You couldn’t but be excited last Sunday evening at the fact that the Championship was up and running again.
And, I have to say, that’s primarily down to the fact that the Munster Championship had started.
But, the reality is, the Munster Championship, from a crowds viewpoint, entertainment viewpoint and hurling viewpoint is streets ahead right now.
That wasn’t the case a number of years ago when the Leinster Championship was incredibly tight, with everything coming down to the last puck in 2019 in particular.
While the game I was most interested in was Waterford-Limerick, the game I was actually looking forward to more was Clare-Tipperary.
From an early stage this year, when they went to Nowlan Park and beat Kilkenny, you had to take notice of Tipp.
As mad as this may sound, if they were to lose their remaining three matches and not get out of the Munster Championship, which I don’t think will happen, I still believe that the season would be a success given where they’ve come from.
Their five wins in the League, the first half performance against Limerick, and then going down to Ennis to perform in the way they did, with a relatively new team, is some going.
The job that Liam Cahill and Mikey Bevans have done cannot be overstated.
People seem to have short memories. It’s not so long ago that there was uproar in Tipperary, nobody wanted the manager’s job and a whole host of their best players had just retired or were injured.
Cahill has put his faith in a number of relative unknowns but he’s being rewarded and everyone’s becoming familiar with them now.
To me, Cahill appears to be different. Fire and brimstone, raw and old school. And there is a lot to be said for that.
Bevans seems the opposite. Quiet, clever, but a top class coach and has the team ready for road. Just like they had Waterford primed for the vast majority of their three years with them.
With a weekend off, Tipp can put their feet up for what is a pivotal weekend in Munster.
If Cork lose at home to Waterford, they’ll be on the back foot straight away. And if Waterford and Clare lose again, they will do very well to reach the knockout stages.
The Limerick game should stand to Waterford though I was in Davy Fitzgerald’s position, I would change very little, bar the obvious enforced adjustment at centre-back with Tadhg de Burca’s injury.
Anthony Daly made a comment at half-time about ‘our thoughts being with him’ and while we nearly laughed back in studio at his fatalistic tone, you’d have to acknowledge that Tadhg will feel so low right now with this latest sickening injury. Your heart would go out to him.
He’s endured more than his fair share of setbacks and an Achilles injury is yet another bog one for him.
I really hope he recovers from it and gets back to his best, while enjoying a change of luck.
Lohan needs Kelly show to save season
Brian Lohan is under pressure tomorrow evening.
There were question marks over his team selection in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny and they were there again last Sunday.
Tony Kelly’s League form may not have been fantastic, but then again it didn’t need to be. He was well marshalled by Cathal Barrett last week but, to be fair to Kelly, he always comes up trumps against Limerick. Lohan badly needs him to do so again.
And while I thought Eamonn Foudy’s puckouts were good last week, the pressure is on now after a number of mistakes that resulted in Tipperary goals.
Limerick will know that another two points, followed by a two-week break, will set their summer up nicely, and they will want to go after that.
A local derby on Riverfest weekend on Shannonside should throw up an epic clash.
All on the line for Antrim in Wexford
Antrim should come to Wexford all guns blazing today, firmly believing that they can take the two points.
Why shouldn’t they? Wexford have beaten only Westmeath this year and have injury problems, so their confidence certainly won’t be sky high.
Antrim’s year effectively rests on this game. Win it and the season opens up for them, lose and the rest of the campaign is effectively about avoiding relegation.
There’ll be plenty of drama in Nowlan Park tomorrow with Henry Shefflin bidding to take down his own. It’s a real flip of a coin, this one, but both should be back in a Leinster final in a few weeks either way.
Thurles Hawk-Eye needs to get a move on
I’m a big fan of technology helping match officials to make the right decisions and so being able to call on Hawk-Eye at Croke Park and Semple Stadium is fantastic.
But it takes far too long to deliberate over a score in Thurles. It sucks the atmosphere out of the game.
If it works relatively quickly at Croke Park, I don’t see why it can’t be the case in Thurles. It really needs to be corrected.
Well done Thomas Walsh - now let's hear more from refs
GAAGO’s Championship hurling coverage kicked in last weekend and while there may have been some teething issues, I especially liked one element of the coverage.
Before the Clare-Tipperary game, the referee, Thomas Walsh, did an interview out on the pitch. It was just a general chat around what he was thinking and his day so far. But it brought a human element to referees that we don’t often get.
Fair play to him for doing it and it would be great if this became the norm.
Liam Gordon got some woeful abuse in Thurles last Sunday and was booed off the field at half-time.
It’s a tough job being a referee but if the human side to them was exposed more often, maybe people would be less inclined to unload on them.
