Munster's hurling strength exposes flaws, but don't bin the championship format yet

The news earlier this week that both Robert Downey and Ciarán Joyce have been lost to injuries was a dampener on the joy surrounding the Cork hurlers after they went to two wins from two following their victory over Limerick.

Not only are the injuries a huge blow for the players – especially Joycey, given the brutal nature of an ACL – but losing two strong defenders in positions that are notoriously hard to fill will hurt Cork's prospects going forward.

Joyce at three and Downey at six has given Cork real stability over the last month or so, and has been one of the minor tweaks made by manager Ben O'Connor that's really pulled the best out of this team.

But, with Cork having beaten their two primary contenders in their first two games, this will be an equaliser for the games ahead.

PROMISING 

Still, even with the losses, Cork fans have a good reason to be hopeful. While there are a few potentially different options that O’Connor can take to plug the gaps, Cork have reaffirmed that they are strong contenders this year and will be very tough for any team to beat, and one of their rivals tipped before a ball was thrown in have already found themselves on the back foot.

Tipperary’s form across the opening two games has been troubling; they’re already under pressure of being eliminated from the competition entirely.

The Premier would have been in a much better position were it not for their total collapse in the second half against Waterford, but another outrageous Stephen Bennett display dragged the Déise back into contention and they snatched a draw when he assisted Kevin Mahony for the levelling goal.

Following that bizarre yet riveting game of hurling, championship talk on social media quickly pointed out that one or both of those teams could be eliminated from Munster, while simultaneously being strong enough to win Leinster.

STRUCTURE 

So once again, the structure of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship is being called into question, less than a year after the scrapping of the preliminary quarter-finals. Munster is a far stronger province than Leinster is, that has been the case for some time. The argument now, though, is that with how much Kilkenny have been struggling this season, the provincial gap has reached another level again.

I’d still argue that it’s not yet time to throw away the current structure, where the two provinces feed into the All-Ireland series. But, definitely, the GAA should be open to the idea of a better alternative.

The idea of scrapping the league entirely and turning it into a round robin with reduced jeopardy is an idea that has been floated around, something like the current UEFA Champions League format.

But that doesn’t benefit anyone. The top counties can sandbag their way through to the knockout stage, while Joe McDonagh/struggling Leinster counties will never make it through, because they would need to produce a level of consistency that is completely unrealistic.

A version of that idea, with 1A and 1B as separate pools, would be an improvement. If 1A had seven or eight teams and only five or six of those could qualify for the knockouts, while 1B had one or two go through, it would improve the stakes in the early months and force teams to take them seriously, or risk missing out on the knockout phase.

But then, relegation from 1A would almost feel like a reward for the previous year’s failings. Waterford would certainly find it easier to top Division 1B than finish in the top five of 1A.

And if you expanded both pools, the competition of 1B would quickly fade and you’d end up right back where you started, with Joe McDonagh teams reaching the preliminary quarter-finals.

While the current set-up may seem unfavourable for the Munster counties, it works. The balance of Munster changes from week to week, any team can win any game. Clare went from All-Ireland champions to eliminated in the round robin phase the next year. Tipperary may yet suffer the same fate.

And, if Leinster is so weak, there’s no reason that the Munster counties shouldn’t trounce them in any and every All-Ireland meeting, right?

Well, look how that turned out for Limerick last season against 14-man Dublin.