HE WAS never one to blow his own trumpet but all the indications are Eoin Kelly is back to his luminous best, and not surprisingly Tipperary hurling is feeling the benefits. In the two National Hurling League games to date Kelly has hit 1-10 (against Offaly) and 1-12 (against Limerick) - helping Tipperary win both those games by a combined total of 28 points.

Next up come Galway, also unbeaten in Division One B, and while Kelly would be the first to admit you're only as good as your last game, whenever he's in form he usually is. At 26, this may well be a sort of second coming for the five-time All Star.

Kelly looked impeccably fit and lean in Dublin yesterday as he collected his Vodafone Player of the Month award for February (Monaghan's Tommy Freeman won the football honour) and yet with typical modesty, Kelly only spoke in the plural, as in "we" the Tipperary team.

"We've had two good wins, yeah, but only beat Offaly well in the final 10 minutes, and Limerick were fairly depleted when we beat them," he said. "It's early days yet, but so far so good. Galway on Sunday though in Pearse Stadium will be a crunch game, two unbeaten teams."

Personally, however, Kelly did endure a difficult 2007, frequently sidelined with injury, resulting in then manager Michael Babs Keating saying Kelly wasn't as fit as he would have liked him to be. He's put all that behind him, and under new manager Liam Sheedy the entire team is benefiting from an overall freshness.

"That's in the past now. As a unit we're just looking forward, and next Sunday is the focus. All you can do in sport is look forward, because everyone has ups and downs, simple as that. Different managers bring their own regimes, and they all differ.

"You go through seasons like that. But I think 2008 has so far been good to a lot of the squad, in terms of injuries. And hopefully that continues. We had a difficult year last year, but everyone was just looking forward to 2008. We've always treated the league seriously in Tipperary, and we do want to get to the knockout stages."

Like most teams, the league is still essentially a stepping-stone to the championship, and Tipperary are certainly no exception: "Of course in a county like Tipperary there are always ambitions to win Munster and All-Ireland titles. It's a team-building process. We've had some underage success, but it takes a couple of years for them to come through.

"So it's all about winning silverware, in whatever shape or form that comes. We won the Waterford Crystal all right, but that was only a crystal, so we won't count that. It's (the aim) to win silverware, but sure that's the objective for any management.

"I think when players finish their careers they'll always look back on what they've won, as a team. We haven't been successful for the past number of years, but that's past now, so we're just looking forward again. And it's like anything, if you keep trying, and stay positive as a team, then eventually it will turn around for you."