On returning from his very enjoyable but ultimately unsuccessful tour of duty with Mick McCarthy’s travelling army, An Moltóir looked over the videos of the two televised hurling games he had missed while away: Tipperary v Limerick and Offaly v Kilkenny…

While the results in both cases were clearcut, they still made for some interesting viewing. Tipperary, so steady and economical in their march to the All-Ireland last year, are now playing with the extra assuredness and coolness which comes with being the champions. At the same time, it also seems to An Moltóir that both teams taken on by Tipp so far this year - Clare and Limerick -have gone back considerably from last year’s performance level.

Limerick had two periods of territorial dominance in their game against Tipp - the first fifteen minutes and a seven or eight minute period in the third quarter. However, their scoring return from both periods of dominance was woeful. If they had taken even half the clear chances created in these periods, it could have been a different game altogether. In the five minutes after Eoin O’Neill missed a good goal chance on forty-two minutes, the Shannonsiders had bad point misses by Paul O’Grady (twice), James Butler, Stephen Lucey and Mark Keane. Had they played with the sense of purpose which they showed against Cork, Waterford and, indeed, Tipperary themselves last year, it is likely that several of these opportunities would have been converted into scores.

It was clear that Limerick were mentally not as prepared as in 2001. This was seen in their frequent fumblings and the lack of length in the balls played into the forwards against the wind in the first half, which repeatedly gave the advantage to the Tipp backs. However, An Moltóir would not wish to give the impression that Tipp’s win was mainly down to Limerick’s deficiencies. The champions fought tigerishly to deny Limerick ball in the close exchanges and played with great drive and skill throughout. Once again, their halfback line was immense. As in the Clare game, while Eamon Corcoran and Paul Kelly provided the spectacular clearances, the less heralded graft of David Kennedy in between was crucial to stopping the supply of ball to the Limerick forwards. And behind Kennedy, Philip Maher was almost imperious in his domination of exchanges around the square. Elsewhere, while Mark Foley hit a lot of ball for Limerick, he was unable to curb Brian O’Meara, who gave one of his best ever displays for Tipp. John Carroll’s input was also prodigious, while one has already begun to take Eoin Kelly’s contribution for granted.

For Limerick, the only real pluses were another top-class display by the ageless Steve McDonagh and a solid performance by newcomer Peter Lawlor. These greatly curbed the threat from the left wing of Tipp’s attack, which may cause some concern for Nicky English as he lays plans for the Munster final clash with Waterford. Limerick clearly have no forwards with the class of Ken McGrath or Paul Flynn, while this year the Déise appear to have a more impressive line-up on the substitutes bench than the Shannonsiders. If Justin McCarthy can infuse them with a good attitude going out on the field, Waterford may not prove to be the cannon fodder which many observers already appear to think they are.

When Offaly came out of nowhere to capture All-Ireland titles in 1981 and 1985, it generated an immediate payback within the county in the form of three minor All-Irelands in 1986, 1988 and 1989. These teams in turn provided the backdone of the All-Ireland winning sides of 1994 and 1998. However, the flow of underage titles dried up in the 1990s, giving rise to genuine fears that the Faithful County might gradually drift back to the inferior status it occupied prior to 1980. Leinster minor and under-21 titles in 2000 brought some glimmer of light in the form of a number of new young players with potential for the future. The evidence from the Leinster semi-final is that there is sufficient material coming through to allow Offaly to remain in the top flight. Of particular significance is that the most promising new players are all forwards: Rory Hanniffy, Stephen Browne and Brian Carroll (assuming that Brendan Murphy is now one of the established players). Further back, Joe Brady and Mick O’Hara in particular also played a lot of good ball. Another important aspect of the Offaly display was that the new players showed the tigerish tenacity which was the hallmark of their predecessors, and never allowed their heads to go down even as the game slipped away from them in the second half.

Ultimately, inexperience and some bad luck were the key factors which separated the teams at the end. As with Limerick, Offaly simply did not get enough scores during their lengthy periods of first-half dominance. The absence of Johnny Dooley was absolutely cricitical in this respect. Numerous goal chances and half-chances went abegging and throughout the game, shots from out the field repeatedly fell short. Not that Kilkenny were great: their goals were a bit soft, they hit a lot of bad wides in the second half, and several of their forwards made little impression. Ultimately (and not for the first time) Henry Sheflin was their trump card. It was amazing that the Offaly mentors made no real attempt to shackle him.

Indeed, the overall sideline performance of the same mentors left a lot to be desired. They presumably were trying to spread their experienced players throughout the field by placing Hubert Rigney at midfield, Kevin Martin at centre forward and Simon Whelahan at corner forward. However, such attempts to place square pegs in round holes rarely work. Brian Whelahan’s best position has always been at wing back where he can sweep across the half line. It was extraordinary that Hubert Rigney, whose great strength over the last decade was his ability to hold the centre of the halfback line, was not once tried in this position against Kilkenny (especially as he was making little impact in midfield). It was equally amazing that, when Brian Whelahan drifted completely out of the game in the second half, he was not switched to somewhere else where he could have been more effective. In particular, Offaly desperately needed a ball winner in midfield (Gary Hanniffy was the other obvious candidate for this role who was never tried either). It was also surprising to see Kevin Martin being taken off altogether, rather than, say, being moved to left corner back where John Paul O’Meara was experiencing considerable problems with Eddie Brennan; while the placing of Simon Whelahan at corner forward deprived the team of one of its great outfield fighters.

The introduction of the qualifier system should be particularly beneficial to a mainly young team such as Offaly’s. In previous years, they would have had to wait a full year to build on the experience gained against the Cats. With the introduction of Charlie Carter and Brian McEvoy, Kilkenny probably moved closer to their optimum championship lineout (DJ excepted) by the end of the Offaly game. However, they will probably need a couple of the new players introduced during the National League to deliver on the big stage if they are to go all the way this year, especially if Henry Sheflin gets injured or has an off day.