Former Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins believes that John McGrath's red card in their All-Ireland hurling semi-final hindered Wexford and ultimately cost them a place in the final.

Wexford were in the ascendancy when Tipperary's McGrath was sent to the stands for a needless strike on Damien Reck with his hurl on the 45th minute.

Many would have expected Wexford to press home the advantage of having an extra-man but it was Tipperary who responded better to the red card and Cummins thinks that Wexford weren’t set-up to make the most of that advantage.

Wexford initially prospered after McGrath’s exit but couldn’t sustain their dominance and as Tipperary rallied in the closing stages, Davy Fitzgerald’s men had no answer.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio1's Morning Ireland, the two-time All-Ireland winner said: "It’s a stark contrast to the emotions of what Tipperary supporters would have felt after we left the Gaelic Grounds in the Munster Championship when Limerick took Tipperary apart.

"Looking at it rationally you would have said that was just a once-off game and then you had the Laois match where they beat Laois by ten points and they definitely found their mojo again.

"Credit to Wexford, they did really well but they just lost their way after they had the spare man.

"I don’t think it suited them at all in the way they play to have an extra-defender at the back, outside of the sweeper.

"I did feel that Wexford were going to come under severe pressure to actually finish the job and when it dawned on them that 'we could actually get to an All-Ireland final here’, I think then they started to shy away from the game a bit.

"When they did that they went long on the puck-outs. They went long 14 times after the sending-off, they lost ten of them and Tipperary just smashed the ball up the pitch, similar to what Wexford were doing in the first half."

Tipp's reward for their triumph in an All-Ireland final showdown with old rivals Kilkenny and it’s a game that Cummins fancies to live up to expectations.

"It’s great to have the old enemy and to be playing them again," he said. "They’ll certainly be hurting after 2016 and the way Tipperary took them apart.

"Either way it’s going to be an absolutely amazing occasion.

"It certainly gets the heart racing when you think about playing Kilkenny in an All-Ireland final, especially with the way they knocked the All-Ireland champion out."