Tommy Walsh joined Off the Ball on Friday to look ahead to the Allianz National Hurling League final between Kilkenny and Tipperary. 

The two counties have provided some epic clashes down through the years and believes these intense rivalries are what drives the GAA. 

"Rivalries are a massive part of the GAA and what keeps it all going," he told Stapleton. 

"We're right on the border here with Ballingarry and The Commons and over in Urlingford - you have Killenaule and that borderline so it's brilliant around here - it's like Waterford playing Kilkenny down in south Kilkenny. 

"So, for me, it's a huge match. I didn't know much of the rivalry only for my father and what his age group used to tell me when we were growing up because Kilkenny didn't play Tipperary a whole lot. 

"So it's only going back to when he was looking at hurling and his father at that time so it's only now when we start playing them again in the 2000s that the rivalry became brilliant again. There'll be a full house in Kilkenny on Sunday"

"You can see maybe what it's like over in the Old Firm derbies over in Scotland - the pressure that goes with them. We really felt it that way, now pressure in a good way!"

Walsh reflected fondly on one of his own encounters with Tipp and how it brought the best out of him - "Tipperary were coming down - we had gotten the better of them the last few times and they were coming down to put us out of the Championship in our own turf and the build-up to that week was absolutely crazy - and the demand for tickets!

"I remember, while we were in Kilkenny we got a bus from the new park, it's only about a kilometre over but the crowds that were surrounding the bus and coming in then there were players from other counties - I was looking out trying to take it all in so that when it came to the match - it wouldn't surprise me," he added. 

The full National Hurling League final preview is available here: