We’re ready to get physical

They’re playing it down, but Tipperary and James Woodlock are ready to prove they can win a battle with Waterford, says Diarmuid O’Flynn.

The only thing that’s left over from last year is that they beat us, and unless we beat them now we’re not going to be proven against Waterford, they are still going to be the better team. Obviously we were gutted, we were devastated... all we can do is store that into our memory bank, and we’ll use that coming out tomorrow.

TIPPERARY and Waterford provide an attractive pairing for the Munster senior hurling final in this, the 125th season of the GAA’s existence. Spicing it up though, adding a bit of fire, is the fact that in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, with Tipp hotly-fancied to advance and meet Kilkenny in a dream decider, Waterford bucked the odds.

It wasn’t just the defeat that hurt the Premier County that day, it was the manner of the defeat. They were bullied and blown out of it by Waterford from the first whistle. Though only two points separated the teams at the end, it might as well have been 20 — Tipperary left Croke Park that evening a chastened team.

So, then, this one just may not be as pure as it could be. Oh, all the principals will claim there’s no hangover from 2008, that it’s all water under the bridge, that this game stands on its own merits, and so on.

James Woodlock was midfield for Tipperary that day and will be midfield again tomorrow. He insists there are no residuals from last season’s Croke Park meeting, then goes straight on to contradict himself. Woodlock said: “The only thing that’s left over from last year is that they beat us, and unless we beat them now we’re not going to be proven against Waterford, they are still going to be the better team. Obviously we were gutted, we were devastated — you can name any other word you want — coming out of that dressing room, and all we can do is store that into our memory bank, and we’ll use that coming out tomorrow.”

Not a factor, then, yet it is, but you know where James is coming from. Tipp don’t want to make a big deal of it, certainly they don’t want to be distracted by it, but it’s there, undeniably. They went into that game last year as red-hot favourites, with Waterford Crystal, National League and Munster titles all safely tucked away. Facing them was a Waterford side sent on the low road to the All-Ireland play-offs with a heavy first-round loss to Clare in Munster and the Déise were unimpressive in their one-point quarter-final win over Wexford. But, Tipp were caught cold, perhaps even caught complacent at GAA headquarters. Woodlock continued: “We had five weeks off without a championship match and Waterford were coming in under the radar, they hadn’t had fantastic performances up along, but they really came in and rose to us on the day. They were a lot more physical from the start and we failed to cope with it for about 10 to 15 minutes. then we came back into it and I think at one stage in the second half we went two points up, but they clawed it back again on us. Maybe on the day complacency set in. Everybody was talking about a Tipperary-Kilkenny final, but it didn’t materialise. We tried not to believe it but maybe we did and maybe that’s what caught us. That’s not taking from Waterford’s performance, they were obviously the better team on the day but we’ll have to be a lot more physical for this year.” That, you see, was the lesson learned that afternoon — Tipp needed to be more physical, because they weren’t just bundled out of the championship, they were bullied out it. “I’d agree with that. Waterford came out and they used the hurl from the start — and before the start, I won’t hide that either. My recollection would be Seamus Butler (Tipp full-forward) on the ground after taking a severe belt.

“ That’s just stuff that you put in your memory bank; that’s not hurling and that’s not the way we play and when we go out Sunday that’s not going to be in our heads either. We’ll memorise it but when we go out it’s a different game and all we’ll want to concentrate on is hurling, and we’ll want to concentrate on beating Waterford in a Munster final.”

Wait a second James — that’s not hurling? Softening a fella up off the ball with a little testing dig isn’t part of the game in Tipperary anymore?

“Oh yeah, digs will happen, and I’ve given as much as anyone else. Digs are digs, that’s it — some players need to get a dig just to get themselves into a game. It’s a man’s game, you take a belt and you give one, and we’ll mix it with anyone, anytime, but you leave it at that. We have done it in the league final so people can’t say there’s no physicality in Tipperary hurling; against Cork I thought we had it and against Clare I thought we had it again, more so. Obviously we’re progressing but when you come to a Munster final you’ll give it everything on the day, whether it’s hurling or physicality or whatever it is. I think Tipperary can mix with whatever team wants it.

“That’s hurling, that’s what people watch it for and that’s why we play. But I don’t agree with what happened last year with Waterford, you can’t do that.”

So, there is a line then, a fine line perhaps but a line nevertheless. Living on the edge, that’s the ambition this year for Woodlock and his team- mates, that’s where most champion teams in all contact sports reside, where Kilkenny — the perennial masters — have set up house.

“Yeah, we’ve been working on it,” he candidly admits. “Everyone has their own phrase on what way Kilkenny hurl, but sitting down to watch them, they’re a physical team, they can mix it any way you want it. We tested them in the league final and I don’t think there was any dirt in the game we played, and I don’t think we got it either. It was a top-class game and people are still talking about it, but a moral victory on that day was no good to Tipperary — any day you go out and lose, a moral victory will be no good.

“We’ve been working on tackle bags and that, but you can be as physical as you want, you can be able to burst a lad out of the way, but if you can’t hurl it’s no good, and if you don’t have the pace it’s no good, so we’re working on intensity in our play, and freedom, freedom all the time, freedom of movement.”

Freedom, freedom — if the signs are right, there will be precious little of that in Semple Stadium tomorrow. Perhaps out around midfield, where James and his partner Shane McGrath will be roaming, but the closer you get to the goal, and at both ends of the pitch, the tighter it will become, the hotter, the heavier.

Question now is, will Tipp be ready for the physical challenge from Waterford this time round?

What do you think?