The smart money says Cork and Limerick will meet again in Croke Park on July 19

The dust is well settled now in the aftermath of last Sunday's Munster final but it might not be too long before it rises again.

Last Sunday's final outcome, Limerick by the skin of their teeth, has not changed the thinking of hurling fans across the country, that these two will be acquainting themselves with each other again in the All-Ireland final.

The smart money will certainly be on that occurence but there are bridges to be crossed for both before it's set in stone.

There's a debate each season about the merits and de-merits of going straight through to the All-Ireland semi-final or having the extra game in a quarter-final.

By the time Limerick face off against Clare or Dublin in their semi-final a month will have passed since the Munster final while Cork will have had the benefit of a competitive game two weeks earlier if they overcome Offaly.

There is a perception that a month is too long before your next competitive outing and there might be a concern about a bit of ring rust.

Well, Limerick have had no bother negotiating that wait in previous years, it certainly did not affect them in their four-in-a-row success story.

Offaly are now in a place where very few if any expected them to be, one of the five remaining counties in the chase for the ultimate prize.

They were not fancied at all of being in the first three in Leinster, behind Kilkenny, Galway and Dublin but they have arrived at this destination fully on merit, defeating Kilkenny and Wexford and drawing with Dublin in a thriller in Tullamore.

In many ways they are the story of the season thus far, losing all six games in the national league but reinventing themselves brilliantly in the provincial championship.

We have frequently heard the phrase 'in bonus country' and Offaly are certainly there now.

In fact, they are in an ideal situation, rank outsiders going in against Cork with everything to gain and not that much to lose.

We'll discuss their chances next week and how Cork will react to last Sunday's loss to Limerick.

We have now reached the business end of the season, just three more intercounty hurling weekends and just five counties still standing.

Going on the events of the past number of months, the thinking would probably be that Limerick currently occupy pole position in the All-Ireland series starting grid followed by Cork, Galway, Clare, Dublin and Offaly in that order.

Limerick have edged Cork out of the number one position on that grid on the basis that they have already been beaten in two finals by John Kiely's men, last Sunday and in the league decider.

Galway have to be regarded as serious contenders on the basis of how they dismantled Dublin in last Saturday's Leinster final.

Yes, the Tribesmen looked very impressive in that final but, at the same time, it must also be stated that the Dubs were desperately poor.

Galway might be slightly annoyed that they conceded four goals in that game although the issue was long dead in the water by the time the last two were registered.

The new Leinster champions had 11 different scorers and had hugely impressive returns from Tom Monaghan, Conor Whelan and Aaron Niland among many others.

If Cork get past the challenge of Offaly and with no disrespect to the Faithful County men, they should do so to set up a semi-final collision with Micheal O'Donoghue's team And here's a manager who has an All-Ireland title already under his belt in 2017 and his second coming in the county is now beginning to yield the desired dividend.

If it's Cork and Galway in the semi-final, Cork don't have the fondest of memories when the counties collided in past encounters at that stage, losing in 1975, '79 and 1985 as well as in 2012.

Cork have lost to them too in a few All-Ireland quarter-finals but, as they say, there's no future in the past.

And let's wait for Cork to overcome Offaly first.

The other quarter-final is certainly very interesting, Clare against Dublin, two counties on the receiving end of two batterings in their previous games, Clare against Cork in Munster and that Dublin hammering by Galway.

There might be viewpoint that Clare were quite satisfied to be in the top three in Munster and were not fully concentrated in that Cork encounter but who knows.

Well, they are now being presented with a golden opportunity of having a crack off Limerick again in an All-Ireland semi-final and nobody going to predict a similar outcome to what transpired in the round-robin stage in Munster when the Shannonsiders destroyed them.

The hurling world can certainly be a strange one, Clare getting lashed by Limerick and Cork in Munster but still ending up in the same place that Cork are in now, an All-Ireland quarter-final.

And if it did materialise that it's Clare and Limerick in a semi-final, Limerick would be the hot fancy, something that would play right into Brian Lohan's hands.

Where Dublin are concerned, can they come near to repeating what they did against Limerick last season before being crushed by Cork.

When the Dubs are good they can be very good while conversely they can be the opposite as well, a distant second best.

This season's last five certainly differs from last season, no Kilkenny or Tipperary, who would have predicted that at the outset.

Turning back to the Cork and Limerick encounter last Sunday and with the aforementioned dust now settled, there is a general acceptance that Limerick deserved to get the verdict, just about.

The main contributory reasons being that they finished both halves the stronger and that the Cork attack as a unit did not come up to scratch while on the day the defence manned up a lot more.

There was some discussion about the sideline too with many believing that they should have introduced some substitutes much earlier than they did, particularly up front.

Limerick certainly did not wait as long, Tom Morrisey replacing Cathal O'Neill after 35 minutes and Aaron Gillane lasting just 14 minutes longer.

Darragh Fitzgibbon's absence has been talked about all week and his pace and energy were missed considerably.

For obvious reasons, just losing by a point when nowhere near your best, there won't be too much change to the starting line-up for the joust with Offaly but, at the same time, the selection deliberations might take a bit longer this time Fitzgibbon's return is a certainty and despite losing, Cork did not become a bad team overnight and when these two meet the one certainty is the uncertainty.

Gazing into the crystal ball and what lies ahead, the majority of opinion would still believe that the All-Ireland final will be a repeat of the Munster final and the league final..

But across the sporting world strange things occur all the time.