Experienced Kilkenny can edge it, but Cody must make most of strength in depth

If you’re looking for indicators from the last two replays, you’re heading up the wrong path.

If last year proved one thing, then 2012 demonstrated another. Twelve months ago, it was said Clare couldn’t perform as well again the second time around. They knocked that suggestion right out of the park. However, the same was mentioned about Galway the year previous and in the replay they didn’t quite live up to the display in the drawn game.

Best to consider this tie on its own merits, then. Tipperary will source a lot of encouragement from the way they kept their composure in the closing stages. Had they lost, it would have ranked alongside 2009 as one of those glorious failures when they played better than the victors. Kilkenny will be fuelled by a sense of injustice as much as a recognition that they were outhurled for major swathes of the first game. And yet Kilkenny found themselves three points up with four minutes left because of the character they showed against Limerick, namely in Richie Hogan and Paul Murphy.

Had John O’Dwyer scored that injury time free, it would have been so cruel on the Cats. Brian Hogan had hardly committed a free and Barry Kelly’s name would have lived long in infamy in Kilkenny having made a borderline call against Jackie Tyrrell in 2012 and sending off Henry Shefflin last year.

Brian Gavin is a more acceptable referee to Kilkenny although he is unlikely to enjoy as clean a match as the drawn affair was. With so much tension and each team having sized each other up, there is bound to be some needle. It says something about how times have changed for Kilkenny that there is a strong school of thought a low scoring game will suit them better. The good weather that’s predicted may militate a little against that but the dynamism they’ve added to their rearguard is welcome. Padraic Walsh can be as tricky looking up the field and at the posts as he is a marker. John Power is the bolter but Cathal Barrett has already shown he can handle pretty much everything that is thrown at him. Brendan Maher will surely not be as ordinary as he was earlier this month. As captain, he might thrive at the prospect of canceling out Richie Hogan should he and Michael Fennelly switch positions.

Tipperary will be buoyed by the way they haven’t relied on frees in either of their last two games to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Much of that has to do with the elusiveness and movement of their forward line. John O’Dwyer was undaunted by the big occasion the last day. Lar Corbett’s game in the second half looked healthy, putting his demons about Jackie Tyrrell behind him.

It’s highly likely both teams will perform. Maybe not to the extent they did last time around but the three-week break has given them ample time to treat this just as reverentially as the original. It should come down to Kilkenny’s experience and replacing it when it’s expended on the pitch with more of the same.

If the old warriors have it in them for one more battle, and Brian Cody appreciates what he has in reserve is good enough to seal a title, then they can edge it.

* Verdict: Kilkenny