John Horgan on hurling: Cork strongly favoured but be very wary of wounded Waterford

THE main focus of media attention over the coming days will centre on the gargantuan clash between the All-Ireland champions for the past four years Limerick and the league winners Clare.

Cusack Park in Ennis hosts that collision of the near neighbours but there is a game of equal importance in Walsh Park with Cork the visitors to that venue to take on Waterford.

Yes, the eagerly awaited Munster SHC is almost upon us and there is every chance that the game of hurling will reach towards the sky again in the coming weeks in keeping with how things have been since the introduction of the Round-Robin format in the province.

A similar situation applies in Leinster but there is far greater uncertainty about how things are likely to pan out between Limerick, Clare, Cork, Tipperary and Waterford.

The whole thing is a fascinating prospect for all hurling followers across the country and nailing down the three counties that will emerge to contest the All-Ireland series is a hugely difficult task.

The initial perception might be that it will be Limerick, Clare and Cork who will go through but how could anyone write off the great hurling counties of Tipp and Waterford?

Neither are looked upon as having the squad depth that the other three possess and that may be the case but the Munster hurling championship takes on a life of its own when the sliothar is thrown in and when it comes down to it, the likelihood is that there won't be a great deal separating any of the five.

And a study of recent history in the competition will rubberstamp that belief.

Whilst the expectation is for a cracker in Cusack Park, the game going right to the wire, the opposite appears to be the case with Cork and Waterford with Cork the much bigger fancy.

That's based quite a bit on Waterford's poor league showing which resulted in them being relegated from Division 1A and not being one of the seven counties that will form next season's elite group in the secondary competition.

The revelation last week that the ticket take-up in the county for next Sunday's game has been very slow with the thinking that there will be more Cork supporters in attendance than there will be from the host county is not helping the situation.

But let's forget all that, yes Waterford had a poor league campaign, winning just the one game against Offaly.

However, it has to be factored in that of all the competing counties none had the amount of injury problems that Davy Fitzgerald's squad had and, of course, their star player, Austin Gleeson opted out of the equation at the start of the year.

Yes, he's a tremendous loss but that's not here nor there now and life for this season anyway must go on without him.

Now the torch belongs to those charged with the responsibility of trying to ensure that Waterford will not be on the outside looking in as was the case last season when the All-Ireland series began.

History has told us that you never write off a Waterford team no matter how things might appear from the outside.

Remember last season that they had already been eliminated when they took on Tipperary in the final game in Munster and the belief was that they would just turn up and go through the motions against the Premier County.

But look what happened, they went out and won that game in Thurles by six points.

In their opening game of that 2023 campaign, they really troubled Limerick and lost by just two points.

So for anyone to be dismissing them as they might be doing this time, be careful, be very careful.

WARY

You can be certain that when Cork rock up in Walsh Park they will be facing a Waterford team containing some very fine hurlers who will not lie down easily. And be sure too that Cork boss, Pat Ryan will be treading very warily for this potential banana skin of an encounter.

Yes, Cork will be confident but cautious at the same time and they should be against a team that will have a hard core of very experienced hurlers on the starting block, players of the calibre of Conor Prunty at full-back, Tadhg de Búrca at centre-back (if fit), Calum Lyons on the wing with Jamie Barron and Paddy Leavey at midfield.

Stephen Bennett, Dessie Hutchinson and Patrick Fitzgerald are just three attackers that can make life difficult for the best of defenders and overall there is a decent balance to the team.

Revert back to their league encounter with Cork in Pairc Ui Chaoimh when they came at the home side like a train in the final minutes and only just lost out in the end. It might have only been a league game but they did produce a lot of spirit that day.

But that was then and this is now and the pre-season training, those hard slogs on a bitter Winter's night, the pre-season games in the Munster League which was curtailed this time because of the weather and then the national league, that's all consigned to the footnotes of the sports pages now.

Every detail of that preparation was geared towards next Sunday, the vitally important opening game of four in the provincial championship.

Win that opener and the optimism levels begin to rise, lose and you are on the back foot immediately and the pressure to be one of the three counties to qualify for the McCarthy cup intensifies.

It's a long time ago now and much has changed but Walsh Park has not been kind to Cork teams when they were expected to win. Way back in 1967 when Cork were All-Ireland champions they were eliminated from the championship by Waterford at the venue.

Fast forward seven years when they travelled down there again in 1974 after winning the league, defeating the then All-Ireland holders Limerick in the final, they lost there again. On both occasions, Cork finished with 14 players.

Of course, Cork teams have been successful many times since down there but if a Waterford team gets a head of steam on that sod it can become a very difficult place for the visitors to get the victory.

Yes, Cork will be the big fancy on Sunday as they were in those bygone days but favouritism in the Munster SHC can stand for very little on the day if everything is not in perfect working order.