John Horgan on hurling: Did the best team win lift Liam MacCarthy last summer?

The lengthy hiatus between the end of one hurling season to the beginning of the next has been criticised in some quarters, over half the year when there is no inter-county activity at all.

There are different schools of thought on the split season and it is certainly not perfect but there is never a perfect world is there and for the foreseeable future it's here to stay.

It won't be too long now before it all gets going again with the start of the national league at the end of January and thereafter it will be almost full on until July when the curtain will fall on another All-Ireland campaign.

Since the provincial formats were changed a couple of years ago, the introduction of the round-robin in the provinces the game of hurling has reached levels that previously might not have been attained.

Yes, we had thundering games in the past, massive Munster showdowns culminating in a final that had supporters reaching for a neboliser to try and regain their breath at the conclusion.

Cork and Tipperary collisions down through the decades are still recalled by the older generation, the big Munster venues being crammed with supporters from both counties clinging on for dear life as the final minutes were played out.

Limerick, Clare and Waterford sometimes burst the bubble, breaking free from the stranglehold that the province's big two had.

But that was then and this is now and the complexion of the Munster SHC is much changed, the dominance of Tipperary and Cork has been well and truly broken, the championship is an entirely more open affair with all five competing counties being separated by very little.

It's now a championship of inches as one scribe described it last season after Limerick, Clare and Cork had managed to qualify for the All-Ireland series.

Limerick, of course, won their sixth provincial title in a row, a phenomenal achievement by any standards and something that will be near impossible to replicate.

And who knows, they might make it seven-in-a-row in 2025.

Clare and Cork will have a lot to say about that, to a lesser extent maybe Waterford and Tipperary but one thing is a near certainty and on the evidence of the past few years we should be in for another blockbuster of a campaign.

Munster hurling has been and is being described as the jewel in the GAA's crown and there would be very few dissenting voices at that description.

BEST EVER

The 2024 inter-county hurling season has, in fact, been described as the best ever and again it would be hard to argue.

In defeating Limerick at the group stage on that never-to-be-forgotten Saturday night in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cork captured the imagination of the hurling nation, they were described as the spark that lit up the Summer.

Despite playing on home turf not too many gave them a chance of defeating arguably the greatest team of all time.

All the more so after losing to Waterford and Clare in their two opening round-robin games, the pressure was immense but they delivered and it reinvented their hurling summer. Of course, there were a couple of more thrillers in that Munster campaign of 2024.

The Cork and Clare encounter was another thriller at the same venue with the Banner inching their way to victory on a scoreline of 3-26 to 3-24.

Clare and Waterford was another memorable encounter in Cusack Park, Brian Lohan's team holding out for the win in another game of fractions.

There were a few lopsided games too, Cork hammering Tipperary in Thurles and Limerick doing something similar to the Premier. But the positives far outweighed the negatives in another massive Munster hurling campaign.

The final was another Limerick and Clare affair with nothing changing, Limerick creating history with another victory over their close neighbours from up the road.

So what is it that makes the Munster hurling championship so special, why has it and quite rightly so too been described as the aforementioned jewel in the GAA crown?

Let's start with the venues for the big games, Thurles in particular.

The Tipp town has always been a special place on big hurling days and in days long past supporters cycled to the Tipperary capital, often leaving home at six in the morning and not getting home until midnight.

BUZZ

The traffic would be backed up to Fermoy when Cork were involved. From early morning the buzz around the town, particularly in the square there is an atmosphere that is unique, both sets of supporters creating that.

The walk to the stadium is a sea of colour of the two counties and inside the ground the anticipation levels are something else and nine times out of ten what follows is a hurling extravaganza.

The Gaelic Grounds on the Ennis Road has its own special appeal. As have Walsh Park and Cusack Park, two venues that can be so intimidating for the visiting team to get a result. Will it be any different next season? of course not.

In fact, it has the potential to reach new heights, Cork having to travel into enemy territory against Clare and Limerick.

Cork and Limerick, Clare and Cork and Limerick and Clare are now the biggest hurling rivalries.

The past few seasons have illustrated that and it's likely to be that way for the foreseeable future.

Clare must come to Limerick this time, the All-Ireland champions that John Kiely's men will be desperate to bring down.

The bar has never been as high as it is in Munster right now and the difference between Clare, Cork and Limerick is wafer-thin.

You just cannot predict what is going to happen in any games featuring those three counties....

Last season Cork defeated Limerick not once but twice, Clare defeated Cork twice and Limerick defeated Clare twice.

The hurling was exceptional throughout, the individual brilliance mesmerising at times and the score-taking breathtaking.

Did the best team win the All-Ireland?

BEST TEAM ALWAYS WINS

As stated in the past, Brian Cody always said that the best team wins the biggest prize on the biggest day.

When such an iconic figure makes that statement, it's difficult to put up an argument.

Clare got the breaks, had a certain amount of luck and were on the right side of a few big calls from the officials.

But that's the way it's always been through the years, in a very tight game as that final was it became again a game of inches.

It put the seal on a memorable hurling year, three of the five Munster counties taking centre stage and if one had a crystal ball to gaze into for the coming season the likelihood is that those three same counties will be the headline acts again.

The intercounty game of hurling, particularly in Munster has never been in a better place.