Tipp have the mentality to breach Kilkenny fortress

The ultimate challenge faces the Tipperary minor hurlers in this Saturday’s All-Ireland Final against Kilkenny.

GAA: Electric Ireland All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship Final

By Shane Brophy

TIPPERARY v KILKENNY

UPMC Nowlan Park, Kilkenny

Saturday, 29th June

Throw-in @ 5.30pm

Referee: Thomas Gleeson (Dublin)

Whatever the rights and wrongs of playing an All-Ireland Final in the home ground of your opponents, Nowlan Park is the venue, and while the task ahead of Tipperary will be significant, the reward in terms of winning would mark this down as one of county’s best All-Ireland wins, in any grade, if it were to happen.

It has similar qualities to the 2022 final at the same venue which felt like a home game for Offaly in the 21,000 crowd and while the attendance this Saturday will be nowhere near that, from previous experiences in league finals and championship, Kilkenny take great pride in making sure Nowlan Park is as intimidating as they come.

However, Tipperary’s experience of emerging with away wins over Limerick and Waterford in the group stage of the Munster Championship cannot be understated so the players should be well prepared of how to handle it.

This Tipperary team has answered every challenge asked of them so far in the championship since it began in early April with a 1-19 to 2-12 win over Cork. A week later they had to withstand a second half rally from Waterford to emerge five point winners at Fraher Field.

Their only bump on the road was the 4-11 to 0-19 point loss to Clare in their third game at Semple Stadium when the concession of the goals was key but they have shown their ability to learn from mistakes by producing three clean-sheets in their subsequent games.

The Tipperary management also showed they aren’t afraid to make changes as they changed goalkeeper with Daire English replacing Evan Sherlock who started the first three games between the posts while captain Cathal O’Reilly moved from corner to full-back, and based on the clean-sheets, they have worked.

The Tipp skipper will likely be tasked with picking up Kilkenny’s star forward Jake Mullin, brother of Adrian, who top scored with thirteen points in their extra time semi-final win over Clare. Ryan’s, Shane & Patrick, have been excellent in the new look full-back line.

The final group game against an already eliminated Limerick wasn’t easy on the eye but they found a way to win, setting up a Munster final rematch with Clare. Coming in with a point to prove following the defeat to the Banner set Tipperary up well and with the game in the melting pot with fifteen minutes to go, they produced the goods with two late goals from Cillian Minogue and Stefan Tobin who have been standouts in the full forward line throughout the campaign.

The duo continued that in the All-Ireland semi-final as Tipperary overcame a 26 day wait between games when the faced a Galway side that was coming in with momentum. Tipp played second fiddle for much of that game, despite having a man advantage for over fifty minutes. However, they still found a way to win and that characteristic of playing to the end, despite not playing well, will stand to them going into this final.

The composure shown in those dying minutes to rattle off three points in a row was impressive with Euan Murray to the fore and he will have to be prominent if Tipp are to win.

In recent games, the Durlas Og youngster has been stationed at wing forward with Eoghan Doughan at centre forward, leaving Minogue and Tobin as a two-man full forward line. Getting Murray on the ball as much as possible will be important and moving him back to a central area should benefit the Tipp attack to a greater extent, plus he matches up well with Kilkenny’s strong centre-back Jack Dollard.

Tipperary don’t tend to overplay the ball too much. Their gameplan is pretty simplistic with long puckouts. Adam Ryan, Darragh O’Hora, and Euan Murray will be key in winning the aerial battles where Kilkenny teams tend to be strong.

Tiarnan Ryan and Billy O’Brien’s workrate in the middle of the field has been notable as they come up against Robbie Doherty and Kevin Buggy.

Tipperary’s half-back line of David Ryan, Owen O’Dwyer and Jake Donelan-Houlihan certainly have the size to match-up against Kilkenny but need to use it with more conviction to stop their opponents from winning possession.

Tipperary’s bench has also been strengthened in recent weeks by the return to fitness of Austin Duff, who came on in extra time against Galway, and Sean Walsh who played in the same venue for Tipperary Blue in the recent Celtic Challenge final.

26 players have seen game time in the championship, including Aaron Cagney and Killian Cantwell, who have made significant contributions off the bench, and having those options could prove vital.

This might be the only chance some of these Tipperary players get to play in an All-Ireland Final so regardless of the venue, they must take the opportunity with both hands and certainly they have the right mentality to overcome the odds to give another shot in the arm for Tipperary hurling.