John Horgan: New All-Ireland champions will be crowned in July and Limerick are well placed

As we have been at pains to stress over the years, the game of hurling never ceases to amaze us over the summer months.

No more evidence is required to back up that viewpoint, it just happens every time.

Munster championship hurling is now on a level that stands it apart from all the other codes.

Yes, we have had two wonderful provincial football finals in Connacht and in Ulster last Saturday night but the Munster hurling championship continues to just give and give.

Clare and Tipperary served up another blockbuster of a game at Cusack Park, the result being that as near a certainty as you can get, there will be new All-Ireland champions in the month of July.

Mathematically, Clare are still breathing but it would now nearly surpass the miracles of Fatima and Lourdes if the Banner County somehow managed to extend their hurling Summer with just one game to play in the province next Sunday week.

They are rooted to the bottom position at the group stage, just a point garnered from the six that were available in their three games against Cork, Waterford and Tipperary and no matter what transpires between Limerick and Cork and Tipperary and Waterford next Sunday it’s all very much a doom and gloom scenario in the hurling homes of the reigning All-Ireland champions.

Tipp and Clare was another enthralling chapter in the Pulitzer Prize-winning story of Munster hurling.

It was nearly identical to what had gone on in the championship opener between Cork and Clare at the same venue, Clare, defensively, all over the shop in their opening half, down by a dozen points at the interval before staging a staggering recovery in the second-half that yielded them a draw.

In the opening half against the Premier, they found themselves 12 points in arrears again before going on another dramatic recovery mission in the closing 35 minutes. 

At one stage in that half, they managed to draw level before somehow Tipp found a second wind to run out deserving winners and as a consequence, kept alive their hopes of being one of the three counties to emerge from the province and maybe even earning themselves a place in the Munster final depending on other results over the next two Sundays.

It’s certainly been a rollercoaster year for Liam Cahill’s team thus far, topping the Division 1A table at the end of the group stage of the national league and subsequently qualifying for the final of the secondary competition.

They got battered by Cork in that final before bouncing back in their championship opener to secure a fine draw against Limerick.

Off they travelled again to Leeside for another joust with Pat Ryan’s team and again a second battering.

The loss of a key player that young Darragh McCarthy has become before a ball had been struck in anger certainly did not enhance their cause and the merchants of doom began to gather again in the Premier County.

But they again reinvented themselves last Saturday night in Cusack Park with a victory that could have huge significance going forward.

We had another example here of another substantial lead in championship hurling being wiped out, another example of taking nothing for granted until the last whistle sounds.

God knows what psychological damage would have been inflicted on them if Tipp had lost this game but the fact that they didn’t have to be a great morale booster ahead of Waterford’s visit to Thurles next Sunday.

The four Tipp goals came thick and fast, superbly executed by the outstanding John McGrath and young Andrew Ormonde sharing a brace apiece and in the overall scheme of things those four scores determined everything.

What it all does, of course, is to keep the pot boiling at a very high temperature entering the two final Sundays in this Munster championship.

UNKNOWN

The permutations are many, too many to try and sort out in this column but we are still very much in unknown territory as to who will contest the Munster final next month. Any two from Limerick, Cork, Tipp and Waterford can make it through, Clare cannot.

That’s in stark contrast to what’s transpiring in Leinster with it being a near certainty that Kilkenny, Dublin and Galway will occupy the top three places at the end of the group stage.

One thing is certain in Munster though, what excellence has already gone on before in the season could well be overtaken in Thurles and the Gaelic Grounds next Sunday.

Given the current state of the table with four counties vying for the three spots, the stakes will be huge at those two venues.

Here’s one permutation, if Cork and Limerick draw and subsequently win their final games against Waterford and Clare respectively they would end up on six points apiece and collide in the final.

As seems certain now, Clare are going to be out of the equation and they will certainly have regrets, regrets that they gave Cork and Tipp a 12-point head start and nine times out of ten you won’t recover from that type of deficit.

LIGHTNING

They did against Cork to secure a great point in the end and when they drew level against Tipp as the second-half aged the thinking was that lightning was going to strike at the same place twice.

But their lengthy list of injuries, the absence of key players at different stages finally caught up with them. 

While we saw glimpses of Tony Kelly’s sheer class at times last Saturday and his wonderful execution of a goal from a penalty, it was obvious that this fantastic hurler was struggling because of a bout of sickness earlier in the campaign when he missed the game against Waterford.

Clare do not possess the strength in depth of Limerick and Cork and their league relegation was proof of that.

Before the commencement of the provincial campaign, the vast majority of pundits would have predicted that it would Limerick, Cork and Clare going forward into the All-Ireland series.

Nothing is still sorted but it’s 99% certain that won’t be the case now.

Tipp’s encounter with Waterford next Sunday is their last in the provincial campaign and a win is a near must as the other four counties will still be in the chase irrespective of how the results go next weekend.

Tipp, of course, have a few players involved in the Munster U20 final on Wednesday night, Darragh McCarthy being one of them and that could be something to be factored in.

SICKENER

And on the subject of that Munster U20 campaign, the question must be posed, how are Cork not in the final?

Leaving SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Wednesday night, it was as disappointing as it gets for this observer.

After creating eight, nine-goal chances and not one being converted and then conceding one at the death, it was a real sickener to lose that game to Clare.

Simply put, we should be heading to Limerick tomorrow night to play Tipperary in the Munster final.