Dara Bradley

THERE’S a prevailing feeling among hurling pundits and followers that no matter where the All-Ireland U21 final is played, Tipperary will win it. Fly Galway and Tipp to the moon, and the result will be the same. Bring them to the Bog of Allen in the teaming rain and still Tipp will win. So goes the conventional wisdom.

Leaving aside the outrageous fact that they have been handed home advantage and will be playing in Semple Stadium, a ground they know and love and train in every week, the odds are stacked in favour of a Tipperary win.

Firstly, Tipperary are the champions of Munster, a province that has produced more U21 title winners than any other. Secondly, they defeated the reigning champions, Clare, en-route to the final. Thirdly, they have the benefit of having played three matches together (wins over Cork, Clare and Antrim) in the competition so far this year, whereas Galway has had just one competitive fixture under their belts, a win over Leinster champions Dublin.

All these ingredients point to a Tipperary victory and that’s even before we factor in the home advantage or start to mention their star-studded starting 15. And what a line-up Tipperary boasts. It’s hard to comprehend it but every sector of the senior Tipperary team, which ferociously ripped apart Kilkenny’s unprecedented ‘drive for five’ with an awesome display of hurling at Croke Park last Sunday, contained an U21 player who will face Galway this Saturday.

Corner-back Michael Cahill cleaned Eddie Brennan out of it, holding the Graigue Ballycallan man, who was eventually substituted, scoreless. Pádraic Maher, who lined-out at wing back but moved to centre-back in the second-half was immense, and would have won the man-of-the-match award had Lar Corbett not scored a hat-trick. At midfield, Brendan Maher was Tipperary’s most influential player in the first-half and even landed two points.

Half-forward Patrick ‘Bonnar’ Maher failed to get his name on the score sheet but worked and battled hard against the likes of John Tennyson, Tommy Walsh and J.J. Delaney. And corner-forward Noel McGrath scored one of Tipp’s four goals.

Substitutes Michael Heffernan and Brian O’Meara were not used by manager Liam Sheedy but Séamus Hennessy did chip in with a point when introduced late-on.

So, eight of Tipperary’s U21 team come into the clash with All-Ireland senior medals in their back pockets – and no doubt the bulk of the 30,000 or more Tipperary fans who turned up at Semple Stadium on Monday to greet the victorious team back to the ‘home of hurling’, will be out in force again on Saturday, creating a carnival atmosphere that would intimidate the most focused of teams. If ever there was a David and Goliath clash, this is it.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.