‘Age not a factor in picking your 15’

You know, of course, that Henry Shefflin, 35, has an autobiography coming out soon, a traditional indication that a player is approaching the end of his career.

You know that three of the Cats’ starting defence the last day were over 30 (Jackie Tyrrell, JJ Delaney and Brian Hogan).

You know that two of their most decorated subs, Aidan Fogarty and Tommy Walsh, are also over 30.

With that kind of influence from Anno Domini is this the last stand for the Cats’ greatest team? Can they continue for much longer?

Anthony Daly’s Dublin tangled with Kilkenny in the last few years: they won some and they lost some and when Daly says he saw a slight decline in their opponents, he has the evidence to support his view.

“Go through Kilkenny’s All-Irelands since hockeying Waterford in 2008. Tipperary were close enough to them in 2009 and beat them in 2010.

“They won it 2011 and they got a draw with Galway the first day in 2012. They didn’t make it to Croke Park last year and now a draw again this year.

“Certainly you’d say the air of absolute invincibility is gone. There is that element that they’re getting older, but I wouldn’t overdo that side of it, either.”

Daly points out that predictions of Kilkenny’s demise weren’t quite as audible in Croke Park when they were three points up with a couple of minutes on the clock against Tipperary. Their team may be ageing, as he says, but a manager goes with what he has, not with what might work two or three years down the line. Picking a team doesn’t necessarily require investigating a birth certificate.

“I remember when I was Clare manager getting stick from observers and pundits for playing [Sean] McMahon and [Brian] Lohan, people saying we needed to rebuild and bring in fresh blood, all of that.

“I asked anyone who asked me — not in the press, now — to show me a better full-back or centre-back and I’d play them.

“But my job then was to win the Munster championship or the All-Ireland, not to just throw out some rookie to get destroyed.

“In the case of the two lads you were going with the best players in their positions in Clare, players who were making themselves available and who were fit. In fairness to Brian Cody, he’s picking the best that’s available.

Take Paul Murphy — he’d never have made the breakthrough if they’d kept playing Michael Kavanagh, but eventually Murphy was better than Kavanagh and they had to play him.

“I think he’s true to that — ‘I pick the best that’s available’. Some of those players have a lot of mileage on the clock, certainly, but on the other side of it look at their performance three weeks ago.”

TJ Ryan’s Limerick came agonisingly close to beating Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final this year: just two points separated the teams at the whistle.

Ryan points out that experience mixed with tradition continues to make Kilkenny formidable opponents.

“There were only two points between us and Kilkenny so we still had to find more. You saw the same thing in the football last weekend, Kerry had that tradition and it’s hard to break, and you see strong teams have that — Munster had it for a while, [Manchester] United, Kerry, Kilkenny.

“On a day when things aren’t firing on all cylinders, they’ll still find a way somehow to get over the line. Kilkenny conceded 1-28 the last day but they didn’t lose, in fairness.

“That’s tradition and experience, finding that little bit more, and to beat a team like that you often have to be a good bit better than them to beat them. A lot of managers would love to have that experience in their team, players who’ve been in tight spots in All-Ireland finals, particularly for a last one-off game like tonight.”

If there is a sense of the end of an era this weekend, it probably won’t filter through to the black and amber dressing room. Seanie McGrath won an All-Ireland medal against Kilkenny in 1999 — when Henry Shefflin also played — and was a selector last year when Cork beat the Cats. He doesn’t feel Kilkenny will play on a sense of a last stand this evening, or that Tipperary will either, come to that.

“I wouldn’t think so, Kilkenny have never lacked in the motivation stakes anyway,” he says.

“You could probably say the same about Tipperary. The likes of Lar Corbett, Eoin Kelly, they’ve been great servants to Tipp and owe the county nothing, so it’s a similar dynamic there. I’m not sure if teams can go into a final with that dynamic — ‘it’s my last hurrah’, that kind of attitude.”

If it is Shefflin’s last visit to Croke Park it may be emotional afterwards, but not before. McGrath doesn’t see the Cats requiring extra motivation for the replay.

“Doing it for Henry or JJ or whatever doesn’t really seem to be an issue. They do it for themselves. It might be an unspoken motivation, maybe something that’s just in the dressing room anyway, but in general I think they drive it themselves and motivate themselves. They don’t need anything extra to get them up for a game. Not this one. Not any game.”