John Horgan on hurling: Munster draw makes home games crucial for Pat Ryan's Cork

IT might seem a bit ridiculous to be getting into any sort of debate about next season’s Munster Hurling Championship given that it is months into the distance but the schedule of games in the group format announced last week has given some food for thought.

With three new team managers, Pat Ryan in Cork, Davy Fitzgerald in Waterford and Liam Cahill in Tipperary, there will be heightened interest in the provincial competition. It will be a similar story in Leinster with Kilkenny having a new man at the helm for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, Derek Lyng having huge boots to fill after Brian Cody’s departure.

It will certainly be a strange sight to see a Kilkenny team taking the field without the great man patrolling the sideline.

When a new manager takes the reins in any county there will be renewed optimism among that county’s fan base and that will certainly be the case in three of the five Munster counties. Fitzgerald and Cahill are, of course, not newcomers to events in Munster, Fitzgerald back for a second shot in Waterford and Cahill taking the reins in Tipp after his stint in Waterford.

That leaves Pat Ryan as the only real rookie in the managerial merry-go-round and he will certainly have been a close observer when the schedule of games was revealed. Life in Munster is cutthroat with only three of the five counties progressing to the All- Ireland series and two major hurling counties having their season terminated very early.

So, to the schedule for Ryan and the rest of his Cork management team.

First up will be Waterford visiting Páirc Uí Chaoimh followed by another home encounter against the Premier. Then comes two away days in Cusack Park against Clare and a visit to the Gaelic Grounds for a joust with the country’s undisputed number one team for the last couple of years.

Having a home game to start with has to be viewed positively from a Cork viewpoint but, at the same time, does it really matter considering how competitive the province has become?

There is no easy game in Munster, there hasn’t been for quite a while but looking at the schedule, concluding with two away games in Cusack Park and in the Gaelic Grounds, it is nearly imperative that you have to try and maximise the return from your two home games.

The ideal situation would be to collect full points from the opening two games and subsequently have the pressure lessened when you travel to the more intimidating venues in Clare and in Limerick.

At least one win from the opening two games, considering that they are both on home turf is a must for Cork next season and anything less would have you sailing in very troubled waters before embarking on the away trips.

Cork lost their opening two games in the 2022 season to Limerick and Clare but reinvented themselves to see off a very fancied Waterford team in Walsh Park and then travelling to Thurles to end Tipp’s season. It was a case of all’s well, ending well in that Munster campaign but when you lose twice you are immediately on the back foot.

Would any Cork supporter want to be heading to Clare and Limerick seeking two victories to extend your championship journey? A big ask if you were pointless after the opening games.

ADDED PRESSURE

There will be extra focus in the counties where there is a new management team and Cork’s opener against Waterford will be massive, Ryan’s first championship encounter against the more experienced Fitzgerald. Where the latter is concerned, there has been a bounce in the past when he took over, Waterford the first time and subsequently Wexford and there was that All-Ireland success in his native Clare in 2013.

Therefore, it will be up to Cork to make a very early statement on home soil and set the ball rolling for what lies ahead.

Tipperary were desperately poor last season but the expectation in the Premier is that things will be better with Cahill and it’s expected that he will call on more of the two successful All-Ireland U21 teams that he was in charge of. Again it will be up to Cork to halt them early in their tracks.

The bottom line really is, Cork must make home advantage count fully in their first two games and a full return from them could, quite easily, be sufficient for qualification. That might not be the case at all but it would be a considerable plus.

But first things first for all the management teams will be the construction of their preliminary panels with the auditions in the local championships nearly at an end.

Here in Cork, Pat Ryan and his new management team will have been monitoring things very closely over the past few months. The status quo will prevail for a lot of last season’s squad but there will be newcomers too and one would assume that a few members of the successful Barrs county title-winning team will be included.

They will add to the youthful dimension that is already in place although Ryan might have to wait to get them in if the Barrs were to get a protracted run in the club championship.

And, of course, it will be very interesting to discover what the approach to the NHL will be given that both of last season’s finalists, Cork and Waterford did not have a successful championship campaign, Cork better than Waterford but ultimately falling well short.