MUNSTER SF FINAL REPLAY: Tom McGlinchey has brought fresh ideas to Tipperary. Ian O'Riordan talks to the man behind the team that gave Cork a real fright last Sunday

Tipperary will start the same 15 players for Sunday's Munster football final replay with Cork though manager Tom McGlinchey is not ruling out the sort of positional switches that featured so radically before the drawn game.

After the throw-in last Sunday in Thurles, only a couple of players beyond goalkeeper Philly Ryan stayed true to their positions.

McGlinchey has already made further adjustments for the replay at Páirc Uí Chaoimh and admits the tactic of player switching did surprise Cork the last day.

"Like any county we originally picked our team on the Tuesday," says McGlinchey.

"But we looked at it again on the morning of the match and decided to make those switches. Plus, we'd looked at the Cork team and decided we needed to make a few adjustments accordingly.

"We're hoping now to stick with the team as it's named, but again a lot will depend on the day, and when we see the Cork team.

"The changes did work quite well the last day, but I suppose the element of surprise is gone anyway in that Cork will be more aware of what to expect."

Though dual player Brendan Cummins returns to his original centre-forward position (he moved briefly into corner forward the last day), he will now be joined in the half-forward line by Paul Cahill and Fergal O'Callaghan.

Declan Browne is listed at full forward, with Peter Lambert in the right corner and Damien O'Brien on the left.

The successful tactic of using a two-man full-forward line the last day - Browne and Lambert - was something McGlinchey hadn't necessarily banked on: "Well that was just the way it worked out for us. And there's no guarantee it will work that way the next day."

For McGlinchey, by far the youngest manager in the country at 29, the key to last Sunday's performance was the way each player delivered on their potential.

And though the general perception is that Tipperary's best chance was to catch Cork off-guard the first day, he's not ruling out a repeat performance either.

"People were writing about this Tipperary team and talking about this team, but knew nothing about this team. I knew they were all good footballers and capable of playing good football.

"I know we're capable of playing that sort of football again, but whether it will be good enough to win in the replay I just don't know.

"Very few of this team have played in Páirc Uí Chaoimh before and so it will be a whole new experience. I just hope the occasion won't get to them, and that they go out and enjoy it the way they did in Thurles."

Although the most conspicuous aspect of the Tipperary game was their work-rate and willingness to run, McGlinchey doesn't put it all down to their high fitness levels.

"To be honest, I think people make too big a deal about fitness. I mean, you won't beat too many teams with fitness alone. It's much more to do with the football.

"I don't think there's much difference between the fitness of any county teams at the moment, and certainly fitness wouldn't be a problem with my team."

The specialist training of the Tipperary hurlers, who work a lot with Jim Kielty and his techniques of speed, agility and quickness (the SAQ system), is something McGlinchey is well aware of. But he prefers to work with his own ideas.

"We do a lot of ball work. And as for the fitness training it is a sort of mix and match. We still do a lot of endurance work but I don't see it as any great science.

"What I do emphasise as well is the rest between training and the different sessions, which I think is sometimes underestimated in a lot of sports, not just Gaelic football.

"I know that the Irish rugby team have caught on to the importance of rest. And I think it's more important in the GAA. We are still talking about amateur players and we do have to treat them right. So I would use rest as a very important part of my training."

Regarding the replay, again McGlinchey has his own ideas: "I know Cork will start as raging hot favourites again, and I respect that. But we'll be looking to play up to our standards again, to ourselves. That's still the most important thing.

"To be honest, we had a long chat in the dressing-room afterwards and the players were a bit down about it. But I'd see it as half-time, that we haven't played the full game yet. And we've already proved a lot of pundits wrong."

Former county senior hurlers Stephen Frampton and Billy O'Sullivan, who retired from the senior panel earlier in the season, have been named in the Waterford intermediate team to play Tipperary in the Munster final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh this evening.

TIPPERARY (SF v Cork): P Ryan; S Collum, N Kelly, D Byrne; B Hahessey, N Fitzgerald, S Maher; K Mulryan, L England; P Cahill, B Cummins, F O'Callaghan; P Lambert, D Browne, D O'Brien.