John Horgan on hurling: Younger guns will be key to cracking Cork and Limerick battle

Down through the corridors of time we have come to accept that everything changes and nothing stays the same.

The first Sunday in July was set aside for the Munster hurling final, one of the great occasions in Irish sport, Munster final day, whether it was staged in the great cathedral of the game in Semple Stadium, the Gaelic Grounds on the Ennis road in Limerick or down the Marina in Páirc Uí Chaoimh or in the days of our youth the old Cork Athletic Grounds.

The Munster final will always be one of the great days but it arrives on our doorstep now a month earlier, the first Sunday in June when in the fading past the opening round of the provincial championship might not even have been completed.

The split season changed the entire landscape of the GAA, the curtain on the inter-county stage now coming down on the third Sunday in July, no more competitive activity until the following February with the commencement of the national league.

In many quarters there is a difficulty in accepting that early conclusion, no favours are being done to grow the games hurling in particular, the belief.

In the words of Donal Og Cusack, the GAA's finest product is being removed from the shop window much too soon.

Yes, if a vote was carried out on the merits and demerits of the split season, the former would, undoubtedly, carry the day but no inter-county activity for six months has to beg a question regarding the current strategy.

But it is what it is and where hurling is concerned, this weekend is one of the biggest of the year, the Leinster final on Saturday night followed by the jewel in the GAA's crown, the Munster hurling final.

We all have our own memories of Munster finals going all the way back to the 1960s when there was hardly room to breathe in Thurles or the other aforementioned venues. There would be 60,000 in the Tipperary town, almost similar in Limerick and a bit lesser in Cork because of the then ground capacity.

The '60s belonged almost entirely to Tipperary, the Premier County winning the provincial title seven times from 1960 to 1968.

Cork were on the receiving end of some terrible beatings in those years, particularly in 1964 and 1965, scoring just 1-5 in 1964 and 0-5 the following year.

One can still vividly remember the pain we endured as youngsters after those horrible occasions.

Of course, that Tipperary team in those years was one of the best of all time, winning four All-Irelands to add to their provincial dominance.

Much has changed since, Tipp's season this year at an end long before the month of May had expired. Now it's very much about Cork and Limerick and the fierce rivalry that has developed between the two counties over the past number of years.

At the outset of the season one or the other was pencilled in as Munster and All-Ireland champions and that will be the case next Sunday in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh with the former.

COLLISION COURSE

What transpires thereafter remains to be seen but the general consensus seems to be that they will collide again in July.

Sunday's final has been signposted for quite some time despite how competitive things are in the province.

Thus far it into the campaign it would have to be said that both are well ahead of the chasing pack but that might change going forward into the All-Ireland series.

In comparison to other years, this season's Munster campaign has not ignited to the same extent, Tipp's dismal performances, a couple of very lopsided games with Clare involved and the round-robin format stage being sorted before the final weekend.

That's not saying that it didn't still captivate us and Cork's four victories represented a very fine achievement, defeating the four other counties in such a competitive environment took a lot of doing, the first time since Tipp in 2019. All the more impressive, because of the doubts that have lingered in the aftermath of last season's crushing loss in the All-Ireland final.

There were doubts too around Limerick reinventing themselves after that loss to Dublin in the quarter-final.

But the depth in their squads ensured that they both would be thereabouts or thereabouts this time which, of course, they are.

And with absolutely no disrespect at all to Offaly who have been a breath of fresh air in Leinster, the expectation is that next Sunday's losers will be too strong for them in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

But we thought that too last season when Limerick went in as raging hot favourites against the Dubs and that outcome was one of the stories of the season.

Whatever comes to pass on Leeeside on Sunday and the belief has to be that it will be another of those mother and father battles between the two.

There isn't that much change in personnel on both teams. Aidan O'Connor is now an automatic choice for Limerick with his scoring exploits and young guns, William Buckley and Barry Walsh are key players for Cork. 

Buckley's scores and assists, his pass to Brian Hayes for the goal against Clare, mark him down as a key contributor in the attack.

Cork have coped well defensively in the absence of Ciarán Joyce but as we now begin to enter the business end of the championship, beginning next Sunday and the days in Croke Park when bigger questions await, we will have to wait and see how significant his loss might be.

There's vast experience and youthful exhuberence on both teams next Sunday and it will be very interesting how the pundits view the game and whose side they will come down on.

SAVAGE

The past number of years tell us that there is no favourite when it comes to Cork and Limerick, the intensity and a savage desire to best the other have taken the game to a level we could not have envisaged.

That intensity and desire in the past would have been more associated with Cork and Tipperary encounters, Cork against Kilkenny too among the other great rivalries but for now Cork and Limerick have it nearly all to themselves, the magnitude of their collisions surpassing all else in the game.

The last games that both were involved in, Limerick against Tipperary and Cork against Clare were, for the most part, non-events because of the circumstances, Tipperary already consigned to the scrapheap in the season's proceedings, and Clare maybe not fully concentrated on winning and safe in the knowledge that their season had already been extended.

So, another Munster hurling final is upon us, that extra special day in the sporting calendar, the day that evokes memories of our experiences through the decades, Limerick coming in from the cold in 1973, Waterford's day in the sun in 2002, Cork and Tipp in 1984, Cork and Waterford in 2004, Clare and Limerick in 1995 and so on.

Days we remember all our lives, sacred days with vast potential for another entry to that illustrious list next Sunday.