PREVIEW: Tipperary's last chance saloon in Munster lays at the feet of Upperchurch Drombane

Again, the best form of offence is a good defence. In this case, more of the same was on show from the Tipperary champions in the semi-final win over Ballinhassig, with the lynchpins in Keith and Gavin Ryan again proving irrepressible, and they will be key to chances of claiming Munster success.

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Standing in the way are fellow first-time finalists O’Callaghan’s Mills of Clare, who are a club of similar stature to Upperchurch in terms of recent competitiveness at senior club level in their respective counties, but have also fallen on hard times in the last few years.

The Mills contested a senior final in Clare as recently as 2020, falling in that final to a rampant Sixmilebridge team, and with a disappointing relegation last year, they were desperate to make the jump back up at the first time of asking.

Now, with that achieved, they have backed it up with a road to this Saturday’s final after narrow wins over Abbeydorney of Kerry and Tallow of Waterford. They have shown similar grit in tight matches, just like Upperchurch Drombane this year.

They have that mix of youth and experience throughout their team, with plenty of quality that Upperchurch will need to be wary of here. Conor Cooney at full-back, Cormac Murphy at midfield, and Jacob Loughnane in the half-forward line are the leaders of the group and were all to the fore in the recent semi-final win over Tallow.

Add into that mix, recent Clare senior hurler Gary Cooney, along with current Clare U20 forward Sean Boyce, and you have a serious threat in attack that will pose big challenges, even to a stern and proven Upperchurch Drombane defence.

Kyle Nugent in the Mills goals has a massive puck on him and, like Gavin Ryan, has scoring power from placed balls, while the evergreen Pat Donnellan - who captained Clare to the 2013 All-Ireland - is still making an impact of the bench.

Elsewhere, they have a quality in their half-back line with Aidan O’Gorman at centre back a big player for them, while his flanker in Aidan Fawl packs a scoring punch from deep.

All in all, they have quality to challenge Upperchurch Drombane in a big way, and despite recent improvements all in, the Tipp champions will need to improve again, specifically in the attacking stakes.

While they are very mean in the concession stakes, to win a Munster title, they will need to improve their scoring power and with the bigger expanses of the TUS Gaelic Grounds as the venue, it will give more space to their forward unit to thrive.

The likes of Paddy Phelan, Luke Shanahan, Paudie Greene and Pat Ryan are capable of coming up with big performances, but all too often one has excelled at the expense of the other, and you feel they will all need to hit their straps.

Aaron Ryan’s return to form was a big plus in the Ballinhassig victory, and there is no doubting that they have improved with every game this year, and with club history within grasp, they will hopefully leave it all out on the field.

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