KEITH DUGGANtakes the hurling temperature in Tipperary as the Munster champions prepare to face Limerick for a place in the All-Ireland final

THIS IS a crucial week for Tipperary hurling. Those with memories mature enough to recall Tipperary's unassailable years - in the hurling annals of the Premier County, the Swinging Sixties holds an entirely different meaning - or even the defiant return to pomp in the late 80s must find it hard to fathom that so much could be riding on an All-Ireland semi-final.

There was a time when semi-finals represented a cursory obstacle to Tipperary hurling, a hurdle to another September. But this is what it has come to.

Kilkenny have been cutting a swathe through modern hurling lore much as Sherman's raiders marched through Georgia, leaving a trail of spectacular havoc in their wake. The rise of the Cats to a state of seeming omnipotence must be particularly bewildering to the generation of Tipperary hurling people for whom matching and often eclipsing the stripy men was the natural order of things.

All that has changed.

Tipperary enter tomorrow's match with Limerick backed by the troublesome burden of favouritism and a burning requirement to qualify for a first All-Ireland final since 2001.

On form and development and consistency, Tipperary have earned the right to be considered the county closest on the heels of the Kilkenny men. But that means nothing - it is not as if Limerick will acquiesce tomorrow afternoon just to give Tipperary a title shot.

After 12 months of solid work that included a battling league final performance against Kilkenny and a fairly comfortable retention of the Munster senior championship, Tipperary find themselves right back where they were a year ago: 70 minutes away from an All-Ireland showdown with Kilkenny.

It is both a measure of how far this particular squad has travelled and of how the scope of Tipperary expectations has been narrowed in recent years.

"I sometimes wonder if we made the most of our successes at underage," mused Mick Minogue this week. The Roscrea man was the driving force behind Tipperary hurling at under-21 grade from 1979 until 1992.

He is referring specifically to the county's remarkable haul of eight Munster titles that yielded All-Ireland successes in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1985 and 1989. (The county also featured in the finals of 1978, 1983 and 1984).

It is true that, by 1989, the fruits of those teams led to the sides that won the senior All-Irelands of 1989 and 1991.

But Minogue cannot help but believe the county could have gleaned more success from that group had they been shrewder or greedier or luckier or bolder or colder in their attitude to killing games.

The Munster final defeat to Cork in the centenary year of 1984 is one that haunts him. A big effort had gone into preparation for that season because of the pageantry of the year and the fact that the final was arranged for Semple Stadium - the idea of a Tipperary team not featuring seemed galling.

And he can see Tipperary winning by four points with four minutes to go and the mood in the revamped Semple Stadium jubilant. Then John Fenton flashes a point and Tony O'Sullivan strikes one of those inevitable Cork goals from nothing. Suddenly a drawn match loomed but when Tipperary's goalkeeper parried a Cork attempt for a point the the ball fell kindly to Seanie O'Leary, as lethal a finisher as ever wore the blood and bandage.

Just like that, Tipperary were gone.

All of this is old history of course but it is indicative, perhaps, of a certain conservatism that the county has been guilty of down the years. The Tipperary sideline chose to retrieve Seamus Power from his natural home at full forward to play left corner back when Bobby Ryan, the team captain, had to leave the field with an injury.

It always struck Minogue that several natural defenders were left sitting on the sideline. (Although Tipp had already made two changes to their defence earlier in the match).

"That saying 'that it is hard to get on a Tipperary team and even harder to get off it', it can be difficult for hurlers to make an impression in a county with 32 senior clubs, in fairness. Maybe the return of three All-Irelands since 1971 does not reflect the quality of hurlers that we have had in the county over that period. I think sometimes it was hard for hurlers to break in, particularly if they were playing for junior clubs.

"I remember Cormac Bonnar must have been 28 or 29 when he started featuring regularly. It was hard to understand why it took so long - here was a fellow of 6ft 2in and sure himself and Nicky English wreaked havoc when they got going. Maybe we have been slow to bring players through.

"Kilkenny under Brian Cody have been consistently sharp in that way. They were letting players go that would have been welcomed in any other county."

Minogue was manager when Liam Sheedy played corner back on Tipperary's 1989 All-Ireland Under-21 winning side and is often cited as a key influence by the current manager. Sheedy had also played on the Tipperary minor side that lost a high-scoring All-Ireland final to an Offaly team bejewelled with Dooleys and Pilkingtons and Troys.

But Sheedy's graduation into the senior scene reflects Minogue's observation. After making his debut during the 1989 NHL season, he had to wait until 1997 for a taste of championship action.

Hurling for Portroe did not place Sheedy at the epicentre of the game in Tipperary, but Minogue was well-versed on his abilities. He knew of the Sheedy family - Liam's brothers Mike and Jim were both accomplished hurlers - and he praises their mother, Bid, as a tremendous source of energy for the Portroe club.

He liked what he saw in Liam: "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."

