John Horgan on hurling: What we learned from the league about the Munster contenders

It was a sight to behold, a Cork hurling captain raising a national trophy to the skies above SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh for the first time in 20 years.

The league had been a resounding success, it was mission accomplished but almost immediately it was time to move on, put the silverware into cold storage and focus on the much bigger picture which, of course, is the beginning of the Munster championship.

You get hardly any time at all now to dwell on anything, the inter-county season is now so condensed, the games coming thick and fast and the margin for error is minimal.

Without any shadow of a doubt, the round-robin format in the provincial hurling arenas have been hugely successful, particularly here in Munster.

The margin for error is minimal, and nothing can be taken for granted.

One is certain that if questioned at the outset of any season what their priority is, every team boss will give you the same answer, getting into the first three in the province and ensuring that your Summer is extended into the All-Ireland series.

Failure to do so and it's over and out for the best part of seven or eight months before you play intercounty hurling again.

Cork hurling is in a very good place right now, a national trophy has been secured and the competition for starting places in the first 15 has never been as intense as it is now.

The bulk of the starting 15 for the championship is probably already pencilled in by the management and there won't be any major surprises when the team is announced for the trip to the home of the All-Ireland champions on Easter Sunday.

Many might be of the opinion that the team that began last Sunday in the league final will get the vote again but that's not a certainty.

All the hard work on the training ground has now been put in but an AvB game could swing things one way or the other for a player.

Of course, when you participate in the league final the time frame before the commencement of the championship is very short, not too much time for a player to convince the management that he should start before someone else.

In the past starting teams almost selected themselves, there was a much larger gap between games and there was more time for injuries to clear up.

Because of what transpired in their league meeting last month and how poorly Clare played during the league there is a school of thought that all Cork have to do on Sunday week is turn up and go through the motions of gaining the precious points on offer.

Yes, Clare had a desperately poor league campaign, they will be without the 2024 hurler of the year, Shane O'Donnell who was the orchestrator of so much in their attacking formation last time out.

PLANNING

But it's in the searing heat of the championship that all counties are judged and for the opening defence of their All-Ireland, be sure that Brian Lohan has been planning something over the past few weeks.

League form has more often than not proved to be misleading, the early stages anyway and Tipperary's demise last Sunday showed us that their form at the group stage was just that.

They arrived in the Páirc in what had to be a confident frame of mind but surely that opening half display and the fact that the game was all but over as a meaningful contest at the interval must have surely have put a severe dent in that confidence.

Perceptions have surely changed in the Premier County now and whilst progress has been forthcoming since last season, they look some way off the pace that the four games in Munster will require.

Their opener next Sunday week against Limerick could get hairy if they produce anything like what was on show in the first half in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

They have dropped down the rankings in Munster and it looks like it's going to be a much taller order now to emerge.

We had a good look at Waterford too last Sunday and despite allowing a huge half-time lead be reduced to just four points at the end against Offaly there was plenty about them to suggest that they could cause quite a few problems for a few teams over the coming months.

There's a wealth of experience in the side, they will have Austin Gleeson back for the championship, Tadhg de Búrca is motoring again as are the Bennett brothers.

You can never write off Waterford as Cork found out in Walsh Park last season and on any given day they can be a serious test for the best of opponents.

They won't win Munster or the All-Ireland but full points from their two home games will put them firmly in the mix to be in the conversation.

Things have been very quiet on Shannonside but that's when you worry about Limerick.

The thinking was that John Kiely got what he wanted from the league, wasn't that interested in going the distance this time and he has further bolstered the panel.

My god, they are going for seven in a row in Munster and their meeting with Cork in the Gaelic Grounds is going to generate massive interest.

It's far too premature to be suggesting that this could be the first of three championship collisions over the next few months between the two of them, a Munster final to follow and a huge day in Croke Park later in the year.

Don't rule out it happening.

Right now at this point in time and at the end of the league season, the smart money is probably going to be on Cork, Limerick and Clare being the three counties again to come out of Munster.

O'Donnell's loss is huge for Clare but they should still have enough in the bank to be able to carry the process deeper into the Summer.

Waterford have a trophy on the sideboard and that will give them confidence to ensure that they won't be underestimated by any one of the other four.

We'll wait until we see Limerick against Tipp and if they are going to be close to the force they were during the four-in-a-row years.

From a Cork perspective, three clean sheets on the trot, closing things down much better at the back, and with so many options in attack has put them in a very advantageous position to be top dogs again in Munster.

That's further up the line but one is certain, all that Pat Ryan will want initially is to be one of the three counties going forward into the battle for the MacCarthy Cup.

With seemingly the right balance in all sectors now, that objective should be achieved