Paul Murphy- 'Tough one to call as bitter rivals meet again in Croker'

It’s maybe not the four teams we expected to see in the All-Ireland semi-finals but that probably adds to the excitement really.

On one side we have the underdogs up against the team that many people have tipped to be champions in Dublin v Cork which looks to be heading towards a sell-out which is incredible.

On the other side of it you then have the traditional rivalry of Kilkenny and Tipperary in what looks a very evenly matched contest.

The Kilkenny and Tipperary squads that will be taking to the field on Sunday haven’t seen much of each other when it comes to championship hurling.

LISTEN: Cian Kenny, Tommy Walsh, Richie Hogan, Huw Lawlor and more - Kilkenny People Sport Podcast

A few of the players would have been around for the last meeting in 2019 but it hasn’t been as regular as it would have been 10 years earlier when they met almost year on year and there was a savage rivalry between the counties.

The teams have gone down different paths in recent years with Tipperary in particular going through a period of transition and rebuilding.

There were years there where Tipp were failing to get out of Munster as they waited for younger players to come through and replace the likes of Seamus Callanan who was moving on, but both teams are now back in a really strong position.

Kilkenny have won the last six Leinster titles and they will be confident coming into this but Tipp, at the same time, have had a very good campaign and both are very well balanced through the team so it’s very hard to predict for a lot of people - it may just come down to form on the day to see who gets over the line.

Kilkenny’s experience of the last few years will certainly help and the benefit of playing in Croke Park a lot more regular could see them settle into the game a bit quicker.

The flip side to that however is that there will be a lot of hunger in the Tipperary team with the fact that they haven’t been back to Croke Park in a number of years.

There’s pros and cons to that argument but I don’t see Kilkenny’s experience playing a huge part on the end result.

One of the things that you’d have to say is that Kilkenny will be fresh coming into this game and while they’ve had a few injuries, they haven’t had the same attritional games that Tipperary have had.

The downside to that is maybe their mettle hasn’t been tested as much as Tipperary, but they will have a bit more freshness to them.

The one thing I will say about Kilkenny is that when they went out against Galway, they racked up a serious score. Ok, they let Galway back into it but they stemmed the tide when they needed to and pushed on again to close out the game.

That threat shows they can open teams up and when on form they have been really impressive and I’d be looking for more of it again at the weekend.

When you look at the likes of Eoin Cody, who could possibly come back into the team, you really see how much competition for places there is.

All those factors mean Kilkenny are in a really good place ahead of the semi-final.

You’d have to be impressed with Tipperary’s progress as well as over the last few years they have failed to gain any real traction not only in games but in full campaigns really.

This year has been very different and they were good all the way through the league and they continued that form into the championship and have really kicked on.

We potentially maybe though that their form would dip having started the year so well but there has been none of that and we know they have many good players throughout the team with lots of good underage stars coming through their ranks.

The way both teams try to utilise the centre-forward and centre back positions will be crucial on the end result.

Andrew Ormond put in a man of the match display against Galway the last day and is very important to the Tipp cause while John Donnelly or Adrian Mullen are similar on the Kilkenny side with both teams trying to draw the centre back out of position and whoever does this most efficiently will gain an advantage in opening up more space for the inside forwards.

The two sides are evenly matched in this area so getting a foothold there could prove to be the defining factor of what is sure to be a cracking game in the windup.

HEAR A FULL PREVIEW BELOW: