John Horgan: Munster hurling is on top but Galway will have no fear at all of Cork

We are down to the bare bones of the hurling championship now, four counties still standing and the rest putting their gear away until next February when the league will commence.

The club championship is just over the horizon, and we all look forward to that, but on the inter-county stage, the actors will soon be departing, the curtain will be coming down. 

Of course, for Cork, Limerick, Clare and Galway their stay on Broadway has been extended, the four Oscar nominees hoping that this will be their year to mount the victory podium. Not for the first time in recent years, the list is dominated by Munster counties, three, against a sole representative from Leinster.

We have no idea how the two All-Ireland semi-finals will play out but there is a growing consensus that it will be another one of those all-Munster finals, something that we are very much getting used to over the years.

It's accepted now in all quarters that there is a significant chasm separating the game in both provinces. And that is at all levels across the grades, minor, U20 and senior, the latter providing far more thrills and spills in the province of Munster.

Galway were the last team from Leinster raising the Liam MacCarthy Cup back in 2017. The last six minor All-Irelands, including Tipperary v Limerick in this year's final, have been won by Munster teams. And 13 of the last 15 U20/21 finals have gone to the Munster counties.

Those statistics are quite staggering and no major change seems to be forthcoming.

Last Sunday's two senior All-Ireland quarter-finals provided further evidence of the downward trajectory that the game appears to be on in Leinster.

Yes, a Leinster county may well end up on the podium in the Hogan stand next month, Galway will test the best from Cork and subsequently Limerick or Clare if they manage to get past the Rebels.

But would that change the bigger picture, Kilkenny not emerging from the Leinster round-robin this time and two crushing defeats for the province's two quarter-final representatives, Dublin and Offaly.

Now, the Munster championship didn't exactly set the world alight either, some very one-sided games that Clare were involved in and really no humdinger of a game that took your breath away as it did in previous seasons.

A Cork, Limerick All-Ireland final has been signposted since the beginning of the season but Galway and Clare will surely have a lot to say about that.

Despite some of the happenings in Munster with those heavy losses to Limerick and Cork, Clare are now exactly where they set out to be at the outset, back in Croke Park and in the last four of the championship.

It must be factored in too that quite a number of this Clare team are well versed in winning an All-Ireland after their success of two years ago. There is an experienced dimension to their side that has the capabilities to make life extremely difficult for Limerick next Sunday week, despite their earlier trouncing.

They were not one of the counties fancied at the beginning of the Munster campaign, behind Limerick, Tipperary and Cork in emerging into the All-Ireland series.

Limerick will be favourites to defeat them again while Cork will be the pundits' choice to overcome Galway but would anyone put their mortgage on either result?

It would have benefited Cork more if Offaly had provided a more stern test last Sunday in Thurles but it was all about getting the job done and Cork did that with the maximum level of efficiency.

You could say that despite the final outcome, Clare were tested more by Dublin. Only for the sheer brilliance of Eibhear Quilligan to deny them at least five times, that display catapulting him into contention alongside Nickie Quaid and Patrick Collins for the All-Star number one spot.

Where Galway are concerned, there's a saying that you can never trust them, a county that can go from the sublime to the ridiculous from one game to the next.

STRONG BLEND

There is a good balance to their current set-up though. There is plenty of potency up front with Aaron Niland, Conor Whelan, Tom Monaghan, superb in the Leinster final and Jason Rabbitte sure to test the Cork defence fully.

One could describe the team as a combination of emerging and established players who put an end to Kilkenny's sequence of Leinster title winners.

Limerick and Cork are going to be the two fancied All-Ireland finalists and a lot of that is based on their panel depth. There is ferocious competition for places in both counties, particularly in attack, whereas in defence the starting six now almost selects itself for Ben O'Connor and John Kiely.

Alan Walsh might have been a surprise choice on the Cork team to take on Offaly but look what happened, he belted in two fine goals in the early stages to provide him with a bagful of confidence. It's a welcome headache for Ben O'Connor's management in their selection deliberations for Galway.

We have long been stating that the training ground is key in their thoughts and, quite obviously, the Kanturk player has been doing the business.

Three weeks from Sunday, the inter-county hurling season will have reached its conclusion and the debate will continue about the fact that it's far too early for that.

We have to accept that September Sundays in Croke Park are consigned to the past but surely the GAA's finest product should have a lengthier time span?

No inter-county hurling for six months is a rod to beat yourself with, media coverage in that time will be limited, The Irish Examiner being the exception because of its full-on club coverage alongside, of course, our own Echo.

In the overall scheme of things, would another extra fortnight make a whole pile of difference but at times some of the decision-making from Croke Park is very difficult to understand.

During the week, this column spoke to Cork fans who could not travel for last Sunday's game and had to rely on RTÉ. And what happened, many missed the opening seven or eight minutes because the Dublin-Donegal game went into the extra-time.

The game in Dublin had a 1.15pm start when it should have been 15 minutes earlier to allow for extra-time and maybe penalties.

There was an announcement that the hurling game would be shown on the RTÉ Player channel until the game in Dublin concluded but the people I spoke to could not get into that channel. The Cork fans missed Alan Walsh's opening goal and would have missed a lot more if the Dubs and Donegal had went to penalties.

Not good enough.

Anyway enough of that rant, let's hope for the three remaining hurling games to be absolute crackers to compensate for what has been a low-key championship thus far.