John Horgan on hurling: Cork now turn towards an Easter ambush up in Clare

Given there are only two national titles to be won each year, it is important to seize the opportunity when it's presented.

Winning the league becomes only a footnote for the leading counties if they fail to make the desired impression in the championship but, conversely, it can be a very important stepping stone on the road to greater riches when the stakes become much higher.

Clare last season, Limerick a couple of times in their four-in-a-row All-Ireland years and Kilkenny in their glory days built successfully on the experience of winning the secondary competition and now it's Cork's turn to try and replicate that.

Sunday's emphatic victory over Tipperary ticked a number of boxes, the end of a losing sequence in finals and a lengthy famine without a league title and a firm statement of intent that they are hell-bent in ending another all too long a period in the wilderness on the championship stage.

In olden days a Cork-Tipperary final in the league or in the championship carried a bagful of expectation, a game in the best tradition of two of hurling's greatest rivals and one that certainly would not be effectively over as a meaningful contest at the halfway point.

Cork entered the game as firm favourites, the odds far too short where some people were concerned and at the end of the opening 35 minutes, they were well on the way to justifying that tag.

Substantial leads have been erased before in the game of hurling and a few quick goals can change the complexion of matters in minutes.

Tipperary had a mountain to climb at the interval, trailing by 13 points, 3-16 to 0-12 and having done very little to suggest that they would be able to reinvent themselves thereafter.

In fact, at that juncture in the proceeding it had become a damage limitation exercise for the Premier, try to put some sort of a positive spin on things and not be facing Limerick in the Munster championship opener on the back of an almerciful battering by their league final opponents.

They succeeded to some extent but a 10-point defeat is still a battering in any person's language.

Of course, it's always foolish to put too much store into what transpired in a competition so early in the year and counties have turned the tables in the past.

Prior to last Sunday, Tipperary had been the story of the campaign thus far, reaching the final after a very flat 2024 when they got trounced by Limerick and Cork and failed dismally to get out of the province.

Now, they are head-scratching again, Sunday's outcome providing a lot more questions than answers before Limerick come calling on Sunday week.

Cork got the job done at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh with a certain degree of great efficiency, particularly in the opening half when it was very much a case again of goals making all the difference, three more added on to the 10 they had secured against Clare and Galway.

Alan Connolly, Darragh Fitzgibbon and Ethan Twomey took their efforts with great aplomb and in the three instances the approach work was superb.

SUBLIME

Some of the point-taking was sublime too and newcomer, young Diarmuid Healy rifled over a brace of real quality and showed that he has a huge role to play in the much bigger games coming down the line.

Fitzgibbon's versatility was illustrated again with a haul of 1-4 in the number 11 jersey and Ethan Twomey has put forward a very strong case for inclusion in the middle alongside Tim O'Mahony. His work-rate continues to catch the eye.

Alan Connolly hasn't played much hurling because of injury but his importance to the inside line was very evident again and a fine return of 1-2 represented a good day's work. Brian Hayes was of major assistance in a number of scores and he's another definite championship starter.

Cork had eight different scorers on the board after just 23 minutes, six of them with more than one score.

Tipperary would have been in far bigger difficulty at the break if it wasn't for some poor final deliveries from the home team and nine first-half wides was a negative statistic. But that was the only negative in that half and in a lot of instances, their half-time tally of 3-16 would have been good enough to win a lot of games.

Sean O'Donoghue and Niall O'Leary were the standout performers in the full-back line and the Inniscarra player is very near being back to his best while the Castlelyons man continues to be ultra-consistent.

Ciaran Joyce didn't put a foot wrong all through while Rob Downey excelled again at centre-back.

At the interval, Cork supporters might have been expecting something similar in the second half, another all-out assault on the Tipp defence but you rarely if ever get a 70-minute performance of near perfection.

DROP

The tempo of the proceedings dropped considerably in the second 35 minutes, the game became a bit fragmented and to be honest, it was near enough to a damp squib.

There was never the remotest chance that Tipp were going to stage what would have been a miraculous recovery and whilst they did improve, they were nowhere near at the level that might have put the frighteners on Cork.

It was really a game of two halves from Pat Ryan's team, excellent in the opening half but nowhere near that type of display thereafter.

But this was a game that was needed to be won, to get the hands on some silverware and enter the championship arena with the necessary momentum behind you.

League and championship are chalk and cheese, everything is judged on championship happenings and that's what awaits this Cork team.

In this league campaign, the positives have far outweighed the negatives and Pat Ryan's desire to have intense competition places has been granted.

In saying that, however, one would probably be safe in stating that the management are very close to putting out the starting 15 that they believe will deliver on the big championship days, starting with that very potentially awkward trip to Ennis on Easter Sunday.

Clare are going to be difficult proposition altogether than what they were in the six-goal mauling Cork inflicted on them in the league. 

Normally, the reigning All-Ireland champions on their home turf would be fancied to take down their opponents in their opening defence of that crown. However, given their travails in the league and their subsequent relegation, Cork will probably start favourites to inflict more early pain on them.

But there will be a great awareness among the management that an ambush might be awaiting.

For now, it's so far, so good for this Cork team, a trophy of significance has been won and there's no shortage of momentum.

They were entitled to a small celebration on Sunday night if they had one but it's all about Clare, Tipperary, Limerick and Waterford in the Munster championship now and being in the top three.