Cummins has point to prove

Jim O'Sullivan

It's the voice of experience, 10 years on from making the breakthrough and establishing himself as one of the finest goalkeepers of the modern era.

And he has earned the right to be listened to with respect.

After current manager Ken Hogan retired, Jody Grace filled the position for a season, only to lose out to the rising dual star after getting injured.

Cummins has been down that road in the past (a promising career in senior football was curtailed), so he can empathise with Philip Maher.

The team's star full-back suffered a knee injury in training last Sunday and underwent surgery two days later.

Philip's a huge loss, he was starting to get into form. We have John

Devane coming in and he was player of the tournament in the Fitzgibbon at full-back. We have great faith in him to fill the gap," he says.

In his case, that faith is based on the experience of having Devane play in front of him a few times, as well as in the corner. He's a player who knows he has a job to do, the same as every other player, if Tipperary are to win.

While it may be difficult to quantify the real value of their two games with Limerick, Cummins has no doubt that they were badly needed.

"They should stand to us. We used 25 players over the two games. That should help everybody, once you get a taste of championship hurling. The trick will be to reproduce a bit of form. That's going to be the secret.

"Clare are a seasoned team. They have got a serious build-up since last year, when they were very close to beating Kilkenny. We needed that bit of extra experience playing them."

Cummins feels their lack of experience was a reason why they struggled against Limerick for a long time.

Other than himself and Thomas Dunne, he says most of the players don't have major championship experience most would have played no more than five or six games.

"We are blooding new players but it's going to take time. Sometimes it's a shock to the system. Declan Ryan and Johnny Leahy are gone from the scene. Now, it's up to somebody else to come in and make their name."

Appreciating that a lot of questions have been asked about Clare following their League final defeat, Cummins suggests that similar questions can be asked of his own team. In other words, which is the 'real' Tipp team.

On the day of the drawn game with Limerick, Cummins reckons you could not have put "bad money" on them and everybody was "very downbeat" afterwards. Six nights later, after a dramatic win in the Gaelic Grounds, the mood had changed. People were beginning to think things were going well after all.

"Clare are probably in the same situation. But they are going to hurl for 80 minutes if that's what it takes. They are seasoned campaigners. They know what championship is all about, even if they had won the League, they were still facing either Tipp or Limerick in a do-or-die game."

Niall Gilligan represents a big threat to Tipperary and to him personally. Having come up against him often over the last five or six years, he says he knows what to expect. Gilligan is a class forward, but it's not as if Clare are totally dependent on him.

"The day we met them in the League in Thurles, I don't think he was the one doing the major damage. They have a great team mentality. While one forward might be doing the scoring, there are men around who are doing massive work to try to help the team and put backs under pressure."

He agrees the Tipperary forwards will have their work cut out for them at the other end in trying to better Davy Fitzgerald, whom he credits with being as inspirational as ever.

"There's one thing about Davy, he wears his heart on his sleeve. You'd have to respect him. He's a fantastic goalkeeper and year on year he's producing the goods, which is the mark of a great goalie. I'm good friends with him and we'll have a chat Sunday evening after we meet in the middle of the field whichever way it goes."

Maher's absence will spur the rest of the team, and the players will be conscious of "trying to do something" for him.However, with the way the championship is structured, they know either way they will be in action again in a few weeks and Maher is confident of making a return.

There is a far bigger incentive there for the players, he points out.

"It's important to win for Tipp and get us back in a Munster final."