Mind games and scores to settle as hurling summer begins
In a sporting landscape where fans and pundits are forever bemoaning an absence of 'jeopardy' in the early rounds, the Munster Hurling Championship has nearly gone too far the other way.
There, the participants can't move for the jeopardy. Everyone is up to their eyeballs in jeopardy.
The seventh instalment of the Munster round-robin series has been preceded by mind games and bullish pronouncements.
Alan Connolly's bold departure from 'we're-under-no-illusions-about-the-task-the-next-day' principles has already set tongues wagging.
Most pundits and podcast talking heads have praised his forthrightness when he declared that "when we're [Cork] at our best, I don't think anyone can beat us." There's little doubt, however, that the comments will be dredged up gleefully should Cork fall short this summer.
Donal Óg Cusack, meanwhile, threw down the gauntlet to Tipperary by invoking their 61-year wait to win back-to-back All-Irelands, adding somewhat mischievously that "as long as I'm involved in hurling, they can rise very fast but they also fall faster than anyone else."
Tipperary's failure to secure back-to-back All-Ireland titles since the tail end of the Hell's Kitchen era in the mid-1960s is an exceptionally first-world problem as far as the rest of the GAA community is concerned.
But within the confines of hurling's historic golden circle, aka the big three, it seems to be a source of endless ribbing. Kilkenny, by contrast, don't do standalone All-Irelands, with just one (2000) since 1980.
Last summer's shocking All-Ireland final second half continues to loom large in the public consciousness, even if the players and management insist on its irrelevance.
The entire summer seemed to have been building towards a glorious Cork crescendo, in which they would end their unprecedented 20-year drought at All-Ireland level.
The evening instead ended with Tipp fans belting out 'Slievenamon' until late into the night in the hostelries (roughly 85% of them Tipperary owned) of the capital, while memes proliferated on social media of Michael Lowry giving a two-fingered salute in the Dáil - a gesture which represented Cork's scoring tally in the second half.
From the outside, the notion that Tipp are under inordinate pressure this summer is a dubious one. Last year's All-Ireland title victory was so unexpected that Liam Cahill and his team surely have considerable credit in the bank.
Just 14 months earlier, they were the sick man of the Munster championship and the bulk of the Tipp public had decided they had better things to be doing than looking at them.
The team looks very settled. Darragh McCarthy is coming off the best debut season imaginable, while Jake Morris is in stellar form. Hurler of the Year John McGrath was more often than not left out during the league though did rustle up 1-04 in the crucial penultimate game in Walsh Park.
Their last title defence, during Covid, ended with a quarter-final loss to Galway in a deserted Gaelic Grounds. This being Munster, there are no guarantees for the All-Ireland champions. Clare won the 2024 title and were the first team eliminated the next year.
Their home record in the round-robin is surprisingly dismal, with just three wins in 12 Munster SHC matches in Thurles since 2018. As usual, the first game, against Cork tomorrow, will dictate much.
After all the trauma and recrimination of last summer, Cork's league campaign was a broadly therapeutic one.
The Cork hurling bandwagon certainly hasn't been derailed by the All-Ireland final disaster, with a new league attendance record set in Páirc Ui Chaoimh in the spring, over 30k showing up for the fairly drab win over Tipp.
In comparison to the relatively emollient Pat Ryan, Ben O'Connor has established himself as the most quotable manager in the game since Ger Loughnane departed for the pundit's chair.
The targets of his annoyance had an old-school ring. Brian Cody's bete noire 'the assessor above in the stand' was in the crosshairs again - even though he goes by the title of 'adviser' nowadays.
Ben O'Connor has emerged as the most quotable manager in hurling
Cork's basic attacking approach doesn't appear to have changed significantly. They still deploy three in the inside-forward line with a particular emphasis on goal-scoring. Midleton's Tommy O'Connell, who provides bite in the middle, has been promoted from regular impact sub to first-choice midfielder.
There remain nagging issues at full-back, however. Eoin Downey's struggles against John McGrath in last year's final have resulted in a switch to wing-back. Ciaran Joyce was relocated to full-back for the league final, though it remains to be seen whether he will be the default option there.
