in what quickly became known as "the great levelling off championship", two of the favourites for the all-ireland title faced each other in the all-ireland qualifiers on 6 july 2013. in the first ever meeting of the two sides in the qualifiers, tipperary were fancied to finally kill off a kilkenny team who were playing a third major game in as many weeks. a crowd of 23,307 packed nowlan park for a rip-roaring encounter. the sides were level at half-time – 1-6 to 0-9 – as 2010 hurler of the year lar corbett struck for tipp's goal before retiring with a hamstring injury. the return of henry shefflin after a prolonged absence due to injury provided one of the main talking points, with the nine-time all-ireland medallist making a cameo appearance near the end. it was another psychological masterstroke from manager brian cody and a tide of emotion swept kilkenny over the line.