It’s time for Tipperary to settle some old scores

There was a time when Kilkenny could barely keep it pucked out to Tipperary in the All-Ireland championship – and the statistics are there to prove it. From 1937 to 1991, the Cats were only triumphant once (1967) over their bitter rivals in the quest for the Liam McCarthy Cup, but how the tide has turned in the interim.

Tipperary may still lead the championship head-to-head between the counties 13-11, but they have only beaten Kilkenny once in seven summer meetings since overcoming the Noresiders in the 1991 All-Ireland final. It’s some turnaround in fortunes as these neighbours gear up for their fourth September showdown in six years.

Perhaps, an even better reflection of the rival county’s changing fortunes is that Kilkenny have won more All-Ireland titles (nine) since 1999 than Tipperary have captured from 1970 (five). For Tipp hurling people, their neighbours’ remarkable dominance over the past 15 years is a real sore, but there is genuine optimism that the blue and gold can reign supreme in Croke Park on Sunday.

When Tipperary spectacularly ended Kilkenny’s historic ‘drive for five’ in 2010, the expectation was that Brian Cody’s troops were heading into decline, but these remarkable men picked themselves up to win the next two All-Ireland titles and have also gone on to complete a hat-trick of National League successes, with Tipperary their victims in the last two deciders.

To make matters worse from a Tipp perspective, they also lost the 2011 All-Ireland final to Kilkenny; were beaten out the gate in the following year’s semi-final when Lar Corbett comically spent much of his day running after Tommy Walsh, and the qualifier in Nowlan Park 12 months ago. And all of this against a background that when Tipp won the 2010 final, most hurling followers thought they were poised to take over at the top for a few years.

Frankly, Tipperary’s largely young team didn’t handle their elevation to All-Ireland champions four years ago very well and the players have shipped some heavy criticism for their off-field indiscipline in the interim. Even 2014 was fraught enough for the Tipp camp at times. Their early sluggish displays in the league sparked local condemation, but they got off the hook in their group tie with Dublin and ended up making the final, only to spurn a great chance of ending their recent rot against Kilkenny.

But Tipperary were back on the ropes after losing to Limerick, especially in Thurles, in the Munster semi-final and that result must have privately tested Eamon O’Shea’s faith in his squad. This was the match he had been targeting all season but, not for the first time, Tipp lost their nerve down the home stretch, while a subsequent tricky qualifier draw against Galway was hardly the prescribed antidote in the circumstances.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.