Opinion- All eyes are fixed on Munster as Kilkenny go under the radar
Watching the teams in the league - or nearly all of them - you got the feeling that many counties had one eye on the championship during the course of the campaign.
A lot of established teams were looking to find new players to fit into their starting 15 or even just their panel, so I don’t think there was much shadow-boxing. However, the priority is still the championship and if a few key players were to pick up knocks during the league then they were going to take a backseat.
Teams wanted to see as much of their panel as they could and they wanted to perform well; maybe get to a league semi-final or something, but all the while not picking up many injuries before facing into the championship.
For the league finalists, an extra week off to give them three weeks lead-in to the first game would be more favourable and would give the teams involved a chance to have a down week where they could assess any injuries, as well as getting a full week’s proper training as well.
Kilkenny and Clare may have appreciated that time off but for the semi-finalists and the teams that didn’t qualify they’ve had enough time at this stage to get their house in order and it’s maybe something to consider in the future.
Kilkenny had a really good league and even though they’ve a few injuries, the two week turnaround won’t be too much of an issue for them.
Clare and Limerick is a great game to start off the championship this weekend and because those two are the big dogs in Munster, a lot will be learned after this match.
If Clare turn over Limerick then Limerick will automatically have a bullseye on them for the rest of the teams, who will be thinking they can take their scalp.
The other side of it is if Limerick win then it’s kind of business as usual and everybody will be looking to see what other teams potentially can put it up to them.
So it’s really exciting to have such a big clash to begin with, but you’re also going to look at Cork and Waterford. People will want to see if Cork can continue where they left off in the league in positive form; as for Waterford, will they do anything differently than they did in the league?
A lot of Waterford fans are maybe crying out for something a little different, whether that is a more orthodox or a bit more 15 on 15. It will be interesting to see what way teams go this weekend. I know Kilkenny have Antrim and they’ll be expected to beat them, as will Galway against Carlow.
Dublin and Wexford will also be one to note but all eyes really will be on Munster. Whoever wins those two games will be in a great spot and hopefully we can look forward to a great championship.
I’d be hoping that Tipperary can cause a threat to any of the teams in Munster, but their form hasn’t been great towards the end of the league. If they manage to turn that around, it could change things up a bit while Waterford, as it stands, look the team that could lose their four games but hopefully that doesn’t happen as anytime Waterford do well it’s good for the championship.
Outside of that, it’s hard to see where anything outside of the norm is going to come from. I think Kilkenny and Galway will go strong and they should make the Leinster final again, while Limerick and Clare are the leaders in Munster with Cork and maybe Tipperary looking to upset that.
I don’t really see any bolters coming through that would be any different to previous years.
I don’t think there’s any real pressure on Kilkenny as at the end of the day they’ve beaten Clare in the last two All-Ireland semi-finals, games where Clare may have been favoured to beat them.
Kilkenny have also beaten them on their merits and the neutrals may look at them and think that they’ve lost a few finals, but you have to take each of them as a standalone game. Derek Lyng will know that they were against a very good Limerick team last year.
The reality is that if Eoin Cody had scored that penalty against Clare they could have won the league and it’d be a very different conversation then. While they didn’t get the cup in their hands, they still aren’t far away and it’s just about a couple of small things going their way.
But I still don’t think there’s extra pressure to succeed or anything and the likes of Adrian Mullen, TJ Reid and Eoin Cody have nearly said as much.
There are still aspects of the league that Derek will look to improve on like the performance against Offaly in Nowlan Park or the Clare defeat in Ennis, but new players like Jordan Molloy have come to the fore and that’s important to kick on to the next level.
There are a lot of positives to be taken for Kilkenny and Derek seems to be very grounded going into the championship. He knows that, on their day, they can beat anyone.
He’s already got a Leinster championship in the bag but he also knows that his team is capable of handing the initiative to the opposition and I think Derek will be focussing on that this weekend against Antrim and ensuring that they get a 70 minute display.
They will be looking to get a bit of a lead and put a bit of distance between themselves and then face into the Galway match after beating Antrim in a really positive position.
With the likes of the Wexford and Dublin games coming up as well, I think Derek will have a target that at no stage will they leave their fate down to another team. I think that’s something the management will have gathered from the league that they need to focus on themselves and when they do that they know that they are capable of beating anybody on their day.
