Ian O'Riordan talks to Tipperary's prolific scorer Eoin Kelly ahead of Sunday's Munster hurling semi-final against Waterford in Cork
He scored 0-14 and also helped create Tipperary's 0-22 total in the Munster quarter-final win over Limerick, one of the all-time great displays of individual skill, which left most of the hurling experts lost for words of praise. If that player were anyone other than Eoin Kelly then the expectations going into Sunday's semi-final against Waterford could be a little too hard to handle.
Yet Kelly has his own way of dealing with pressure like that - he simply ignores it. Time after time Tipperary have relied on his unwavering talent to lead their scoring threat, and practically without fail Kelly has delivered. At 24 he's long been displaying maturity well beyond his years.
But it was his scoring against Limerick three weeks ago, with 0-9 of his total coming from play, that left even the hurling greats suggesting Kelly is as good as they've ever seen. When it's put to the young Mullinahone player that all this praise, hype and expectation seems to fly right over his head, he says just that.
"Yeah, it really does fly over my head. Of course any day you perform well you're delighted, after all the years training and that. But the most satisfactory thing of all was the work-rate shown by the team, throughout the game. Everyone helped set up scores for one another. And all the hooking and blocking that we had practiced worked as well, which was great to see.
"But that was just talk after one game. All I'm focused on is getting another team performance like that, and stepping up the intensity again for the Waterford game. We were all looking forward to that game after beating Limerick."
One of the most incredible things about the 0-14 hit against Limerick is that Kelly has every chance of matching such a feat on Sunday. Since making his debut against Galway back in 2000, Kelly has made 26 championship appearances, with a scoring total of - wait for it - six goals and 147 points. That surpasses Nicky English on the county's all-time list, and leaves him just 38 points short of Jimmy Doyle's record. And that total of 14 scores has only been surpassed twice in the last 10 years.
Not that Kelly stops to think about these things. In fact it's impossible to get to him to reflect on his individual displays no matter how good they are, and it's no different when he looks back on the win over Limerick - a game Tipperary weren't fancied to win.
"We always saw that as a 50-50 game as well. We'd a great tussle with them last year, and just looked back at that. They were the form team, but we knew if we could match them for intensity and match them for work-rate, or even better them on work-rate, which I think we did on the day, then who knows. And the way it went for us thankfully we were able to get the win.
"The one thing for sure is we don't want to fall into the trap of having a bad performance the next day. We want to build on that Limerick performance. We were back training the week after, and were supposed to have club games that weekend, but they were all cancelled with the bad weather. That was the only small distraction really."
Kelly and his team-mates aren't distracted by all the talk of injuries in the Waterford camp. Manager Justin McCarthy will finalise his team after training this evening, but definitely missing is their suspended forward and his namesake Eoin Kelly, along with the injured Ken McGrath and John Mullane. Defender Tony Browne is also rated highly doubtful.
"We have no interest in listening to that. I remember 2004, when they also beat us, they ended up without Ken McGrath and Paul Flynn, who both went off the field injured. I remember Paul O'Brien stepped up to the mark and scored the winning goal. He was an unknown player then, so you can't rely on their injury problems.
"We know well the challenge we face against Waterford. We haven't beaten then the last two times we played, and they beat us easily in the Munster final of 2002. So we're just hoping to reverse those results.
"And of course we have injury problems of our own. My own brother Paul still has that hamstring injury, Benny Dunne has a bad knee injury, and Lar Corbett has a hamstring injury as well. They're three of our most experienced players. We'd like to have them on the field for us. So I see it as any Munster championship game, 50-50, and could go either way."
Tipperary are also awaiting a final fitness update on their full back Philip Maher, who sustained a knee injury in a club champioship game last weekend.
The tables have turned since the quarter-final and this is a game Tipperary are expected to win, but with former manager Nicky English paying a second visit to their training sessions last week to pass on some more advice, preparations have gone well.
"Babs Keating has also pointed out the few mistakes from the last day," adds Kelly. "If you're not willing to improve on those mistakes you'll go nowhere. We'd also like to get everyone back. You always want players fighting for places and we haven't really had that because of the injuries. Though if you could get over Waterford, and maybe have them for the rest of year, I think we'd definitely be stronger, yeah."
