Mental edge is as important as any physical edge
When Kilkenny were in their pomp, they often reminded me of a pack of crazed wolves; ravenous, dangerous, ruthless. They went for the kill often and early but the slightest sniff of blood in their nostrils was often all they needed to tear a team apart limb from limb.
Winning matches was all that motivated them. Every win, every performance counted for something but some performances, some matches counted for even more. Whenever Kilkenny had a cause, the pack of wolves were even more vicious, more deadly.
When Cork went down to Nowlan Park in 2009 shortly after emerging from their third player strike, Kilkenny administered the mother of all punishment beatings. It was more than a beating, it was a cull. The Kilkenny crowd were baying for Rebel blood and the wolves took great satisfaction in tearing Cork apart.
The scent of blood was still in the air a week later when they savaged Tipperary in Nowlan Park. Kilkenny spent that league campaign opening teams up like a group of surgeons before Tipp finally stood up to them in the league final.
Kilkenny won after extra-time. They also beat Tipp in the All-Ireland final that September but once Tipp halted their bid for the five-in-a-row in 2010, the pack of wolves made it their mission to keep murdering Tipp whenever they ran into their great rivals.
After the 2010 final, and up until last February, the teams met on 13 occasions in league and championship and Tipperary only won twice. Tipp nearly cracked them a few times but they never could.
I remember leaving the Kilkenny dressing room after Dublin beat them in the 2013 Leinster semi-final replay in Portlaoise and saying to Richie Stakelum, ‘There’s no way those fellas will be ready in seven days to take on Tipperary.’
They were crippled with injuries. I thought we had broken their spirit and that seven days was too short to be ready even for Tipp but they showed what refusing to yield to the old rivals meant.
Kilkenny were always able for Tipp but the wheel looked to have finally turned last September. It wasn’t just that Tipp finally beat Kilkenny in a big game, it was the manner of the victory which suggested that Tipp could now potentially inflict the same hurt on Kilkenny that the stripey men spent a decade enforcing on Tipp.
Tipp had a huge win last weekend against Clare, racking up 0-28, but I’m sure that performance was quickly forgotten about by training on Tuesday evening. I know if I was in Mick Ryan’s shoes, I’d have been saying, ‘Hi, there’s an opportunity here now for payback.’
Apart from the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final, when Tipp were distracted by crazy tactics and they collapsed in a shambles, there was never too many hockeyings from Kilkenny in these matches.
But they still kept beating them. I wouldn’t write off Kilkenny yet. I still don’t think Tipp are capable of giving them the mother and father of all hidings but they still have the chance to turn the screw and cash in on some form of payback for a decade or more of misery.
Kilkenny will be on high alert, especially after the trimming they took from Clare. They’ll have taken confidence from the seven-point win over Cork last weekend but Kilkenny are still not scoring goals and they were the venom in the sting that asphyxiated Tipp so often in the past.
Tipp have the greater firepower, especially if Mick decides to fully use it, and I’m sure he will want to show how the dynamic of the relationship can change. From my time with Clare, when we had the chance in the 1990s to flip a trend on its head against Tipp, who had oppressed us for so long, we were desperate to stay on top of them.
It was more championship games than league matches where Clare and Tipp fought their battles but we still lay down huge markers in the league in 1995 and 1997.
Ger Loughnane had us driven demented to prove we were good enough in 1995, which we did. When we met in the league in 1997, Loughnane later said it was the dirtiest match he ever saw. Tipp beat us but they left Cusack Park that day in no doubt that they would never physically dominate us in the way they thought, and hoped, they could.
That mental edge is as important as any physical edge. We had it over Tipp during those years because we believed we were mentally stronger than them. One big victory may not necessarily convince Tipp they have a mental edge on Kilkenny now.
You still have to go out and fight the fight, which Kilkenny always will, but the confidence Tipp have taken from last September will further empower them for the battle.
No quarter will be asked for or given when great hurling rivals @TipperaryGAA and @KilkennyCLG do battle on Saturday.https://t.co/VJT87praiH
— The GAA (@officialgaa) March 9, 2017
Mick Ryan may roll out the big guns tonight but I wouldn’t second guess him either. He might decide to try and take on Kilkenny without some of those big names, just to see where a few of the younger lads. To win in those circumstances would make a win taste far sweeter.
Kilkenny’s need and want is greater because they are scrambling for points. Tipperary are already in the quarter-finals but this is too good an opportunity for payback for Tipp to pass up. They may not administer the kind of hiding their supporters want but Tipp will get a win, probably by three or four points.
Anthony Daly’s team rankings of what we’ve seen to date
No need for too much explanation here; solid, strong, loaded with firepower, their peripheral players have stepped up because they want a piece of the action and Mick Ryan has given it to them.
The confidence of an All-Ireland win has taken them to another level and they are currently ahead of the pack.
I think they have found a new level. They got wins against Kilkenny and Dublin without having to put the foot to the floor.
The Dublin win highlighted a new maturity and confidence. They knew they were poor in the first half but clinically addressed that issue after the break.
They may be operating in a lower Division but promotion was always going to hinge on their games against Limerick and Galway and they won both.
The way in which they dug out the win in Salthill — seven points down and facing the breeze in the second half — was definitely one of the most impressive performances of the league.
Dishing out the biggest defeat to a Brian Cody team has to be a huge positive for a team still looking to find their feet.
I thought they were a little bit casual last weekend with the amount of experimentation against the All-Ireland champions but I expect to see more of the Clare we saw against Kilkenny in their last two games against Dublin and Waterford.
The defeat to Clare was an eye-opener but there was always the danger of over analysing it too; Kilkenny should have got a draw against Waterford and they beat Cork by seven points.
Colin Fennelly’s return last week showed what the team had been missing. Ger Aylward will be back soon. May not be the force they were but they’re still Kilkenny.
Their placing ahead of Cork, Dublin and Limerick may be strange but their defeat to Wexford was no worse than some of the defeats the above three teams also experienced.
The 3-31 they put up against Laois last week underlines their huge scoring power. They won’t get promoted (unless the system changes) but they could still win the league.
