Tipp’s James Barry has inside track on Waterford players
“Derek’s brought a lot of them on since through schools hurling, some I would have hurled with at UCC, the Mahony brothers, Darragh Fives, Jamie Barron.
“I wouldn’t have played a lot against them at inter-county hurling but I would have come up against a few of them through the years in the Harty Cup and Colleges hurling.
“I’d be fairly friendly with most of them off the field but we play so often that friendly rivalry starts so you would be used to playing them and the way they play.”
Barry is healthier this season than last year, when he was too sore to train for days after games. Then he found out an impingement in his hip needed an operation.
“Pat Carton in the Whitfield Clinic in Waterford did an excellent job. There are no repercussions from the operation. This year Paddy O’Brien (Tipp physio) has gotten me into yoga big time and that has been a big help in terms of flexibility and it makes you more aware of your body throughout an injury so it helps keep you on top of things.
“When you haven’t played a full 70 minutes... you have the work done in training but there’s always that question mark, when it comes to a 70-minute championship game, over whether you will keep it up.
“We were lucky enough in the last 10 minutes against Limerick the score opened up. Those questions always come into your head that you wouldn’t be able to sustain the 70 minutes but thank God I got through it.
“When you are marking Seamie or Bubbles in training every night you know you are going in the right direction.”
He’s settling at full-back: “I’m getting quite comfortable there, I like playing full back but Waterford are going to be a completely different challenge to Limerick.
“Their six forwards don’t tend to stay in their six positions at all, they tend to wander around. You have Maurice Shanahan and Brick Walsh in their one minute and another it could be Kevin Moran or Colin Dunford so it is hard to manage.”
Barry has been impressed with the tempo propelling Waterford’s distinctive style.
“They are excellent, it seems to be their workrate - 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 are the engine of the team and when the ball is going forward they seem to have five or six forwards in place.
“Even though some people call them a defensive team, they are putting up huge scores so we will have to be aware that they are not all about defence, they are very much about going forward and attacking as well.”
Tipp’s own approach must be all about adaptability, Barry believes.
“They’re very good at adapting their own system so that they are able to change the way they play as well which is very important.
“Cork seemed to go man for man and a lot of gaps seemed to appear in their defence, but you have to be able to come up with a couple of systems to play Waterford because they seem to be able to adapt in the middle of the game the style they play which is very important.
“You try to analyse all forwards’ movement but things can change in the middle of a game that you haven’t analysed for, so it’s up to the players to react on the field as to what to do. There is only so much tactical preparation that you can do for a game, players have to make up their own minds on the field.”
He’s looking forward to Sunday, but will try to leave the occasion to one side.
“As a young lad, all I wanted to do was play in a Munster Final but you don’t want to get caught up in that as a player. I’m based in Cork with work so when I leave training I don’t hear about a lot of things until the next training night. It’s important that you don’t get carried away with all the talk.”
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