Dublin and Tipperary meet in the All-Ireland minor hurling final for the first time since 1954 in a fascinating curtain-raiser on Sunday.

While Tipp are favourites to lift the Irish Press Cup for the first time since 2007 and for the 19th time in all, Dublin have a surprisingly good record against them in minor deciders. Of the four All-Ireland titles they have won at this level, three were claimed at the expense of the Premier County in 1945, '46 and '54. Their last success came in 1965 when they defeated Limerick in the final.

For Dublin dual stars Conor McHugh, Cormac Costello, Eric Lowndes and Donal Gormley, this is the first of two massive games they will play over the next fortnight. They also have an All-Ireland minor football final to look forward to against Meath on September 23. McHugh, Costello and Lowndes are unlikely to be lacking in motivation after tasting defeat in last year's All-Ireland minor hurling and football finals to Galway and Tipperary respectively.

Shay Boland's charges retained their Leinster crown thanks to a 2-15 to 1-14 victory over Wexford in the decider. They scored 8-68 and conceded 1-49 in four games against Wexford (twice), Kilkenny and Carlow with Paul Winters racking up 3-29 alone in the provincial campaign.

Winters posted a further 0-3 in Dublin's fortuitous All-Ireland semi-final victory over a Clare team that had lost the Munster final to Tipperary. The Banner were the better side for most of the game and had one foot in the final when leading by six points with 20 minutes remaining. But the Leinster champions refused to give up the ghost and had levelled by the 56th minute.

The sides traded points thereafter before Oisin O'Rorke struck his second goal in injury-time to give the Dubs a dramatic 4-14 to 2-17 victory. The Metropolitans got a lot of lucky breaks in that game and Shay Boland acknowledged afterwards that they will need to show major improvement if they're to make amends for last year's 1-12 to 1-21 final loss to Galway this weekend.

Under the management of William Maher, who captained the Premier County to an All-Ireland minor success in 1996, Tipp have hardly put a foot wrong in reaching this juncture. They hammered Kerry by 6-21 to 0-11 in their Munster championship opener before defeating Waterford at this level for the first time since 2003 on an emphatic 2-25 to 0-12 scoreline.

They then claimed their first Munster title since 2007 when overcoming three-in-a-row chasing Clare by 1-16 to 1-12 at Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Corner forward Stephen Cahill's 29th minute goal helped Tipp to a 1-10 to 1-4 interval advantage, but Clare twice closed the gap to two points in the second period before a brace of late frees from John McGrath secured the win for the blue and golds.

In the All-Ireland semi-final, Tipp ended Galway's reign as All-Ireland champions thanks to an impressive 2-16 to 1-14 victory. John McGrath had a powerful game at midfield, helping himself to 0-7 (0-5 from frees), while Stephen Cahill and Mark McCarthy both found the net against a Galway team who had their full back and captain Paul Killeen controversially sent off on a second yellow card with 15 minutes to go.

Big things have been expected of this Tipperary side since their 2-20 to 0-9 victory over Galway in the Tipperary Supporters' Club All-Ireland U16 final two years ago. They have quality throughout their team and were far more impressive against the Tribesmen than Dublin were against Clare at the penultimate stage.

With more than half a dozen survivors from last year's All-Ireland final team and plenty of Croke Park experience, Dublin will feel they are capable of ending the capital's long wait for Irish Press Cup success. But unless they up their game at least 60 per cent on the display against Clare, they won't beat this Tipp team.

Verdict:Tipperary

Tipperary - TBC

Dublin - C Mac Gabhann; S Barrett, C O'Callaghan, E Lowndes; E O'Donnell, R Murphy, S McClelland; C Costello, C Cronin; C McHugh, S Treacy, C Conway; O O'Rorke, C Boland, P Winters.

Odds: Tipperary 1/4, Draw 11/1, Dublin 7/2

Match Details: Croke Park, Sunday 9 September, 1.15pm

You can follow all the action on the hoganstand.com Live Match Tracker this Sunday Tweet

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