The conclusive manner of their league final loss to Limerick - where they had a surreal Diarmaid Byrnes howler to thank for giving them a foothold - may have dampened some of the hype in Cork.
After last year's shock quarter-final exit, John Kiely's side look refreshed and have undergone some welcome evolution. Aidan O'Connor has gone from a bit-parter and unused sub to chief free-taker, while Adam English and Cathal O'Neill continue to grow in stature and influence.
Shane O'Brien has formed a potent two-man full-forward line with the peerless Aaron Gillane, who was in terrifyingly good form in the league decider.
During their pomp, there were frequent comparisons drawn with the Kilkenny team of the late 2000s and the Dublin footballers in the 2010s. Perhaps the more apt comparison with Limerick now is the Kerry footballers around 1984, who infused their already decorated team with fresh blood after a couple of big championship defeats.
Limerick won a fourth league title in John Kiely's reign at the beginning of the month
Clare are on one level a bit of an unknown. Last year, they suffered much the same kind of post-All-Ireland fallow year they did in 2014.
Brian Lohan freely admitted after their league run that he wasn't sure how much their spring in 1B would stand to them in championship.
Both Galway (2017) and Limerick (2018) won the All-Ireland from 1B, though that was when 1A was confined to six teams and the top tiers were connected via the knock-out phase.
Lohan used an army of players in the second tier, with Diarmuid Stritch, Jack O'Neill and Sean Rynne among those newcomers to stake their claim. Shane O'Donnell even made an unseasonal appearance in the campaign.
Peter Queally's frustration was palpable after Waterford's championship exit in Páirc Ui Chaoimh last year, the sixth time in six attempts they had failed to progress from the Munster round robin.
Oddly enough, in the Covid interregnum, when the championship briefly returned to the pre-2018 format, Waterford reached an All-Ireland final and an All-Ireland semi-final, losing to Limerick in both. No one has offered an adequate explanation for why Waterford have fared dramatically better under a knock-out system. Though, perhaps the sample size here is still too small to draw firm conclusions.
In March, after winning another All-Ireland club with Ballygunner, Dessie Hutchinson called for the return of the provincial knock-out, saying that "Waterford thrive on knock-out hurling."
The present format has proven wildly popular though, not to mention a spectacular money-spinner, so the powers-that-be are unlikely to revisit it just for Waterford's benefit.
For all that, they've hardly been too far off the pace in the last two Munster campaigns, which saw big home wins over Cork and Clare. On paper, there's still a highly dangerous team there, with Stephen Bennett and Dessie Hutchinson in the forward line, while Austin Gleeson has returned to the fold in time for championship.
Leinster SHC - Kilkenny hegemony under threat?
Following last year's fairly tired edition of the Leinster SHC, the provincial council have decided to rejig things. A modest rejigging, admittedly.
For the first time under the current format, the Leinster round-robin will not conclude with Wexford playing Kilkenny and Galway facing Dublin.
There was no formal declaration that this particular arrangement was set in stone, though it was clear from its repetition year-on-year that the hierarchy regarded this fixture schedule as the one best designed to promote suspense on the final day.
Unfortunately, it had all too often resulted in the Wexford-Kilkenny match-up, probably as close as Leinster hurling has to a 'traditional' rivalry, becoming a dead-rubber fixture. Last season especially, no one was under any illusion that Wexford's victory was anything other than a reflection of Kilkenny's disinterest.
And so, this season, Kilkenny will host Wexford in week two, while Galway are at home to Dublin in the penultimate round. Kilkenny are in Parnell Park on the final weekend, while Galway head to Wexford.
Kilkenny are aiming for their seventh provincial title on the trot for only the second time in their storied existence - 2005-11 being the previous such run. In the annals of Kilkenny hurling, it will go down as one of the stranger periods of provincial dominance in that it came entirely unaccompanied by the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
The build-up to today's championship opener against Galway has been dominated by the fallout from their shockingly lop-sided loss in Salthill in the league.
The 18-point defeat in Pearse Stadium was one of those results that transcended the usual 'only-the-league' shoulder-shrugging.
Derek Lyng's comments and demeanour in his post-match interview suggested the Riot Act had received an airing in the dressing room.
