TIPPERARY'S LIAM SHEEDY: Seán Moranon the one-time corner back's efforts to lead Tipperary to All-Ireland final glory

IN THE space of his first two years Liam Sheedy has done what no Tipperary manager has achieved in over 20 years: win back-to-back Munster titles. That was usually enough to guarantee a fighting shot at the All-Ireland but in these days of qualifiers and the Kilkenny supremacy, provincial titles can be overshadowed.

Last year’s agonising defeat by Waterford in the All-Ireland semi-final might have spared Tipperary the horrors of what befell their conquerors at the hands of Kilkenny but it also delayed the team’s arrival on the main stage, forcing them through another year’s evolution.

Sheedy has been entrusted not alone with hurling’s most stuttering major franchise but also with a steady flow of under-age talent that if properly marshalled will deliver All-Irelands.

Turning that sort of theory into practice in a county like Tipp brings its own intense pressures.

A hard-working corner back, who accumulated a range of minor and under-21 silverware that would be rapturously received in less aristocratic counties, his misfortune was to be a regular in hard times although he played on the team, which progressed through the first qualifier structure in 1997, that nearly shocked Clare in that year’s All-Ireland final.

His under-21 coach Mick Minogue, with whom he won the 1989 All-Ireland, described his youthful charge of 20 years ago as: “Dependable. Sincere. A real genuine and wholehearted hurler and he was always a keen listener. I remembered that about him, he was always very intent on picking up the information.”

Any information he’s picked up on Sunday’s opponents is of necessity daunting: going for an unsurpassed fourth successive All-Ireland and beaten just four times in a decade of championships.

“Some of these guys are going up and playing in their 10th final,” he says of the champions.

“They have us on the experience side of things. They are being talked about as being the best team in years, maybe the best team ever. I definitely witnessed the best team performance last year in September.

“To be realistic, we’ll need to find a performance above anything we’ve shown so far this year to have a chance. That’s the reality, that’s the team you’re playing. They haven’t been beaten in four years: that needs no explaining.

“They are the standard-bearers. But from our point of view, some of our passages of play throughout the year have been very, very good. If we can get more consistency and for longer periods that’s what we have to focus on.

“They set the bar high on intensity. We have very good fellas; we have guys that can do the business with the ball, but the secret is to make sure you’re working at a high enough level to give you a chance to get the ball. These boys don’t like giving away that ball.”

After the disappointment of last year Tipp regrouped. They bounced back from a trimming handed down by Kilkenny in Nowlan Park during the league to contest a fiery final in May, going down to defeat in extra-time but with honour restored.

The championship progress through Munster was nagged by a failure to finish off teams as Cork, Clare and Waterford all recovered from potential trouncings to compete. That shortcoming was emphatically addressed in last month’s All-Ireland semi-final when a hapless Limerick were swamped by 24 points. Sheedy is ahead of the curve in being able to identify lessons in the rout but also relieved at the successful rectifying of what had become a worrying sequence of failure at Croke Park.

“There was a period at the start of the second half when Limerick had chances, but it was one of those days when they couldn’t put the ball between the posts. We took our chances. We created seven goal chances and we took six of them.

“We only cracked over eight points in the first half which typically wouldn’t be enough in 35 minutes of hurling. In terms of the team-work, in terms of the lads and in terms of their attitudes I thought it was spot on.

“We were a little bit nervy at the start but that’s to be expected. Some of those guys have had bad experiences of that place. It’s good to have all that out of our system.”

He is not, however, prepared to proclaim his team’s difficulty in closing out matches has been resolved.

“In fairness to Limerick, they probably knew with 15 or 20 minutes to go the game was up. They just weren’t hurling and when Larry (Corbett) got the fourth goal that was the clinical score. They had got their chances and they had got two goals, but when Larry got the fourth . . .

“We were bringing on guys like Paul Kelly, Willie Ryan and Benny Dunne. They all came in and made a difference because they knew, ‘this is my seven minutes or 15 minutes to try and make a stand for a starting place’. That’s what you need.”

By Sunday the starting 15 will have been picked, the seconds will be out and a new generation will hear the bell for the latest instalment of one of the great All-Ireland final rivalries.

Liam Sheedy

Born:1969

Club: Portroe

Appointed:2007

Managerial honours: Munster SHC 2008 and '09, NHL 2008, All-Ireland MHC 2006, Munster MHC 2005.

Playing honours:All-Ireland U21 1989, NHL 1999, All-Ireland JHC 1989 and '91, Munster U21 1990, Munster MHC 1987.

Backroom team:Selectors – Eamonn O'Shea (Kilruane McDonaghs) coach, Michael Ryan (Upperchurch-Drombane); trainer – Dr Cian O'Neill.