Enda McEvoy: Limerick must remind themselves they are bacon and cabbage

The last men to leave the arena in 2014 and the last men to enter it in 2015. 

The champions and the men who were three inches and one Hawkeye hiccup away from being champions. The men — the ones in stripes — who don’t have to win this All Ireland and the men — the guys with the hoop — who pretty much do.

No, it’s not the case that if Tipperary “don’t win it this year, they’ll never win it”, as half the country seems to be saying. Every new year brings fresh opportunity and Tipp will be on or near the front row of the starting grid for each of the next five seasons. For the survivors of 2010, however, this championship is the chance to make sure they’re in the new manager’s plans and will be around the place for another few years.

Michael Ryan will know when he takes over from Eamon O’Shea who he wants to keep and who he doesn’t want to keep. Come to think of it, he probably already does know.

But first things first. Tomorrow the visitors to the Gaelic Grounds are required to do what they haven’t managed against Limerick these past two years and see out the trip. No collapse in the last quarter. No missed opportunities in the last few minutes.

Even if the bottom falls out of things again, and Tipp lose to Limerick for a third consecutive championship meeting, which hasn’t happened since 1948, will it really matter in big-picture terms? Almost certainly not. Nowadays Tipp ‘do’ the back door in a way they didn’t used to.

What’s more, it’s O’Shea who’s their manager and O’Shea’s attacking game, while an item of beauty when functioning at its maximum, is also an item of grandfather-clock complication, all springs and levers and unseen movement. The kind of game that can only be buffed and brought to a high sheen by practice, and the qualifiers yield practice in a way that the straight route doesn’t.

The back-door run in 2010 led to MacCarthy Cup glory. The back-door run in 2014 led to a 29-score display of unparalleled verve and vision in the drawn All Ireland final. Cause and effect. And both teams coached by O’Shea.

It is no slur on Limerick to hold that part of the reason for their last two victories over Tipp was the date: early in the season, when Tipp were still scrambling for their groove and hadn’t come near working up that sheen. Therein lie grounds again for Shannonside optimism tomorrow, the more so as the hosts have to be expected to come on a few lengths from their last run.

Limerick were indifferent against Clare because they weren’t true to themselves. They forgot they were bacon and cabbage and tried to be something else. Now food doesn’t come tastier or more wholesome than bacon and cabbage when it’s done properly, but four weeks ago it was as though Limerick had decided they were hay-smoked bacon, cabbage with foam and other such wankiness. The superfluity of bodies in midfield, the lack of bodies where they were needed: in the full-forward line.

Not totally their fault. Clare have that effect on opponents. They make them overthink. It’s as though Davy is a hypnotist, and heaven knows it wouldn’t come as the shock of the year to discover he’d done an evening course in it. [Adopts sepulchral voice]: “Look into my tactics and confuse the bejasus out of yourself...” Limerick duly did as invited. Paralysis by overanalysis and extreme second-guessing.

The saving grace for them, and for the attendance, was that the two sendings-off took place and ended up opening the way for an actual match. The pity was that they didn’t happen in the first five minutes.

Tipp’s security in the full-back line is an obvious issue tomorrow. The onus on their opponents is equally obvious: do what they neglected to do against Clare and ask some questions, which in turn means having the numbers on hand to support Shane Dowling when the sliotar breaks. This is not an afternoon for short passing in midfield.

Cian Lynch may not repeat his gaiscí of the Clare game. It won’t be a big deal if he doesn’t because he’ll repeat them sooner rather than later. Every team needs a redhead and though Tom Condon and Richie McCarthy hurl like redheads, hitherto Limerick didn’t have a redhead in attack. They do now. Nor can Declan Hannon possibly be as anonymous again. And whatever the beauty of the patterns Tipperary weave up front on their good days, well matched opponents usually run up a sufficient total to give themselves a chance.

Do Tipp deserve to win an All-Ireland? It is a redundant question; ‘deserve’, as the man said, ain’t got nothing to do with it. Still, lift MacCarthy in September and they’ll have accomplished something no Tipperary team has done in half a century by winning two All-Irelands in the same decade. That would be no small achievement for this group. (The matter of winning consecutive All-Irelands will wait for another day). The bookies favour them slightly over Kilkenny for glory and it looks about right. If they hold one potential advantage over their striped tormentors at last, it’s on the bench. Kilkenny’s panel has unquestionably been weakened since last September; Tipperary’s appears to have been strengthened.

Kilkenny got over the line nine months ago because Brian Cody was forced to reach into the innards of his panel. After a summer spent chopping and changing and scrabbling around for the key to the palace, Michael Fennelly came right, Richie Power finished like a train, Richie Hogan and TJ Reid maintained their form. John Power was the rabbit from the hat.

Cody won’t manage the same trick in 2015. Not without JJ at full-back. Not without Henry to come on and, if not put the heart crossways in the opposition, then at least force them to operate with eyes in the back of their heads. If Cody has to bring on a forward sub to win or save a game, he won’t be bringing on a Shefflin or an Aidan Fogarty, someone who’s been there and done it. Should Kilkenny be undone before the season is out, it’s in this department they’ll most likely be undone.

Their options, or diminution of same, won’t prove an issue tomorrow, which isn’t to say that events at Nowlan Park will prove distressingly one-sided. Being logical about it, if Waterford are the team of the moment can Wexford, the crowd who beat them last July, be all that far behind?

Nor should the occasion faze the Slaneysiders. Not after the four big occasions they were part of last summer, the first three of which they embraced joyously before running out of petrol in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

Liam Dunne will probably employ a spare defender. (His fellow clubman Keith Rossiter, a competitor first and a stylist second, would have been ideal). He’ll presumably get Conor McDonald to ask questions of Joey Holden. It will be interesting to see if Holden realises he doesn’t have to hit a ball himself as long as he stops McDonald hitting it.

Wexford are young, enthusiastic, handy and a little light. They’ll give Kilkenny considerably more thinking to do than Offaly did at the same venue last year. Not enough, all the same. Kilkenny by five. Tipp after a replay.