After a trying week National League sponsors Church & General can look forward to a more pleasant afternoon in Ennis tomorrow. Tipperary and Galway should provide a decent match and there should also be sufficient public interest to avert last week's PR disaster when savage hounds, brought in to prevent the tiny crowd from leaving during the dire exchanges of the football final, over-interpreted their duty and attacked weary journalists leaving the ground hours afterwards.
This is the counties' fourth meeting in a league final in 11 years and it is striking how the lack of a championship context defuses rivalries. Ten years ago in a wonderfully atmospheric final before 50,000 at Croke Park, Galway beat Tipperary for what was the third time running in big matches.
Feelings between the counties ran so high during the following summer that rancour surfaced in the championship semi-final in which Tipperary finally got the upper hand.
Five years ago, Galway were favourites and regarded as a team on the move after the previous year's championship, which had featured a highly-charged defeat of Tipperary. Instead Tipp, inspired by John Leahy, won a crushing victory and Leahy wasn't behind the door in attributing significance to the win.
Yet only two years later, by which stage the championship fortunes of both teams were beginning to slip, there was little edge to the final won by late Galway scores. That was three years ago and now two very different teams come to Cusack Park for the latest instalment.
Matt Murphy is again in charge of Galway whereas Nicky English, a player in 1996, has taken over as manager of Tipperary. Both have their own pressures. Murphy won the title before so in a sense needs to win it again in order to get back to where he started. English has staked a lot of preparation and intensity on kick-starting his first season in charge with a bit of silverware.
Galway have reached this stage with a 100 per cent record, but Tipperary have had to face a more competitive schedule. It adds up to an evenly balanced match. Murphy plainly resents what he feels is a media-driven perception of the team as championship lightweights whose wins in the league have been qualified by dismissive references to the quality of the opposition.
Two of Tipperary's most testing matches were the divisional meeting with Kilkenny, which they lost, and the semi-final defeat of Clare. Galway beat both counties. Their win over Kilkenny in the semi-finals was impressive because their opponents, in the eyes of many, had been the best team in the league up to that point.
Galway's victory was achieved without going at full tilt. The left side of the attack, Kevin Broderick and Eugene Cloonan, was very subdued and will be expected to contribute more scores from play. Cathal Moore's input was fitful although he made an impact after slipping free of Eamonn Kennedy's shackles.
Mark Kerins's physical bustle at full forward was effective although after conceding an early goal, Fergal Heaney defused a similar threat from Clare's Ronan O'Hara. The right flank of Alan Kerins and Ollie Fahy was busy, but the overall verdict on Galway's attack was that they could do better.
Centrefield will be interesting because Galway looked well-equipped here even after the arrival of Tom Kavanagh pushed Nigel Shaughnessy back to wing back where he remains tomorrow. When he opens the throttle, Liam Burke is one of the best operators in the area and the test for Eddie Enright and the reborn Declan Carr promises to be more genuine than that provided by a cantering Ollie Baker and Colin Lynch.
Both sides make changes in the same area of the field. Padraig Kelly's injury rules him out - although the difficulties he endured on Charlie Carter eloquently made the case for him being left at wing back - and Tipperary replace Declan Browne in the left corner with Brian O'Meara whose place on the wing goes to the returning John Leahy.
Browne's shutout at the hands of Enda Flannery raised questions about his capacity to create the space necessary at this level to display his lethal finishing. O'Meara has had some success in this position in the past but Peter Huban won't be as loose as Kelly.
Galway aren't badly served in the full-back line although there is a lack of specialist corner backs, but the half-line wasn't great against Kilkenny. Ronan Walsh pays with his place, but Fergus Flynn will also have his work cut out on Declan Ryan.
Overall, Tipperary's half forwards look likely to cause Galway a good bit of trouble. Tommy Dunne's dead-ball striking is in excellent condition to the extent that it obscures his contribution from play, Ryan is on form and Leahy is back.
It's a persuasive line, convincing enough to make Tipp favourites.
Teams
Tipperary: B Cummins; D Fahy, F Heaney, L Sheedy; B Horgan, D Kennedy, E Corcoran; D Carr, E Enright; T Dunne (capt), D Ryan, J Leahy; L Cahill, P Shelly, B O'Meara.
Galway: D Howe; P Huban, B Feeney, L Hodgins; N Shaughnessy, F Flynn, P Hardiman; T Kavanagh, L Burke; A Kerins, C Moore (capt), K Broderick; O Fahy, M Kerins, E Cloonan.
Referee: D Murphy.
