It's not yet May and the hurling championships are already making noise.
Last week, Clare had Limerick on the ropes for more than 50 minutes before the Banner blacked out. The attack got bashful and their defence forgot how to defend.
You might have to go back to Limerick’s All-Ireland final collapse to Offaly 30 years ago for the last time celebration curdled to catastrophe so quick.
With Clare heading to Cork this Sunday, Hurling Nation is asking both teams the same question: will the real Banner and Rebel counties please stand up?
Cork came through the league looking like they knew what they were doing. The teams seemed like a good blend of young and old. Getting Alan Connolly and Mark Coleman back was a bonus.
Things went poorly against Waterford. A long gloomy cortege of Cork fans drove back over the Youghal bridge, and the post-mortems down this way have been unpleasant.
So Cork v Clare is the first big SuperValu Páirc Sunday. A full house, two teams who desperately need to discover themselves in championship. This is what makes Munster hurling great.
Our confidence in Cork hasn’t evaporated but this looks like a Clare win. That said, we wouldn’t recommend betting your house on it.
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Next on the bill is Limerick playing host to Tipperary. The Treaty never seem to lose touch with their real selves when it matters.
Every year, at this time, Tipperary are asked who their real selves actually are. They lost all four games in Munster in 2022. Last year they were on the brink of reaching the Munster final when they handed Waterford their only win of the summer.
They recovered to put 7-38 past Offaly in Tullamore but then their summer just fizzled out in the quarters. What we will get from Tipp this Sunday is anybody’s guess.
Limerick though, will be no mystery. Their last two competitive games have seen them lose a league semi-final to Kilkenny and needing a Houdini escape against Clare. John Kiely will be expecting a proper performance; Hurling Nation expects the same.
Leinster is the poor relation in a lop-sided championship. In a province containing 12 counties, plus Antrim and Galway, it’s a tribute to the GAA’s failure to promote hurling that the race for the third qualifying place comes down to Wexford and Dublin every year.
This weekend, Dublin travel to Carlow. The Joe McDonagh champions may cause some scary moments for the Dubs but only some.
Antrim host Wexford at Corrigan Park. After the hiding they got from Kilkenny, the comfort of home still won’t be enough for the traumatised Saffrons.
The big game is Kilkenny’s visit to Galway. They played each other on this weekend last year in a lively bout of shadow boxing. The sequel promises more of the same.
Finally, in the always-interesting Joe McDonagh Cup, the top contenders Westmeath and Offaly, who both suffered surprise beatings last week, play each other in Tullamore, with the Faithful favourites for this one.
Enjoy the weekend’s action.
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