Liam Sheedy: 'Maybe Liam will make sure they see that Cork fella with the champions tattoo'

Performance science is not exact. On one hand, the management might be drawing on a bit of outside noise for motivation, but they'll also want a collective disconnect from the outside. 

EMBRACE THE CHAOS: Ronan Maher of Tipperary in action against Darragh Fitzgibbon of Cork during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1A final match between Tipperary and Cork at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

While we’ve all been talking and debating and throwing out theories over the last fortnight, wouldn’t you have loved to be lurking somewhere on the training field with Pat or Liam and their groups? In the old days, we could have rocked up to watch training with the diehard supporters. But times have changed. A lot of plotting and analysis has been done in private since this final pairing was known.

Most of the last two weeks will have been about fine-tuning your own performance. And a lot of that work will have focussed on the shoulders up. No hopping off bags or running miles. You can’t make much gains physically or even with your skills. But you can get heads right. If you’re not fully mentally prepared for Sunday, you won’t get to use your toolbox of skills.