GAA:LEINSTER CHAMPIONS Kilkenny have made one unexpected change for tomorrow's All-Ireland hurling final. Last year's captain TJ Reid has been dropped to make way for veteran Eddie Brennan.
Reid has struggled at centrefield and his making way isn’t a major surprise but Brennan, who hasn’t started this year, hadn’t been seen as a likely replacement.
Formerly a major supplier of scores, the former All Star has had a low-key campaign off the bench so far but is presumably being asked to try and get Pádraic Maher onto the back foot.
For a final that everyone expected for the past 12 months there is no clear-cut consensus on the outcome. Kilkenny will be a stronger, better informed outfit than last year and they have also topped up their motivation levels. Does this make them obvious candidates to beat a Tipperary team whose preparations for this year’s final haven’t gone as smoothly as 12 months ago or just another year older?
Tipperary have cut a swathe through Munster, maintaining the high goal productivity of last year’s All-Ireland, including the seven struck past a hapless Waterford. A further year into their evolution, have they redefined forward play and attacking movement or simply exploited weaker teams?
Deprived of the five-in-a-row last year Kilkenny have a score to settle and more importantly less pressure than they had to contend with and which, given the febrile nature of their preparations 12 months ago, may well have had a significant impact.
Henry Shefflin’s return sees him looking more reserved physically but every bit as influential in his leadership on the field. Tommy Walsh’s shoulder is fully functional, which should make Patrick Maher less so than he was a year ago.
Maybe most importantly, the presence of Brian Hogan will fix the defence more solidly than a semi-fit John Tennyson was able to do and with the central core in place the rest of the defenders will have their bearings and not go walkabout.
The champions are short two major men from 2010. Declan Fanning has retired and Brendan Maher is on the bench, his year having been grossly disrupted by injury. There are also late injury whispers about corner back Michael Cahill.
These shifts in fortune strongly suggest that Kilkenny have a major opportunity. Despite last year they are practised at winning All-Ireland finals whereas Tipp haven’t put titles back to back for 46 years.
But it’s not that simple. If there have been gaps in the champions’ performances the same is true of the challengers.
The difficulties in their full-back line against Wexford in the Leinster semi-final were alarming and although the situation has steadied they have only been stress tested by a Dublin team giving comfortably their worst display of the year and Waterford, who were set up no more ambitiously than to stop things going drastically wrong.
None of this is encouraging when facing an attack with the pace of Lar Corbett and Séamus Callanan, who could get a run inside, and the craft of Eoin Kelly and Noel McGrath.
There is also the mortality factor. The end of great teams is rarely foreseen in any precise way – especially by the teams themselves – and tends to be a retrospective call. Kilkenny won’t know the day has come until it arrives but last year wasn’t an accident.
Michael Rice is restored to centrefield to partner Michael Fennelly in what is the team’s strongest combination.
The forwards around Shefflin have played well with Richie Power in particular showing great form in Leinster and Richie Hogan establishing himself as a serious scoring threat even if he doesn’t always take the right option. Yet Kilkenny haven’t disposed of teams as clinically as before.
Their tallies of wides are running far in excess of Tipperary’s and they don’t have the formidable range of forward options they used to have to throw in to change the course of matches.
Tipperary also had the far more instructive semi-final outing. Dublin are well practised at using the seventh defender and John McCaffrey played an accomplished game as sweeper. It gave the champions a bracing dose of reality after the heady plaudits of the Munster final.
Space may be tighter tomorrow but Kilkenny can’t pack the defence without undermining their attacking options so they are likely to drop back when needed and in those circumstances Tipperary can still find angles of attack.
It would have been greatly to Kilkenny’s benefit had Tipp cruised past Dublin and saved their complacency for the final. They didn’t and a far tighter and more industrious performance can deliver for the champions.
CONNOLLY HEARING ON MONDAY NIGHT
A MEETING of the Central Hearings Committee (CHC) will take place on Monday evening to consider Diarmuid Connolly’s appeal against suspension.
The Dublin forward was shown a straight red card during last Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final victory over Donegal. An automatic four week, one-match ban ruled him out of the final against Kerry on September 18th.
Meanwhile Paul Flynn has confirmed he is well on the road to recovery from the hamstring injury he sustained against Donegal and should be fine for the final.
