The decision by Kilkenny manager Brian Cody to make three changes to his team for the All-Ireland SHC final replay has forced Cyril Farrell into changing his mind over who will win.

Earlier this week, the former Galway All-Ireland winning manager had backed Tipperary to prevail, but now he finds himself siding with the Cats after Cody decided to shake things up by bringing in Kieran Joyce, Padraig Walsh and John Power to his starting line-up.

Writing in the Irish Independent, Farrell stated: "Apologies to everyone who heard me predicting a Tipperary win in the Irish Independent's marquee at the ploughing championships last Tuesday.

"That was then, this is now! I was leaning ever so slightly towards Tipperary at the time on the basis that they might come out of the drawn game a little better than Kilkenny, but things changed with the announcement of the teams. Now, I fancy Kilkenny to edge it.

"The named Tipperary team - and I presume it's the 15 that will start - points to an overall level of satisfaction with the job they did three weeks ago. That's understandable up to a point, although I'm surprised Michael Cahill is not aboard. Instead, they are going with the same starting team, which, in fairness, is the more usual route in replays.

"Not so, Kilkenny. By making three changes, Brian Cody has shown that he wants to re-set the agenda. I'm told that the training matches in Kilkenny were furiously intense in recent weeks, but then players knew that places were up for grabs. That included Henry Shefflin, who played only a bit part in the drawn game.

"Cody is going for broke, which is typical of how he operates. Kilkenny are League and Leinster champions and remain unbeaten after six championship games, yet he makes three changes, whereas Tipperary, who have no titles and lost once in the summer, are happy with what they saw the last day.

"From an attacking perspective, that's understandable, since they scored 1-28. Defensively though, they were just as open as Kilkenny. The fact that Cody has re-jigged the defence so substantially shows how unhappy he was at the amount of space the Tipperary attack enjoyed.

"Tipp's interchanging definitely rattled Kilkenny, who aren't used to having their defenders dragged all over the place. Tipperary will feel - and rightly so - that they are improving all the time and that another small top-up will get them over the line. That's assuming that Kilkenny won't improve, which is quite a supposition. In fact, it's too much.

"Cody has made a bold statement with his selection and could well be rewarded. Kilkenny to shade another great game."

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