A classic league final and plenty food for thought
Yet there it was on Monday, five goals apiece in a magnificent see-saw contest.
One of those with a birds-eye view was Kilkenny corner-back Michael Kavanagh, and the Freshford-man wasn't at all happy with all those rearguard breaches.
"Yeah, a long time too since Brendan Cummins conceded five goals too. But it was that kind of game, free-flowing, the ball was flying up and down the field.
"Forwards were on top I suppose, they got the breaks here and there. We needed goals in the second-half to bring us back into the game, but that's the way it goes.
"An entertaining game, I don't think anyone watching it will have complained!"
That's the truth, and already this game is being spoken of as a classic. It had everything, big lead, big comeback, hectic see-saw end-to-end finish, chances missed, brilliant saves, and of course, those goals.
"Yeah, terrific game. I was talking to PJ Ryan (Kilkenny keeper) after it was sort of his big-game debut for us. I was saying he had a busy day for himself, but he did well.
"The same with Brendan Cummins, busy day. It's not every day you see that many goals go past him either.
"We were chasing the game for most of the second half, badly needed a goal, and Martin Comerford's goal brought us back into it.
"Then Tipp got one back, Charlie (Carter) came on and got his two. It was great to see him come off the bench and knock in the goals, now he'll be knocking hard for a championship place".
One of the major threats for Tipperary was their captain, Eoin Kelly.
The corner-forward ended the day with 1-7 and the man-of-the-match award, but also ended up being closely and successfully guarded by Kavanagh
Realist that he is however, Michael knows that any such success is fleeting.
Earlier, he had been having a fine game himself, cleared a lot of ball, yet Lar Corbett in the other corner had still managed to crash in two of those Tipp goals.
The first was result of a brilliant combination, Liam Cahill to hard-charging line-breaking John Carroll, inner defence drawn out, Ryan left with no chance in the goals.
Corbett's second was set up with a beautiful little flick pass by Kelly, and as Kavanagh explains, there isn't much you can do about such genius.
"He's a class forward, gets some great scores in every game. It all depends on the kind of ball going into him, any kind of decent ball and there's not much you can really do, not much anyone can do against him".
Surprisingly, given all they had won last year (league and championship), hunger was the final arbiter, gave Kilkenny the drive to win a game in injury-time that had looked lost for so long.
"We got together at half-time, a few harsh words spoken, and we upped it a bit in the second half. We did a lot of work this year and we didn't' want to let that go to waste.
"We have a bit of a break now from inter-county training. The Munster teams are out earlier, middle of May, but we have a few club games we can concentrate on."
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