Galway delivered a seismic shock against Kilkenny in the league
Lyng did confirm later that there had been a bug in the camp in the lead-up to the game, while stressing that this was no excuse for the performance (though he did put it out there all the same).
The elders of Kilkenny hurling rose in anger, with 2002 All-Ireland winning captain Andy Comerford emerging as the chief spokesman for the outraged.
He exhorted their senior players to quit "shining their All-Stars" and later issued an impassioned plea for Huw Lawlor and Billy Ryan to return home from Australia, reminding them that there was "a beach in Tramore."
Nonetheless, there is extreme wariness about writing off Kilkenny.
They were significantly improved in their final league game against Tipp, when TJ Reid reappeared in the team.
Reid and Mossy Keoghan both scored ingeniously taken goals as Kilkenny restored their honour. That they're still apparently so reliant on a 38-year old legend for attacking sparkle hardly bodes well in the medium term. On the flipside, they do have Adrian Mullen to return, while Eoin Cody is still trucking away.
Richie Hogan remarked last year that 'round-robin hurling' had never really floated their boat in Kilkenny. Given that the Cats have always been certs to escape from the province, the round-robin has had the feel of an extended preamble.
Their path to a provincial final may be more uncertain this year. Their 'even year' fixture schedule is more awkward, entailing trips to both Salthill and Donnycarney.
Galway supporters spent a few seasons wondering where all the young players were. Now, a potential Class of '92 level batch seems to have arrived en masse.
Aaron Niland's reputation has preceded him since his mid-teens and he's established himself as a game-changing forward. Jason Rabbitte looks like a more skilful and subtle version of his father. Rory Burke, Cillian Trayers and Darragh Neary have all delivered towering displays at various points in the league.
Leinster titles have not generally been regarded as the holiest of grails in Galway, for obvious reasons. Joe Canning confessed some years ago that his three medals had never meant a whole pile to him.
But the agony in the wake of the 2023 decider, in particular, suggested a shift in mindset. Finally dethroning Kilkenny in the province would represent both a tasty prize and significant progress for Micheál Donoghue's side.
The Dubs pulled off arguably the biggest shock in the hurling championship since 1989 when they turfed Limerick out at the quarter-final stage. Kiely's side may have been suffering from a post-Munster final hangover and caught at one of their groggier moments. But it was still a result that defied all logic.
Amusingly, Dublin have now won their last three championship games against Limerick - in 2011, 2015 and 2025.
The 34-year-old John Hetherton is enjoying an Indian summer under Ó Ceallachain and is on the cusp of joining the rare band of players referred to in official circles by their nickname.
John Hetherton and Conor Cleary tussle during the 1B final
The widespread consensus is that these three will emerge from Leinster, whatever the order.
The prognosis for Wexford was unremittingly bleak at the beginning of the league. Their squad was so depleted by injuries and opt-outs that one prominent Wexford man on this desk proclaimed that mere survival in Division 1B and the Leinster championship would suffice for 2026.
But Keith Rossiter's side did finish the league much better than they started it, undoubtedly helped by Lee Chin's return late on in the Carlow game. Indeed, they were a whisker away from securing an unlikely promotion, conceding a late, late equaliser against Dublin in Croke Park.
The feel-good vibes from St Martin's Leinster triumph - only the county's second win in the provincial club this century - was soured by star player Rory O'Connor's decision to head travelling. However, it's worth noting that Wexford have the Dubs at home this season, though they haven't beaten them in the round-robin since 2018.
While it concluded on a bum note, the Joe McDonagh champions Kildare had a hugely successful first year in the second tier, beating Antrim, Carlow and Down to easily retain their status, while also giving an experimental Clare side an awkward evening in St Conleth's Park.
The county's hurlers are harnessing the population explosion in Kildare in a way the footballers have seemingly failed to do. Under Brian Dowling, they have made enormous strides, though the air gets significantly thinner from here on.
Their final game is at home to an Offaly side, who endured a punishing league schedule in 1A. The outcome will likely determine which of them remains in this rarefied company.
Watch a Munster Hurling Championship double-header, Clare v Waterford (2pm) and Tipperary v Cork (4pm), on Sunday from 1.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