In retrospect, Sheedy had the latent managerial qualities but back then few would have picked the Portroe man to lead what has the appearances of a Tipperary revival. Although he has enjoyed a distinguished, even glittering career in comparison to most GAA players, he fell short of joining the fabled sons of Tipperary hurling.

Sheedy succeeded Babs Keating who succeeded Michael Doyle who succeeded Ken Hogan who succeeded Nicky English who succeeded Len Gaynor who succeeded Keating who succeeded Tony Wall - all of these were banner names in their high summer years.

The selection of Sheedy, after his smart and effective work with the minor teams, was a victory for his own quiet persistence. John Evans, the current Tipperary football manager, has come to know Sheedy well since he became involved with the county.

"He has all of those qualities that you would associate with a corner back - he is solid and very composed. He is also very jovial guy if he is in the right company. Sometimes I would see him on television before and after games and you know, very intense and very serious. He is that too. And my first impression of him was that this was someone that you do not cross lightly. But great company behind the scenes.

"What I have noticed since the footballers and hurlers started training in the same field is that the players mimic his intensity and approach. They are a very level-headed group and there would be evenings when I would take a look at the hurlers train and the enthusiasm and intensity was something to behold.

"I think Liam has become more outspoken too as he developed in the role and became more comfortable in the role.

"In terms of the football, I think there used to be an uneasy relationship there with the hurling but there has been no bickering since he took over.

"The thing I most admired about him is that he does not bear grudges or develop chips on the shoulder, which would be easy to do in Tipperary where hurling is under such scrutiny and is open to criticism. He is very solid. In a way, there is a bit of Brian Cody in him. You know, the style of management is not about waving a big white flag saying look at me. But his influence has been total."

It is a source of pride to Minogue that Sheedy's selectors are Michael Ryan, full back on the 1989 under-21 team and Eamon O'Shea, who had hurled at minor level in 1976: all had passed through his hands. He believes they each share a thoroughness and an absolute honesty of application and that their collective temperament has been reflected in the steady graph of improvement the team has shown under Sheedy's tenure.

Last year's All-Ireland semi-final defeat has been the lone failure to date and it was a bitter one. Remarks emanating from the players' camp this week have admitted that much.

"The worst I've been in," was James Woodlock's summary of the dressingroom after a rampant Waterford side had outgunned them. That defeat extended Tipperary's bleak record in Croke Park throughout the decade and it places more pressure on the team to deliver this time around.

"If I know Liam Sheedy, then he will look at where they fell down last year and he will have learned from it," says Evans.

"The thing about players and managers is they can take criticism but they do not forget it. It does drive them on and they remember it and this Tipperary team will want to make up for that this year."

Sheedy has calmly talked down the notion of Tipperary strolling through this semi-final as "silly stuff".

But the retention of the Munster championship for the first time since 1987/88 does bode well and Minogue's long-held wish that promising players might get their chance sooner has been made real by his former protégé.

Sheedy has been fearless in the matter of giving youth its fling, most notably in the elevation of Noel McGrath, a sensational minor who was born on Christmas week 1990 and has become a central element in Tipperary's attack this year. Against that Brendan Cummins, whose shot-stopping has been as uncanny and instinctive as ever, is set to surpass John Doyle when he lines out for his 55th championship match tomorrow, more than any previous Tipperary player.

For all of the new promise introduced along with Shane McGrath and Seamus Callanan, much is dependent on the senior rank of Cummins, John O'Brien and, in particular, Eoin Kelly as Tipperary seek to fight to return pre-eminence.

The tendency to fade in matches - most significantly in the last quarter of the Munster final when Waterford came storming back from a 10-point half-time deficit - has been a source of concern for the county.

However the backbone that the team displayed in its league encounters with Kilkenny was impressive.

"I know it was the league but it was a long time since I saw any Tipperary team going after Kilkenny like that," says Minogue.

"What happened down in Nowlan Park happened, it was a total annihilation and they had to respond to it. But they stood up in the league final and they were hungry, they hurled well and with a bit of luck, they could have won it. Their attitude impressed me.

"Of course there are concerns still. I would like to see us vary things a bit more. And there is that tendency we have of looking brilliant at times during games only to go fast asleep.

"Everyone in Tipp is conscious of the games against Limerick a few years back when we seemed to have things under control but they kept coming back and eventually, they beat us. Everyone remembers that."

After the 1965 season, when Tipperary had swept up the league, All-Ireland and Oireachtas competitions for the second consecutive year and were generally considered untouchable, John Doyle is reputed to have made an observation to the effect that the greatest danger to the team was its supporters. Complacency within the county proved inescapable.

In 1966, Tipperary fielded an understrength team against a young Limerick side and lost as Eamon Cregan picked the most feared full-back line of them all for 3-5.

Tomorrow, the Tipperary clans will gather in Croke Park with nothing like the sense of accomplishment that governed the county back then.

But they will know that Limerick teams can break your heart just the same.

A nervous afternoon beckons.