Toome wait on O’Brien and Cummins

PAT HERBERT has a lot on his mind. Manager of Tipp champions Toomevara, the former Limerick star has some injury worries ahead of Sunday’s clash with Waterford champions Mount Sion.

“We won’t finalise our team until tomorrow, but our big worry is Paddy O’Brien, who has a hamstring problem. He hasn’t been able to play since the Ballyduff game and he’ll have a fitness test on Saturday. Kevin Cummins was also forced off during the Ballyduff game with a sore hamstring, so time is the factor, Sunday is coming a bit sooner than we wanted. Michael Bevins came through last weekend, as did John O’Brien, so that’s more positive at least.”

Herbert acknowledges Toomevara have come through a tough campaign.

“Getting out of any strong county is difficult. For instance, in the Tipp championship we struggled against Mullinahone and pulled it out of the fire with a winner three minutes into injury time. Against Nenagh in the first half of the county final they dominated, and we had to change things around at half time.

“We haven’t given a 60-minute performance yet. We’ve been doing enough in 35-40 minutes to win games, but we have to change that.”

A facile win over Kerry’s Ballyduff in their Munster club opener was a step in the right direction, though Mount Sion present a different challenge.

“We were happy the way the game went,” says Herbert. “We were 12 or 13 up at half time but we introduced five subs in the second half and we had three starting who hadn’t been regulars in the Tipp championship. You’re on a hiding to nothing in a game like that — there’s a lot expected because if you don’t win well, you’ll be criticised. We started well, we scored well and won, and if we were less than cohesive in the last 10 minutes it was our own fault because of having so many players come in.

“Mount Sion are slight favourites and we prefer it that way. I’m happy the way training has gone. We haven’t fielded the same 15 in any game this year, league or championship, because of injury, and next Sunday will probably be no exception. Paddy O’Brien is going to be a big loss if he can’t play, you need players of that calibre.

“I’ve looked at the video of the Waterford county final twice now and Mount Sion are very good. They’re very well balanced, with a lot of players outside their Waterford players who’d make many county panels. They have six very good forwards and a fine half-back line to launch attacks. Eoin McGrath was man of the match in the Waterford county final and he covered unbelievable ground.

“We can only concentrate on our own game. If we focus on their county players that’d be to our detriment. We have our own style and we’ll work on that rather than focus on their big players — we have players in those positions who will have to step up to the mark. If all 15 players perform to their abilities we should have a chance.”

Mount Sion manager Paraic Fanning would no doubt agree with that. The Waterford side regained the county title after a narrow defeat in last year’s semi-final against De La Salle; did that loss drive them on this season?

“I suppose it did a bit. De La Salle did well on the day, I wouldn’t take anything from them, but we were very disappointed and we wanted to rectify that. We’ve a few lads in their 30s and I suppose they didn’t want to leave it like that, but this year was different, it was a whole new ball game.”

Waterford’s progression to the All-Ireland semi-final disrupted Mount Sion’s preparations, but as Fanning says, they weren’t alone.

“It does affect the club team, but that’s true for every club in the county. We had four lads involved — Ken and Eoin McGrath, Eoin Kelly and Tony Browen — and you’d probably get a week’s notice of a club championship game. Getting those four lads integrated back into the club team takes time, but they handled it well, in fairness.

“Keeping fresh is the big challenge. We took a week’s break in June and August for the sake of the club players — they want a run-out as well but they don’t know when the next game is, whereas the county lads know all the time when they’re going to be playing. That makes it hard on club players, with holidays and families and so on, but we’ve managed to stay fresh this year. We feel good anyway.”

Fanning’s involvement with WIT’s Fitzgibbon Cup side has given him a good handle on Toomevara.

“They’re a good team, they’ve a lot of danger men. In the Fitzgibbon Cup I’ve seen a lot of their players line out for and against WIT. Everyone knows the Dunnes and the O’Briens, for instance, but Michael Bevins would be a very important player for them around the middle of the field as well.

“I saw them play against the Kerry champions, Ballyduff, and they were very good that day — the game was more or less over after 20 minutes.”

Fanning will be looking to his own players to step up on Sunday and take the Waterford side forward.

“Michael White has been going well for us, he’s had a good year, Eoin and Ken (McGrath) are flying, Sean Ryan is another good finisher. You’re looking for everyone to step up, you can’t play a team like Toomevara and expect only county players to perform.

“Everyone knows the Munster inter-county hurling scene is tough, and the club scene is very tough as well. We won the Munster club title in 2000 and lost two other finals, but that’s not extra pressure for us. We know it’ll be a tough game but we’ll be confident we can give it our best.”