Final bound
By Shane Brophy
When Tipperary exited the 2024 Munster Senior Hurling Championship, languishing at the foot of the round-robin table, only the extreme optimist would have predicted the Premier County would follow the next year by reaching an All-Ireland Final.
It’s to the immense credit of the management, led by Liam Cahill, to turn the ship around so quickly but the Tipperary manager was quick to put all of the credit on the players following Sunday’s pulsating All-Ireland semi-final victory over Kilkenny.
“It's huge credit to the players first and foremost,” he insisted.
“Myself and Mikey (Bevans), TJ (Ryan), Declan (Laffan), we only facilitate them, and that's being honest.
“They've been incredible all year, they really came back rejuvenated after the club scene late last year, and really went after the areas that needed to be corrected from a disappointing 2024.
“It's been difficult to navigate over the last two years from my perspective. I won't deny that. A huge change was required, it's starting to come through now.”
He added: “And to be fair, the alignment with our county board off the field as well.
“On the field and off the field is starting to work in tandem with one another in Tipperary and when you're trying to create a high performance environment for players to excel, the board has to be working together and I think it's starting to happen now.”
However, there is one more step to negotiate, a first ever All-Ireland Final with age-old rivals Cork who cemented their place as the form team with a 7-26 to 2-21 rout of Dublin in the first semi-final on Saturday.
The scramble for one of the 82,300 golden tickets is already underway with all tickets going through the clubs with the allocation of Tipperary’s tickets to be determined this week.
By the time of going to press, the build-up will be underway in earnest, the Tipperary press evening will have taken place, such is the quicker pace of a two-week turnaround between the semi-final and the final.
Reaching an All-Ireland Final also means a knock-on effect for clubs with a new plan plan to be rolled out with revised start dates for divisional and county championships to be confirmed last night (Tuesday) now that Tipperary have byes to the Munster Club semi-finals in hurling which provide extra time to get county finals played.