Away victory will all but ensure hurling league final spot for Cork

When the Cork hurling team went into their two-week break, they were the only team with six points in Division 1A of the national hurling league.

That such a state of affairs would pertain ahead of this Sunday’s trip to UPMC Nowlan Park to take on Kilkenny was something that was obviously a live possibility but few would have been surprised had Ben O’Connor’s side been joined at the summit.

Tipperary, who had beaten Galway and then Offaly before the loss at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh a fortnight ago, had the chance to go to six and so did Waterford – the Déise had been well-beaten by Cork in the opening round but bounced back by beating Limerick and Offaly.

Given that Tipp had home advantage against Limerick, it might have been expected that the All-Ireland champions would lay down a marker, but instead Saturday night’s clash in Thurles was a firm ‘empire strikes back’ declaration by the team that won five titles in six seasons.

A 0-36 to 0-21 victory for John Kiely’s side was emphatic – they led by 0-20 to 0-7 at half-time and the game fizzled out somewhat after a red card for Tipp’s Willie Connors early in the second half.

Speaking to RTÉ afterwards, Limerick’s Will O’Donoghue made clear the hunger in the camp is as strong as ever, with no laurels being rested on.

“I don’t know what we’ve won is anything to do with how we get on in the 2026 league, to be fair,” he said.

I know people say stuff like that and it sounds like we’re being told to mash that out but what has the ’22 All-Ireland or any of them go to do with this?

“There’s plenty of new players on the panel, plenty of older players on the panel, who want to get to a league final. We have Offaly next week and they’ve had plenty of good performances so that’s all I’m worried about now.”

Man of the match for the Treatymen was Aidan O’Connor, who scored 0-11, underlining their strength in depth.

“Players like Aidan have been coming,” O’Donoghue said, “we’ve had our eye on them a long time.

“Himself, Cathal [O’Neill], Colin [Coughlan], Adam [English] would have part of very successful minor teams and [there are] plenty of other lads who we’ve probably yet to see.

“This isn’t anything new to us. I’m not surprised to see Aidan doing that – it could be Adam another night, Cathal another night.

“Obviously, any team, despite what older players have won or whatnot, the group needs that type of evolution and we absolutely need players like that, scoring and putting on clinics to put the team up a couple of levels.”

TIED

That win meant Limerick joined Tipp on four points and on Sunday, it was a similar scenario at Nowlan Park: Waterford might have edged Kilkenny but instead the home side came good at the end, with Cian Kenny’s injury-time free giving the Cats a 1-21 to 1-20 victory.

As a result, Derek Lyng’s side made it a four-way tie on four points, while Galway got the better of Offaly in the game between the sides that had yet to a register a point before then.

Whereas Tipp and Waterford’s four-point tallies are from four games, meaning eight is the maximum they can achieve, Kilkenny and Limerick – both of whom host Cork – have only played three each.

With a home match against Offaly to conclude their campaign, a win for Cork in either of the away games will all but guarantee them a place in the final.