Tipp have the scope to find another level to see off Mayo

You would have gotten long odds on the senior footballers being the last Tipperary team left standing in the championship in this year of all years, and yet they have more than just a chance of progressing still further when they square off against Mayo in the All-Ireland semi-final this Sunday.

TIPPERARY v MAYO

Croke Park

Sunday, 6th December

Throw-in @ 3.30pm (E.T. & Pens)

Referee: David Gough (Meath)

By Shane Brophy

They wear the underdogs tag comfortably but after winning a first Munster title in 85 years, the Tipperary players will run out onto Croke Park with added confidence of a team that know they are there on merit, and will have the respect of Mayo who know what will be coming at them.

With the Level 3 restrictions introduced, all 41 players on the Tipperary panel can travel to Dublin as well as the entire backroom team, which is only right for a game of this magnitude, and every extra voice within the vast horseshoe that is Croke Park can only help in terms of creating some element of an atmosphere.

Speaking of atmosphere, playing in front of very small attendances is something Tipperary are used to and there is no doubt the lack of a big Cork support in the Munster final at Pairc Ui Chaoimh didn’t do any harm and neither will hoards of Mayo supporters decamping to Croke Park as their county gets close once more to ending their wait for an All-Ireland title which is now in its 69th year, and they certainly feed off the fervour of their supporters. If the game is tight in the closing stages, Tipperary could prey on that and bar David Power’s men fail to show up mentally, there is no reason not to think that they will be nothing more than competitive, as they were in the 2016 and 2018 championship meetings between the sides.

However, those two encounters showed the step-up in class playing a top level team are for Tipperary as it only took a short period of time for Mayo to win both games, outscoring Tipp 1-7 to 0-1 in the ten minutes before half time in 2016 proved to be the defining period, while in 2018, Mayo scored 1-8 without reply in the final quarter, after trailing by three points in Thurles. Tipperary cannot afford to allow Mayo get on a scoring streak as it is likely to be fatal to their chances.

Despite the fresh blood from the likes of Oisin Mullan, Eoghan McLoughlin, Rory Brickenden, Mark Moran, Bryan Walsh, Ryan O’Donoghue, Michael Plunkett, Jordan Flynn and Tommy Conroy, who have impressed this year for Mayo, they are still hugely experienced in every line of the field, from David Clarke in goal, through Lee Keegan who can only get a place in the team at corner back, such is the energy of their half back line of Paddy Durcan, Stephen Coen and Eoin McLoughlin.

This will be the key area Tipperary will have to plan for as Mayo’s strength is their pace and hard running out of the defence. Tipperary’s defensive wall which was so good from their own 45-yard line in the Munster final will have to be even more rigid to ensure Mayo can break through and create overlaps for scoring opportunities.

If there is one element to the Mayo team that Tipperary could target it is in midfield where the premier county look to have greater height under the dropping ball. For much of the Munster final, it was an old fashioned duel in the middle of the field as both Tipp and Cork regularly forced the goalkeeper to go long from where Tipperary won their fair share with Steven O’Brien, Liam Casey, Conal Kennedy and Colin O’Riordan, as well as the breaking ball once it hit the deck.

One way to hinder Mayo’s desire to attack out of defence will be to push up on their kickout and force them to go long and if Tipperary can start well there it will give them a massive shot in the arm. However, Mayo goalkeeper David Clarke is also prone to some mis-placed kickouts as Tipp have to be alert to an opportunity that could arise there.

From the Tipperary team that started in the Munster Final, the only likely change could be a fit again Jack Kennedy coming back into the starting line-up. The midfielder/half forward missed the Cork game with a hamstring injury but returned to full training last weekend. He certainly adds more creativity to the team, as well as his ability from the dead-ball with his right foot which has become hugely consistent this year, however, goalkeeper Evan Comerford is adept at filling that void.

If Jack does come back in, the likelihood is it would be at the expense of his younger brother Conal, however, the management may opt to go the same again as Conal adds extra physicality in the middle of the field and that will be important if Tipp want to keep the game tight for as long as possible and then spring Jack from the bench. The other Kennedy brother Colman could also be sacrificed but he was a hugely effective link player in the first half of the Munster final and created two points and works well with Michael Quinlivan and Conor Sweeney.

Having scored twelve of the seventeen points in the Munster Final, you can be sure the dynamic duo will come in for close attention from the Mayo defence but that is easier said that done when the two players are in the groove. However, they will need others to chip in with scores, with the likelihood being Tipperary will need at least a goal if they are to be successful on the day.

However, Tipperary are unlikely to veer too much away from the gameplan that has been successful since the campaign resumed, structurally sound in defence, forcing turnovers and hitting teams on the counter-attack. It’s helps when you have a full back line where Alan Campbell, Jimmy Feehan and Colm O’Shaughnessy have been in miserly form but outside of the Dublin full forward line, will face the toughest test there is in Cillian O’Connor, Aidan O’Shea, and rising star Tommy Conroy.

When the dust settled on the Munster Final win and the prize of progressing to the All-Ireland semi-final, you couldn’t have been but pleased for Robbie Kiely as it provides the opportunity to atone for the 2016 semi-final when he was black-carded after just eight minutes. The black card itself was extremely harsh and cost what Kiely might have thought was his only chance to play in an All-Ireland semi-final so you’d expect the former Arravale Rovers clubman to be hugely focused with both he and Bill Maher taking the game to Mayo up the flanks. However, they will have to be aware of Paddy Durcan and Eoin McLoughlin coming the other way but retreating Brian Fox and Conal Kennedy should help in that regard.

Kevin Fahey’s development into a teak tough centre back has been one of the major plus points of the campaign, where he isn’t afraid to put his body on the line to make a tackle. While he was called ashore in the Munster Final in the 54th minute looking spent, the reality is he informed manager David Power that he was on his last warning from the referee on a yellow card, and made the decision himself that for the good of the team that he should come off. It’s that kind of mindset that has gotten this Tipperary team this far and is one that can carry them a step further.

When Tipperary reached the 2016 All-Ireland semi-final and ultimately came up five points short to Mayo, there wasn’t a huge level of expectation, and that it was likely to be a once in a lifetime opportunity. To get back there again four years later is a massive opportunity for Tipperary football, and certainly the mentality is there within this group of players that they are not happy to settle for a Munster title. There is more to be gained in the form of a first Tipperary senior football team to qualify for an All-Ireland final in one hundred years.

To do that they need an awful lot to go right and to a certain extent the pressure will be off having captured the Munster title and the boost in esteem that goes with it certainly will help their chances. All the pressure will be on the Connacht champions as the red-hot favourites but the longer Tipperary stay with them and win as many of the small battles as they, it will put increasing doubt into the Mayo minds.

Of the semi-finals this weekend, which also sees Cavan take on the mighty Dublin, Tipperary v Mayo looks to be the more competitive of the two and in this championship which has provided some amazing storylines, there is certainly room for one more in the shape of Tipperary getting to honour the memory of Michael Hogan fully by winning a championship game in Croke Park and reaching an All-Ireland Final. How fitting would that be!