Selector Michael Ryan is in no doubt that Tipperary have benefited from the extra games they have played in the backdoor series.

Speaking ahead of next Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final against Kilkenny, the former Tipp defender said: "Here in Munster we love our Munster championship, but it doesn't buy you a place through to the final as Waterford found out and as we found out in 2008. That's the benefit of extra games.

"When I was playing I remember being knocked out in '94 by Clare and it was the longest, hardest summer I ever put down. It's great it doesn't end like that for the current generation of inter-county players because they put in too much effort and they deserve another bite at the cherry."

Ryan, who has served alongside Liam Sheedy for the last three years, believes Tipp's 10-point drubbing by Cork in the opening round of this year's Munster championship would have spelled the end for the current management set-up in the pre-backdoor days.

"If that was pre-1997 that was knock-out hurling and they were gone. That's what they would have been remembered for in 2010 and that's the hurling we grew up with, any of us who are of that time, and that's the benefit of the back-door system.

"You can almost afford one blip in your province -- it's a single lifeline, you can't do it twice. It would have been a travesty for us because they have put in a great effort for us since we got involved in 2008.

"It would have created a lot of problems in Tipperary and you would have been wondering is our system wrong or are our players wrong or is our management wrong," the Upperchurch-Drombane clubman added. Tweet

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