PREVIEW: Another championship win would send Tipperary into dreamland

Even on this rapidly warming planet of ours, green shoots are seldom if ever visible in the depths of winter.

And yet, on a wet, windy and bitterly cold day in Salthill on January 26 last, there were clear signs that the Tipperary hurlers meant business this year. That was the day when they beat Galway by 12 points, 3-25 to 2-16, in the opening round of the national league.

Despite the fact that the hurling season was very much in its infancy, a marker was laid down. A statement of intent had been issued.

While pleased with the result and the performance, Tipp manager Liam Cahill said that day: “We will meet bumps in the road that will create difficulty, but it’s about patience now as well. And I know that’s not going to cut much slack with the impatient, less knowledgeable Tipperary hurling folk that are out there. But as I said, I’m very, very clear on where this needs to go and today is just the start of it.”

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Captain Ronan Maher, meanwhile, stated “hopefully we’ll have a good crack off it this year”.

Tipperary have made good on that promise shown so early in the year. It might be stretching it to suggest that they’ve come out of nowhere to reach the All-Ireland Final but their qualification for Sunday’s showpiece against Cork has caught most followers of the game, and even many of their own supporters, unawares.

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Five straight wins over Clare, Waterford, Laois, Galway and Kilkenny have brought Tipperary to this stage of the season.

Standing between them and the chance to win the All-Ireland senior title for the 29th time in the county’s history, and for thefirst time since 2019, are Cork, another of the game’s aristocrats, and the only team to have beaten Tipp in this year’s championship.

The mind games may have been playing out since the semi-finals ensured that these Munster neighbours would clash in Croke Park on final day, with each team eager to keep its feet on the ground and talking down its own prospects by suggesting what a really great team their opponents are. But outside of allegiances to either county, it’s crystal clear that Cork are the strong fancy to win what would be the county’s 31st All-Ireland crown. According to the bookies they’re the 2/5 favourites, with Tipperary 11/4 and the draw an 8/1 chance.

In many ways, Sunday is all set up for a Cork victory. The Rebels are aiming to bridge a 20-year gap since their last success, when they defeated Kilkenny in the 2005 final.

They are also trying to complete a clean sweep of the game’s major honours this year, after they won the National League - defeating Tipperary by ten points in the final - and the Munster Championship, where they conquered Limerick, the game’s dominant force in recent seasons, in the final.

And then there’s the whole Patrick Horgan angle. Since making his championship debut in 2008, the 37-year-old Glen Rovers player has played senior hurling for Cork for 18 seasons.

“Hoggie” is the all-time leading scorer in both the championship and league, with the grand total of 32 goals and 679 points, and has won most of the honours that the game has to offer. But the absence of a Celtic Cross is the one glaring omission from his trophy cabinet.

Cork will feel that it is written in the stars that this is the year when he wins that long overdue All-Ireland senior medal.
The weight of expectation is clearly on a Cork team that has the strongest support of any inter-county hurling team, with a huge army of followers flocking to support them at every match.

They will also believe that they need to right the wrong of last year, when they lost the All-Ireland Final to Clare.

Sunday’s game is not exactly what you would describe as a free hit for Tipperary. But even though it’s the biggest day in the hurling calendar, when the glare of the spotlight will be firmly focused on every player who is called into action, and with the game being watched all over the world, most of the pressure will be on Cork.