Forget Killarney, Tipperary’s qualifier is now bigger than the Munster final

No player likes watching the action from a sideline, but when your legs don’t carry you as they once did, it’s a perspective that can offer a revealing insight into a football match.

It was from such a vantage point I watched Kerry stretch their legs yesterday, their life made occasionally uncomfortable by a Tipperary side short on experience, raw power, and telepathic understanding among quality forwards.

The upside for yesterday’s underdogs is they will take a lot more from this Munster final experience than Kerry will. If Tipperary training isn’t a notch or three above what it has been these next few weeks, then something is seriously wrong.