show that the steel exhibited against Wexford was not a once-off.
The element of Kilkenny being written off is also absent after being totally talked down against Limerick after being underdogs against Cork in the previous round. There is now an air of expectation from the Kilkenny public and Liam Sheedy will have his troops ready for it. I think that we will need even more of an effort to get over the line than the semi-final, a performance of such grit that we haven’t even seen yet this year, but I’m confident we will do that.
If you were to look at Liam’s first stint in charge, the ‘09 and ‘10 seasons were like steps of stairs in terms of improvement over a season. The higher the level of the game, the better a performance he facilitated. 2009 involved a good Munster Final win, then annihilating Limerick in the semi’s before finally coming up just short against Kilkenny. A year later the team was subdued early in the campaign but showed incremental improvements from the Galway game through to the final against Kilkenny.

 

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