NEWS ROUND-UP:TIPPERARY MUST sense a distinct advantage even before the ball is thrown in for Sunday's All-Ireland hurling semi-final in Croke Park.
While manager Declan Ryan is set to name a full-strength team, Dublin manager Anthony Daly finds his team further ravaged by injury.
Although Ryan has delayed naming his team until tomorrow evening, few if any changes are expected from the comprehensive win over Waterford on July 10th.
Séamus Hennessy is the sole injury concern with an inflamed left knee and won’t be part of panel for Sunday’s game, but otherwise Ryan has a full deck of players, and all at peak fitness.
Paddy Stapleton, who replaced David Young at corner back for the Munster final against Waterford, is set to retain his place, while last year’s Young Hurler of the Year, Brendan Maher, who was named amongst the substitutes the last day as he continued to regain full fitness after sustaining a broken ankle earlier in the season, is pressing to resume his starting place. Maher did come on for the last seven minutes of the Munster final, and is certain to play some role again on Sunday.
However, Dublin’s injury plight has gone from bad to worse: it was confirmed yesterday that David Treacy will miss Sunday’s game after sustaining a hamstring tear in training over the weekend.
He thus joins captain Stephen Hiney on the sidelines, along with full back Tomás Brady, Conal Keaney and Oisín Gough – leaving Dublin without five potential first-choice players for the showdown against the All-Ireland champions.
Tipperary can instead focus on the record front – this summer has already seen Lar Corbett surpass Eoin Kelly as Tipperary top championship goal scorer of all time, with 25 his goals. Kelly is still next with 21 goals, although is actually Tipperary’s highest scorer this season – with his 4-16, compared to 6-6 for Corbett. Kelly has now also hit an overall championship tally of 21-342. Corbett and Kelly will again lead the full forward line on Sunday, either side of John O’Brien, at full forward.
There’ll be another record broken on Sunday when Brendan Cummins lines out in goal. Having equalled Christy Ring’s championship appearances record of 65 in the Munster final, Cummins will now go one better, with championship match number 66. Cummins has only conceded one goal, to Clare, in Tipperary’s three championship matches to date.
For Dublin, Treacy’s injury denies Daly a crucial option in the forward line, as the Cuala player joins club mate Oisín Gough on the sidelines. Gough suffered a broken hand in training last week, and although he didn’t feature in the quarter-final win over Limerick, was in contention for a recall to the starting 15 for Sunday.
Another Cuala player, Paul Schutte, who made his championship debut Limerick, is expected to continue in defence.
On a brighter note for Dublin, free-taker Paul Ryan – with his 44 points (2-38) this summer – only needs four points to overtake Patrick Horgan (47) as the top scorer in this year’s championship.
