Cork hurlers in strong position as Division 1 opponents return to action

The Cork hurlers are on the outside looking in over the weekend while the other six counties in Division 1A of the national league resume hostilities with the standout game being the Semple Stadium clash of Tipperary and Limerick.

Kilkenny are next up for Waterford in Nowlan Park while Offaly are hosting Galway in Birr.

Three fixtures that Cork will be keeping a close eye, but more so probably on the Kilkenny, Waterford game as the Cats are next up for Ben O'Connor's team next Sunday week.

Division 1A of the league is, for the most part, an all Munster affair with four of the five counties who will be battling it out a bit further down the line in the Round-Robin stage of the provincial championship involved alongside Kilkenny and Galway.

If Clare had not been relegated last season to Division 1B all the Munster counties would have a game against each other before the far more important business of the championship begins.

The various management teams in the province will have been assessing things over the past fortnight as the game went into hibernation for a short while and it will be pretty much full on for everybody between now and the end of the provincial championships.

Management teams will want to be getting closer with every passing game to their starting 15 for the championship openers and might not be in experimental mode that they have been in over the opening three games to the same extent.

In fact, most have probably a very good idea at this stage of what their championship teams might look like but that's certainly not saying that places are not up for grabs.

Over the past number of weeks the number of players involved in the Fitzgibbon Cup was something that had to be dealt with too and that competition continues on its upward trajectory and we got a belter of a final last week between the Limerick duo of UL and Mary 1, an excellent advertisement for hurling at that level.

That's all done and dusted until next season and it is all hands on deck now for the players involved to be fully concentated on their inter-county duties.

There is and there has been a growing belief that the McCarthy Cup winners of this season will again be from one of the five Munster counties, very much in keeping with previous years when Limerick, Clare and Tipperary have been on the podium with Galway the last team from Leinster being successful in 2017.

The initial thinking is that Tipp, Limerick and Cork will be the three counties to emerge from Munster in the championship into the All-Ireland series.

That was the case last season but, at the same time, Clare and Waterford won't be written off by anyone.

There is less spotlight at the moment on Clare with their participation in Division 1B, the division they are confidently expected to emerge from with that trophy.

A stint in the lower division for one of the top counties who had a very disappointing previous season as the Banner had does not do any great harm and it gives that county an opportunity to reinvent and go on a winning run as Clare are on currently on and expected to continue.

Much is made in advance of the beginning of the league about the approach counties will take and there was that speculation too here on Leeside with Ben O'Connor.

GAP

Cork had ended a 27-year famine in the competition last season so winning it for a second time might not have been a priority.

Well, O'Connor certainly put the record straight from the outset, stating that every game Cork will play under his baton he wants it to be a winning one.

And it's been so far, so good, three richly deserved victories, top of the 1A pile and momentum being built up.

The two more difficult games, however, might just be over the horizon, away to Kilkenny and Limerick.

The attitude of management teams has certainly changed over the years and the league is no longer seen as a sort of shadow boxing competition.

Now with intercounty team panels being deepened all the time and competition for places so intense there is no holding back, putting a lot more eggs into the league basket is more the norm.

Thurles tomorrow night will surely hold the biggest attendance in either code this weekend for the Tipp and Limerick collision.

It probably won't come anywhere near to matching the 31, 000 that attended the Cork and Tipperary game in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, that's a record that could hold for a while.

When Limerick and Tipp last met in the Munster championship opener of last season they could not be separated, the game a bit of a rollercoaster that ended at 2-23 apiece.

Given Tipp's travails of the previous season it was an encouraging result and certainly a step in the right direction towards a final destination in Croke Park in July.

So, their meeting Saturday night has the potential to be a bit of a humdinger with both John Kiely and Liam Cahill wanting to bag the points that would keep both counties very much in the hunt for a final place in the secondary competition.

Both counties have already dropped points, Limerick rather surprisingly to Waterford and Tipperary to Cork so two more points dropped for either would certainly lessen their chances of securing a top two place.

John Kiely is still placing a heavy dependence on his tried and trusted players and come championship time the thinking has to be that the vast majority of the four-in-a-row All-Ireland winners will still be around Aidan O'Connor top-scored against Kilkenny but the man of the match accolade went to Peter Casey with a haul of five points from play.

IMMENSE

Cathal O'Neill was outstanding for UL last week in the Fitzgibbon final and there was certainly a positive response from the men in green to that lack-lustre loss to Waterford.

One of the bigger questions being posed on Shannonside is who will man the centre-back berth, a permanent successor to Declan Hannon who had made that jersey his own for so long.

William O'Donoghue has it at the moment but Kyle Hayes on his return from injury will be in contention and Cathal O'Neill is another who might figure.

Tipperary have been experimenting that bit more in their two games to date but expect to see more of the All-Ireland winning team here.

It's a game we'll be keeping a close eye on.

Elsewhere, the focus will be very much on Waterford and Kilkenny with Waterford having recovered superbly from an early trouncing by Cork.

They are getting players back too and when these two counties collide the rivalry is intense.

In the Offaly and Galway clash, a win is now a must where both are concerned with both pointless after two games.

Whoever loses here will be sailing in the very choppy waters of relegation.

Certainly, even without Cork involvement, a very interesting weekend surely lies ahead.