Babs fears Cats’ senior stars will tip balance
Three of the Kilkenny team (centre back John Tennyson, midfielder Cha Fitzpatrick and wing forward Richie Power) starred for the senior side that toppled Cork in the senior final, while four more (Michael Fennelly, John Dalton, Austin Murphy, Seán
Cummins) were senior panellists.
All of this, reckons Tipperary senior manager Babs Keating, points to a Kilkenny win.
“The first crucial ingredient in any game is confidence, and that applies to anyone going out the door in Croke Park. The confidence that Richie Power, John Tennyson and Cha
Fitzpatrick have now is going to be hugely important. The fact that they are in the positions they are — centre back, midfield, up front — and then add in the other lads that were on the senior panel last Sunday, it will have a huge bearing on this game.
“I was that soldier in 1964. We had won the senior All-Ireland the previous Sunday in similar circumstances and we then had huge confidence against Wexford in the All-Ireland U-21 final (Tipp won 8-9 to 3-1).”
What of the boost Tipperary will have got though, last Sunday, from their minor team winning, upsetting the odds against Galway?
Babs counters: “I was at the Tipperary function on Sunday night, I had a number of people telling me: ‘Tipp are grand now, Tipp are there, ye have ready-made seniors.’ But the U-21 selectors, for their own reasons — and this is a step below senior — didn’t see fit to bring on any of those minor success stories. I’m just afraid that success at minor level is a good bit below what it was 30 or 40 years ago. When I was growing up, most county minors were playing with the senior team in their own clubs. I don’t see that happening now. Not all of this current minor team are playing with their own senior team. It was a huge bonus for Tipp to win last Sunday, and to win the way they did, but I don’t think Tipperary people can jump to the conclusion now that we have five or six senior players in a year or two.
“We all hope they will make the jump, but you just can’t assume that this will happen automatically. Look at Galway and the success they’ve had at underage. What success followed for them?”
What of this U-21 team, however, how many of those are now knocking at the senior door?
“I don’t want to discuss that now, not yet. We had a few this year, Jim Bob McCarthy, the centre back came on at a late stage, and we would have had him on sooner but he got injury after injury and was always struggling to be fit. We had Darragh Egan from day one, you have Woodlock at midfield. Those were the three on the verge of the senior team this year, but there are other prospects. They have improved as the year went on, which you’d expect they would, with men like Len Gaynor and Fr Tom (Fogarty) in charge. They are two former senior managers, they know the time of day and they wouldn’t be wasting the county board’s money by playing for the sake of playing.”
So, how does Babs see this one going?
“I think that Kilkenny’s senior success last Sunday, with three of the U-21 team starting, four or five more on the panel, gives them a huge boost. The way I look at Kilkenny hurling is this — Brian Barry starred on the UCD team that I trained this year. He is a solid midfielder but he couldn’t even get on the first 30 in Kilkenny. That’s an indication of the strength in depth they have.
“Every single one of them will have All-Ireland medals, in some shape or form, whether at minor, schools, colleges, at U-21, even at senior. If this team can reduce the deficit from a couple of years ago (Kilkenny beat Tipp 3-21 to 1-6), can improve from that performance in terms of effort, I think a lot of Tipperary people will be happy.”
For Kilkenny senior manager Brian Cody, whose son Donncha is ruled out through injury, it’s a case of steady as she goes, for those who did take part in that senior success.
“Obviously their presence is significant, but those lads have to go out and just play their own game, they can’t be thinking they have to do too much, that’s very important. Win your own position, just do your bit for the team all the time.”
One of the most solid planks on which Brian has built his success as a manager is his ability to keep things fresh, to constantly introduce new faces to the Kilkenny panel and to the starting 15. To this end, he maintains that the U-21 grade is crucial. “It’s a huge step-up from minor to senior, and U-21 helps to bridge that gap. We have a lot of players from the U-21 sides over the years. From last year, we have the three lads, obviously and another four on the panel, but we also had a few more from that team, probably about 12 of them came onto the panel, and they were very important to us. We got a lot of players from the U-21 team of 1999 as well, they made the breakthrough. If a fella doesn’t make it straight away from minor, a lot of them can get lost. But U-21 keeps them in the shop window.
“Players mature at different stages, some can come straight through from minor and are more mature. But most fellas take two or three more years to develop, physically even, and U-21 gives them that opportunity.”
TIPPERARY: G Kennedy; P Stapleton, A Byrne, C O’Brien; D Young, J B McCarthy, S Horan; J Woodlock, S Lillis; R O’Dwyer, N Teehan, D Sheppard; R Ruth, D Egan, R McLoughney.
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