It’s hard to get your head around the idea of the championship starting on April 16th, certainly for someone brought up on dry, dusty, July pitches in Limerick and Thurles.
Never mind the older generation. How championship-ready are the teams? Will the ones that went farther in the league have an advantage over the others? I have always felt that the longer you’re in the league and the closer you are to championship, the better.
Does that form hold? To be honest, I think it does.
This raises questions for Limerick. They had a similar league last year and it showed in their first Munster outing against Cork. This year is going to be different again. Limerick were imperious in raising their game and powering to the All-Ireland but how would the round-robin format have impacted on that?
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Quite a bit, I think. They could win against Cork on Sunday by hitting fever pitch but they’d have to do it another three times in the following four weeks.
If we learned anything from the league it’s probably that Waterford have acquired depth in their panel and that Limerick aren’t as deep as we may have thought.
Peter Casey is a huge loss, accentuated by Séamus Flanagan's absence through injury, and overall they'll need to blood players in the round-robin partly to rotate and partly to see if they're up to required standard, which the league suggests they may not be. In general Limerick haven't impressed – too much fouling, not taking scores and picking up red cards.
They are capable of serious improvement though and the management of John Kiely and Paul Kinnerk have been incredibly skilled at pumping up the volume as the championship progresses. That was maybe better suited by the knock-out format in 2020 and '21: four matches with a couple of weeks in between.
They may tweak the team and there has been talk of switching Kyle Hayes back to centre forward. I don't see that as a great option. He's probably more of a scoring threat thundering down the wing than he would be in attack, plus Cian Lynch's sublime ability to orchestrate in that position wouldn't be in Hayes's repertoire.
If Cork are to win they need to do something about Lynch. Failure to do so cost them a mint in last year's All-Ireland final. If he gets the freedom of Páirc Uí Chaoimh like he did in Croke Park last August, it's over. I think the plan then, disrupted by injury, was for Ger Millerick to sit in front of Mark Coleman. I don't know how they plan to do it but there has to be a plan.
Physically I think Cork have improved and players like Darragh Fitzgibbon and Coleman had good leagues – as far as the final, anyway. Ciarán Joyce may be the only player they’ve discovered but he is very good and ultimately they’re not much different from last year. Daire O’Leary has shown promise at full back but his fitness is in doubt.
Cork simply concede too much. They shipped goals in the All-Ireland final and the league final and it’s hard to be leaking like that and win.
I’m still giving them a chance because they have a good record at home and also against Limerick in Munster. They have also had time to absorb the lessons of the league final and come up with a response. It’s just too hard to know where Limerick are but we’ll have more information by Sunday evening.
I don't think I can remember Tipperary being such outsiders against Waterford but it's easy to understand. Liam Cahill has overseen a league that developed power, depth – winning silverware without Austin Gleeson and Jamie Barron – and a title. They could hardly go into the championship in better shape.
Tipp are in transition and their supporters accept that. All that’s expected of them is a bit of fight and pride. That suits them and any hint of complacency from the home team would be dangerous.
Waterford are at home but I believe Walsh Park will suit Tipperary’s lack of pace in defence better than Thurles or Páirc Uí Chaoimh, particularly in the modern game with the ball being worked though the lines and running off the shoulder, which puts a premium on pace and power.
Their younger players need to develop and I'm looking forward to seeing what impact Mark Kehoe and Conor Bowe can make up front. But it's Waterford's to lose. Their goal scoring threat with Bennett, Gleeson and Hutchinson has been proven, they have confidence and their athleticism in the middle third is on a par with anything we've seen from Limerick.
Leinster starts on Saturday with an important match in Wexford. Darragh Egan bookended a strong league campaign and five good wins with hammerings in the Walsh Cup, by Dublin and in the league semi-final by Waterford.
In that semi-final they conceded everything to Waterford, puck-outs and possession. Whatever was meant to happen clearly didn’t but they beat Galway in Galway, Clare in Ennis and Limerick at home and showed good form doing so.
They’re hard to assess but it’s not unreasonable to expect improvement on the Waterford game. Rory O’Connor, who scored everything he looked at in the divisional games, couldn’t score a free from 40 metres out.
Galway should be improved by the recruitment of Henry Shefflin as manager but if the team that finished last season so tamely is again the bulk supplier, it's hard to see how they can be resurrected without a serious infusion.
We’re going to learn a lot this weekend.
