One lesson from the first weekend of the championship is how well league form has held up for counties. Misgivings about Tipperary’s performance levels were borne out in Thurles where Cork’s greater consistency this year proved a fair indication of where that match was going.
We saw Clare’s ring-rustiness and defensive frailties in Ennis, as well as the forward power that puts them in the mix for an All-Ireland. Waterford were true to a league campaign of impressive fight but ultimately coming up short.
Galway, who along with Limerick have looked the two fittest teams this year, delivered another hammer blow to Kilkenny.
This weekend, the league winners Limerick open their championship against Cork, who they beat in the final three weeks ago. Unless that gap proves a disadvantage, we should expect a good performance.
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I would question Cork’s ambition in the league final. Two of their newcomers, Tommy O’Connell and Willam Buckley were substituted before the end despite playing well.
The team lived off scraps but never tried to change things around. Aaron Gillane had a fantastic day but Ben O’Connor chose not to switch Ciarán Joyce, who is now the county’s go-to man marker at full back. He would surely have picked up Gillane this weekend.
Named as man of the match in the league final, Gillane really is a fundamental loss to the team. An exceptional forward throughout the Limerick era, he has been in great form this season.
The news that he will miss this weekend and the Clare match underlines my view that John Kiely’s biggest challenge at this stage of the team’s development is to get his best team on the field and keep them there. I don’t expect the injuries will stop there.
Already, before a match has even been played, he has lost a key player and Cork’s defence will breathe more easily, but they played well in the second half against Tipperary.
Rob Downey spent the first half at corner back but when he came out, I felt he became by far the major influence on the game, dominating aerial contests together with his brother Eoin.
Tipp’s half forwards wouldn’t have struck fear into them on last week’s form, but Limerick’s are a different story altogether. Gearóid Hegarty is in his best form for a couple of years and between him, Aidan O’Connor, Cathal O’Neill and even Tom Morrissey off the bench they are formidable ball winners.
Ironically for John Kiely’s team, Gillane’s injury comes just as Peter Casey returns to fitness. A phenomenal forward, his use of the ball and accuracy is a huge asset for Limerick and if he is fully recovered and keeps fit, he will spell trouble for everyone.
Cork have certain things going for them. The record against Limerick is good: from the fireworks of two years ago, which lit their way out of Munster; last year’s rebound from an absolute hosing in the round robin to reversing that result a couple of weeks later in the Munster final – which basically capsized Limerick’s season.
They have also deepened their panel of forwards to an impressive extent. Buckley and Barry Walsh were outstanding the last day and the physical impact off the bench of Alan Walsh as well as Paudie Power’s return from injury showed that there’s presumably major competition at training.
Cork haven’t been creating goals, though, and the form of Alan Connolly and Brian Hayes on the inside line hasn’t been great. The one thing we know about this rivalry is that goals will be needed. Six frees were also missed and improvement is required there.
Can they turn the Limerick half backs in the way they have managed when beating them over the past two years? I think Will O’Donoghue can make a difference here for Limerick. He is more of a presence at centre back than Kyle Hayes, who in turn is much more at home on the wing. That middle third is where this will be won.
There’s not much between the teams but Limerick have improved this year. Gillane’s withdrawal affects all of those calculations but I’ll stick with them.
There’s a lot on the line for Tipp and Waterford at Walsh Park. Teams can recover from losing their opening two matches but both have to go to Limerick, which is nobody’s idea of a destination where you want to have to win.
Waterford were decent in Ennis and have troubled a lot of teams despite not getting out of Munster at any stage of the round-robin series. They weren’t a million miles from calling an early halt to Cork’s summer last year.
Stephen Bennett maintained his extraordinarily dependable scoring form in Ennis and Austin Gleeson looked good on his long-awaited return.
On the basis that you can’t fatten a pig the week before market, it’s hard to see huge improvement in Tipperary, but there should be progress. Their fumble ratio was high against Cork and far worse than at any stage last year, when their first touch was the best in the championship.
There was a lack of urgency in their play, look at the amount of time they took over lineballs, and Liam Cahill will be hoping that it’s down to rustiness rather than the burden of the expectation or the county’s long-running issue of medal-happiness. Tipp – just about.
Available evidence suggests that Kilkenny, even in terrible form, should beat Wexford, who are still in Division 1B and without Rory O’Connor for the year. But that overlooks their unbelievable recent record in the fixture, which has often defied logic.
They struggled to get past Kildare last week but Lee Chin has so often almost single-handedly overpowered Kilkenny that you simply can’t be sure.
