Tipp will trip up trying to settle score
Three years on, that denial still has plenty of currency in the county as exemplified by chairman Sean Nugent’s comments after the Division 1 final when he suggested the victory had sparked a rise in tensions, almost implying it was their neighbours’ fault.
Kilkenny minds won’t need to be reminded of those words this week but then the prospect of Tipperary dried any tears following Saturday’s defeat to Dublin. There’s a job to be done.
It’s an unbearable thought for the Cats that Tipperary might be the team to send them out of the championship at the earliest juncture under Brian Cody or, for that matter, since 1996 when their summer ended in June.
In Tipperary, though, it’s already being interpreted as the chance to bring down the curtain on this Kilkenny team.
As they showed in 2010, Tipperary love nothing better than ending a Kilkenny run, but to suggest this team of Cody’s is finished would be foolhardy.
Yes, the so-so form of key players like Eoin Larkin and Tommy Walsh have affected them almost as Henry Shefflin and Michael Fennelly’s absences this summer.
But who’s to say they won’t rediscover their mojo? And does anyone think Shefflin is going to finish his inter-county career on a sideline? Whether it’s this Saturday or not, Kilkenny will be back.
They do have issues, though. They were bullied in the first half of their win over Offaly, but can anyone expect them to be pushed around on their home patch by their greatest enemy?
Against Dublin, they were out-hurled for large swathes of each game, but such is the intensity of their rivalry with Tipperary that form is relatively irrelevant.
It’s actually Tipperary who have more to lose given the pressure that is now on their shoulders after losing their last two championship games, a pair of displays that have sapped the faith of supporters.
Here they might be presented with a gilt-edged opportunity to beat their foes, but do they have the mental capacity to seize it?
Their attitude was wrong going into the Limerick game where, despite protests to the contrary, they were complacent.
But that’s nothing new for Tipperary. We come back time and time again to a telling quote from Brendan Cummins in 2009 about the flawed psyche in the county.
Before that year’s Munster final, he said: “In Cork and Kilkenny they win one [All-Ireland], January comes and they think, ‘we’re no longer All-Ireland champions’. Not in Tipperary. It’s a culture thing.”
There’s no doubt Kilkenny are a lame animal at the moment. Unlike Dublin, who this weekend play their fifth game in 29 days (the Cats face their fourth in 27 or third in 13), they have been getting progressively worse.
They can still bite, mind, and Tipperary should be mindful of how much they were fancied to beat them in the 2011 final only to be beaten.
Emotions are certain to run high given this is their fifth championship meeting in as many years and the ill feeling that followed May’s Division 1 final.
Lar Corbett’s rib injury in the league final would provide some incentive as well, but keeping cool is mandatory for a team who, should they win in Nowlan Park, would probably face a resurgent Waterford a week later.
It shouldn’t just be about Kilkenny for Tipperary. Twelve months ago, Kerry beat Tyrone for the first time this side of the millennium. For a portion of their supporters that qualifier win was enough sustenance for the season. Yet the team put out by Mickey Harte in Killarney that evening were only a pale shadow of its former self, the great sides of 2003, ’05 and ’08.
Kilkenny aren’t as poor as that Tyrone side and if Tipperary even remotely consider this to be a score-settler they will be found out. If their motivation this Saturday is to drive a nail into the coffin of this Kilkenny team their heads aren’t in the right place.
Because of their replay with Wexford, Dublin didn’t have much time to digest the prospect of facing Kilkenny — a blessing in disguise.
Similarly, a week mightn’t be enough for Tipperary to paralyse themselves with analysing what is required. They’ll never have a better chance to beat the All-Ireland champions, but the question is do they have the wherewithal to cope with that fact?
Those bosom bedfellows familiarity and contempt could be getting intimate once more if yesterday’s All-Ireland second round qualifier draw is anything to go by.
Cavan-Fermanagh and Derry-Down are two fixtures we’ve already seen before this summer. We’ve no problem there but shouldn’t Down have home advantage this time around instead of another journey to Celtic Park?
We’ve no issue with repeat Championship fixtures. With scores to settle and the provincial winners keen to retain their bragging rights, the only concern is good referees are appointed to marshal the two games.
For those who believe there shouldn’t be duplicate clashes, wait until next year when the new “preordained” system of qualifiers mean there will be plenty more of them.
Romance is alive and well in Connacht football and these next three weeks should be embraced for all they are worth by London.
It’s a pity for them that they face a county in Mayo that has exiled romance past their borders and transformed themselves into a juggernaut, at least in the province.
Worst still, the Exiles will likely have just six days after the final for their fourth round qualifier should they, as most of us expect, lose in Castlebar.
But then adversity is no stranger to Paul Coggins and his men after being refused challenge games here and then the logistical nightmare of Sunday’s semi-final in Dr Hyde Park.
To paraphrase Tony Considine of this parish during his time as Clare manager, they’ve been shot so many times this year a few more bullets won’t hurt.
