John Horgan on hurling: Hype around Cork is gone and that's no bad thing

After any league final, the question is immediately posed whether it will have any relevance when the same two counties come together again.

There will be differing viewpoints but the two competitions are poles apart in the overall scheme of things.

The league is important in its own right but counties take a different approach to it in terms of what they want to get out of it. While being outright winners at the end of the day is something that should not be taken lightly, maybe a bigger priority is finding a few new players will be serious contenders for starting places for the championship.

The national league panel for most counties comprises 36 or so players but only 26 can tog out any given day for the championship.

Last weekend, Shane Kingston, Darragh O'Sullivan and Ben Cunningham lined out with their clubs in the league, having not made the panel for Cork in Limerick. That's as it should be, players playing with their clubs if they are not involved.

Ben O'Connor declared in the aftermath of the league final loss to Limerick that he got what he wanted out of the league except for the trophy, his priority was getting game-time into as many players as possible.

The league is already on the backburner, the form team having the trophy in their possession.

There is a school of thought that Limerick, on home turf, wanted it that bit more than Cork, not having to look on again as a Cork captain raised the spoils of victory as they did after last season's Munster final.

The consensus departing the Gaelic Grounds was that the final did not really come anywhere near the intensity of a Munster championship encounter when the five counties have a different mindset, fully aware that their season could be over in a short few weeks.

Some of those players may never wear their county colours again if their county does not make the top three, the stakes are immeasureably higher.

A number of days have passed now since the two league finals and there were positives and negatives for all four counties.

With three of the five in Munster who played last Sunday, Cork, Limerick and Clare, gearing up for championship, there isn't a whole lot of time to put in any more hard hours in training.

The bulk of that is well and truly completed. It was done before last Sunday and where most management teams are concerned, they have their minds all but made up on their championship starters.

There may be an A v B game at the weekend to decide on one or two players but where the league is concerned again, it's all about having as near as you can to a settled team for the much bigger days ahead.

It's now very much a calm before the storm of the provincial campaigns with Leinster again likely to feature certainties, Kilkenny, despite their very indifferent form in the league and Galway coming out and Dublin and Wexford battling it out for the third spot.

Munster, as per usual, will be much more difficult to get a handle on but that's to be dealt with next week.

UNDERPAR

Cork's overall display last Sunday was a mix of good, bad and indifferent, definitely second best on the day and with not nearly enough players performing at the level that the championship will demand.

Only two of the starting six forwards really made the desired impact: young Willie Buckley and Brian Hayes.

Defensively, too much latitude was afforded the Limerick forwards, Aaron Gillane, in particular, opening up the play too much which led to some sublime scores being executed.

There certainly will have to be a greater tightening up in both lines from there although to be fair to Ciarán Joyce, he has made up the selectors' minds regarding the full-back slot, certainly one of Cork's best defenders.

Diarmuid Healy is a considerable loss to the Cork attack and in all facets of his play, score-taking and physicality, it is hoped he will be back sooner rather than later.

Attacking-wise, as a unit they must be much better against Tipperary. Nicky Quaid wasn't troubled enough in the Limerick goal in the league final, in fact, he didn't make a save of note.

Overall, though, having a clean bill of health, the team to face Tipperary is probably down on paper already, certainly 13 or 14 and if there is some sort of a training game this weekend, it could be make-your-mind-up time on any changes.

The stats from last Sunday revealed that 35 frees were awarded over the 70-plus minutes and that's too many for a game to have any sort of real flow to it. 

Twelve months ago, there was far too much hype about Cork, this time it's a bit less and that's no bad thing at all.

When the schedule for the Munster championship was released months ago the Cork and Tipperary opener was the dominant talking point, all the more so given the events of last season.

That from the outset was the one game that mattered, its importance cannot be emphasised enough. 

Limerick will be able to sit back and take it all in, the pros and cons as they put the finishing touches to their preparations for a week later. Hopefully, it won't be the case but a Cork loss in Thurles could turn that clash with Limerick into a sort of knockout game.

And then again, it might not because four points from two games might well be sufficient to go through to the All-Ireland series, even a win and a draw might do, given that there's very little between any of the five counties.

That's all speculation, of course, and the opening games will tell us a lot more about what we want to know.

OUT IN FRONT

In the square in Thurles next Sunday week, the league will have been forgotten but right now, Limerick remain the team that the rest are chasing and their squad depth is one of the reasons why.

But as we all know, things can change very quickly on the field of play and off it too.

Cork did do well enough over the course of the seven league games that they played but there's a lot more to do, beginning very shortly.