John Horgan on hurling: All this talk about Limerick and Cork is suiting Tipp down to the ground

Certainty for some counties and all to play for in the case of others. 

That's the state of matters in Division 1A in advance of the final round of league games over the weekend.

Waterford do not play this time. They've a free weekend but it matters little where they are concerned. Their loss in Walsh Park to Tipperary plunged them into the relegation mire and they'll play alongside already relegated Offaly in Division 1B next season.

That is the certainty in the top flight and the only county with really nothing to play for over the coming days are Kilkenny, who cannot qualify for the final or be relegated.

However, that's not saying that their final outing against arch rivals Tipperary is of no real consequence, of course it is because any engagement between the two counties is always of relevance and after a hugely disappointing campaign. Kilkenny will want to end on a winning note and gain some bit of momentum before they embark on the Leinster championship trail, a championship that they are odds-on in most seasons but maybe not this time, given their very indifferent form.

In fact, some believe they might struggle to emerge from the province. That is highly unlikely but the trouncing that they received recently at the hands of Galway, an 18-point defeat and a concession of 35 points was not received well on Noreside.

Yes, they have been operating without key players like Huw Lawlor, Adrian Mullen and TJ Reid and they do not carry the resources of past years to counteract their loss.

But where the most successful of all counties is concerned, you write them off at your peril and in their All-Ireland semi-final appearances of the past two years against Clare and Tipperary respectively they could easily have come out on top instead of being on the wrong end of both scorelines.

One certainly expects a riposte from them in Thurles on Sunday against a Tipperary team who are still in the equation as regards qualifying for the final.

They are outsiders in that regard but it keeps the pot boiling for them in this final group game.

EXPERIMENTAL

Cork, of course, are near unbackable favourite's to be in the final, relegated Offaly are not expected to upset the applecart on Saturday night, despite the fact the Cork selectors may be in very experimental mode for that joust.

The likelihood is that Limerick or Galway will be in the final too but we'll have to wait and see what transpires.

No doubt, the Cork management tuned into the Tipperary, Waterford encounter in Walsh Park and it turned out to be a serious enough game that went all the way to the final whistle.

Tipp are first up for Cork in the Munster championship and the final game is against Waterford, both games are on away soil so their importance cannot be emphasised enough.

Lose your opening game and the pressure to qualify immediately becomes apparent and no county wants to be travelling to Walsh Park needing a win to ensure qualification.

The thinking in a lot of quarters was that Tipperary were not prioritising the league this time, satisfied to notch up a few wins and, in particular, to further deepen their panel.

They fielded strongly against Waterford last Sunday, John McGrath coming back in for a starting place and securing the impressive tally of 1-4.

On the other side of the coin, Liam Cahill threw newcomer Stefan Tobin into the fray for the first time and his impact was immediate, a haul of four points from play had the Tipp supporters saluting his performance.

Cork and Limerick are perceived to have the two strongest squads in the game but Cahill has constructed an excellent group of his own, players relatively unknown outside the county coming in to stake a claim.

Tipp had 10 different scorers on Sunday and in an attacking sense, there appears to be some serious talent with plenty of options.

In fact, in the three counties that are most fancied to come out of Munster, Cork, Limerick and Tipp that same situation applies, bagfuls of attacking talent. Some people might be thinking that because of their relegation, Waterford won't be causing any great problems in the championship.

DANGEROUS

Yes, their record since the introduction of the round-robin format in the province has not been good at all but this current squad under Peter Queally is still very formidable and quite capable of defeating any of the other four counties.

It might only have been a league game in early February but they took Limerick down in that encounter. While they lost to Tipp last Sunday, it's a game that they could have won after being in a very strong position before half-time, leading by double scores.

What Waterford lack from one year to the next is consistency but in this Munster championship, they possess the capabilities to defeat anyone.

But it's all about this weekend for now and the three final games in both divisions.

For the counties that don't make the finals it's their final outing before the championship, in Waterford's case, it was last Sunday and their next outing is on April 19 away to Clare.

Clare have been under the radar somewhat as they were in the lower division and as they haven't featured too much on our screens, they might be a bit of an unknown quantity.

But they have done their business with plenty of efficiency, emerging victorious in their encounters with their two biggest rivals in the group, Dublin and Wexford. While Brian Lohan never reveals too much, he will be happy enough going into the 1B final against either one of those two counties.

In both divisions, they are the only unbeaten county, six from six and their year out of the top flight may well have given them renewed momentum and a restoration of the confidence lost last season in both the league and championship.

So, it's all building up again nicely for the championship start on April 19, Munster will be no different to what it has been in previous seasons, that now well-used word 'minefield' while things might be a bit more interesting this time in Leinster.

The GAA landscape has certainly evolved, the championship beginning in April when in the past the national league would still be going at that stage.

The split season has changed everything, opinions still differ on that and a July ending is still difficult to come to grips with.