The best day of the entire summer
We’re going to call it now but we predict that one of the two sides that are due to face off in Sunday’s Munster senior hurling final will be in the All-Ireland in Sepetmber.
Of that we have no doubt.
So with that in mind Sunday’s game between Tipperary and Waterford could just be the beginning of the long road to Croke Park for one county.
But before that there’s the small matter of an priceless provincial crown at stake, as well as a place in the last four of the championship for the winner.
The game, like any, will come down to the mini or major battles in various sectors of the field.
Seamus Callanan vs Noel Connors
The story of Tipperary in the last half-decade is a series of maybes. Maybe they could have won more All-Irelands. Maybe they could be the team to beat Kilkenny this year. Maybe they should have won more Munster titles. Hesitation.
Indecision is the worst enemy for a back or a forward. Go or stay. Pull or pass. Shoot or take it on.
Connors is widely regarded as the hardest man to mark in Waterford training, and he has frustrated and shackled the best forwards around. He has not done that by second guessing himself or his opponent.
The Waterford system certainly helps him as full-back – it is very rare that Waterford are ever caught one on one twenty yards from goal – and certainly he will not be as loose as Richie McCarthy was in the semi final.
The challenge will be on Tipperary to create, and then locate, Callanan in space away from the full-back.
It is something that the team are adept at as their carousel of attackers rotates around the fulcrum of the full-forward.
As Kilkenny found last year in the All-Ireland final, and Limerick this year, the full-forward can take ball at any angle, at any speed and at pretty much any height and make use of it.
Tipperary are the only side – apart from Limerick on the opening night of the league -to score two goals in the same game against Waterford and that was in their most recent meeting in Nowlan Park in April.
Callanan may be used a as a decoy to get Connors away from the edge of the square with Tipperary hoping to create some panic with that tactic and let John O’Dwyer profit.
However, Derek McGrath doesn’t do hesitation either, and he trusts his players to figure out what to do if Tipperary play clever.
Tipperary and Callanan must show the same ice-coolness in their decision making.
Maurice Shanahan vs James Barry
Waterford 2015 is almost like Waterford 2005 with a Shanahan on the edge of the square once again.
Maurice has the same frame as older brother Dan, the same drawl of a Waterford accent, and the same dead-eyed ability to score crucial goals and points.
With no Pauric Mahony, Shanahan took on the responsibility at placed balls against Cork and scored 1-9.
However Cork’s defence is suspect, they lost their shape too often, and they simply had no idea how to counteract a side who after 25 minutes had figured them out tactically.
His tally was composed of just a single point from play apart from the impressive goal. Waterford are a side that live off forcing teams into reckless tackling and tapping over points from frees.
His goal was almost untypically individual as he fetched a high ball and blasted past Anthony Nash from 20metres.
James Barry was more than capable of handling Shane Dowling in the Munster semi-final, and even if Dowling also scored just one point from play, that cameo from Shanahan shows how dangerous he can be if given even a yard of space.
Tipperary conceded just 1-16 to Limerick and much of that was at the start of the second half when their half time lead was cut to a single point.
They don’t play with a sweeper, and usually concentrate on burying the opposition rather than worrying about their weaknesses.
Tipperary try to play the game on their terms, and in that respect Barry is likely to be left to his own devices to shackle his opponent unless he gets some help from those in front of him.
He will need it, as Waterford could try their hand at going more direct in the early stages to test out the Tipperary full-back line.
Waterford’s support play could also mean even if Barry does shackle Shanahan and keep him relatively scoreless, it is the runners around and off him that will do the damage.
The only way to counteract that is to make sure Shanahan is not an option for any offload or one-two’s.
Easier said than done.
Paudie Maher vs Michael Walsh
The battle of the centre backs; only one is now a forward. Paudie Maher is untouchable as the outstanding number six in the country right now.
When he’s not putting his body and head on the line, he’s sweeping up ball, playing diagonal passes into the forward line, and generally acting like someone that would have been well able to play in the ‘Hells Kitchen’ defence of Tipperary sides of old.
Michael Walsh used to be that centre back. The ‘Brick’ was/is an outstanding defender, and even though he’s only moved about twenty yards further up the pitch, his role as a forward has given him a new lease of life.
Probably not since Seanie McMahon has hurling seen a player with the positional sense of the the Stradbally man.
He is a magnet for the sliotar and his distribution, as well as sheer physical presence, gives Waterford a massively different outlet.
Maher is not only a wonderful defender but he’s the platform for so many Tipperary attacks. He almost never just hammers a ball 50 or 60 metres.
He uses it well and this is where the Brick will have to ‘mark’ the Thurles man.
Walsh offers an outlet for Waterford all the time but if Derek McGrath is looking to force his gameplan on Tipperary again, then shutting down Maher is key.
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