KILLINAN END - How do you measure progress?

If you accept the view that the League semi-finals were a legitimate test of progress, then it is reasonable to question what precisely that measure might be. What exactly represents progress for the teams?

For Limerick, you could argue, progress is nearly impossible, but they will be delighted with the input of new players, the spring arrival of Aaron Gillane and the ability to burn off the opposition without having to unleash hell and high water for a full hour. They can rest assured that there is plenty in the tank for days ahead.

For Tipp, progress was never about beating Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds. Notwithstanding that it was a knockout game with all on the line for that competition at least, it was an opportunity to see how the team would survive if the heat was turned up. For Tipp, their All-Ireland final will be held in Ennis on 23rd April. Lose that and they are pushing a rather large rock up quite a steep hill. That game and a home game against Waterford remain the target games, with the away game in Cork one that might too come into view as time elapses. Did we see anything on Saturday evening to suggest that there has been progress in that direction?

There is a strong argument that we most certainly did. That engine-room of the modern game – the middle third – saw an intensity that was in a different realm to anything so far in the National League. The time on the ball was limited to a minimum, and the physical exchanges saw little held back. For a considerable period of time Tipp held up well and for many newer players the experience will have opened eyes as well as hardened attitudes. Even in the end when Limerick hit the turbo button Tipp avoided complete demolition. For a team that is a work in progress it was a commendable performance. When you consider how Cork, All-Ireland finalists just two years ago, might have withered on the vine in that third quarter, Tipp showed plenty to recommend them.

Yes, it is easy to criticise the full-forward line, but possession was scant and of poor quality in the second-half. At the other end, the goal conceded will not feature on any nostalgic reel of great full-back play, and the broad spread of scorers from Limerick was a chilling reminder of relative standards. But it is the difference in the current capacity of the teams that recommends the performance. At full throttle – and we saw but fleeting glimpses of it – Limerick are indeed a sight to behold. But as they head towards four-in-a-row they need to be just that. Tipp’s current needs, as distinct from those of two years’ time, are another matter. For Limerick success will be winning the All-Ireland. For Tipp it will be getting out of Munster and taking it from there. In that context we remain between the ditches and learned more in defeat that we would have in victory.

You would wonder where Cork’s heads are at after their experience in the other semi-final. No less than ourselves, they have injuries and new faces but this was a game where at the very least they had to test themselves. In conversation with Shane Stapleton last week, John Meyler said it was “vital” that Cork won as “Kilkenny were not exactly flying on all cylinders”. All the more so, he added, because Cork were idle on the first day out in Munster and would be without a game for a period. If that was the view within the Cork camp it was not borne out by the performance.

Many of the same old problems were in evidence and it is not clear that they can divest themselves of the ‘tippy-tappy’ tag that haunts them. As a measure of their readiness for championship it will concern Cork bearing in mind that for them progress must now be measured at the business end of the championship. They were praised for displays against Limerick and Galway in the earlier League but that was with a much lower bar. The Kilkenny challenge was always going to stress-test illusions of progress. Cork’s manager is shiny and new, but the manner of the outcome was numbingly familiar.

There is a theory that on foot of a long-awaited Minor All-Ireland coupled with a few Under-20s – not inconsiderable achievements in themselves – Cork will inevitably enter the winners’ enclosure in the next few years. Former player Stephen McDonald seemed convinced in a recent interview that this was inevitable. Who knows? Few predicted the ultimate height of Limerick’s rising tide back in 2016.

But optimistic views of the Rebel County based on these successes ignores that other counties have young talent too. The rest of the world has not stopped spinning and turned simply red. Traditional belief, maybe originating with Jim Barry, famously suggests that Cork can come from nowhere and tear up trees. In 1990, they were abject in a League semi-final replay in Nowlan Park scoring just 0-6 against Wexford, yet scored four goals in the second-half of the All-Ireland Final less than five months later. Different times these days. In a thick and heavy Munster championship with little adjustment time it's hard to imagine a repeat.