My top 10 are outlined below. Tipp will struggle to go back to back. It is not in our nature. Kilkenny will be competitive but lack that class. Who knows with Galway. Seems a bit of tension there. Cork are Flakey. Limerick and Wexford would probably be my 2 picks to reach AI final at this very early stage if Davy remains. Limerick got caught on an off day and lessons will be learned. Wexford now have belief but need to unearth a couple of new players a la John or Noel McGrath.
They haven’t won a game in Munster in 2 years in a system where they are guaranteed 4 games, they have no manager, they have no scoring forwards and their home advantage is worth fuck all. They are irrelevant as far as 2020 goes.
Every year Cork are always 5 or 6 -1. You’d be mad backing them considering their underage record and the fact that they have been in 1 All Ireland since 2006. Their longest barren spell is 16 years. 1903-1919. To say they are due one is an understatement but they are vastly overrated.
Incidently it comes as no surprise that Corks time in the wilderness has coincided with one of the best eras of Tipp hurling since the 60’s. Corks dominance over Tipp from 1969 to 2006 read ; played Tipp 22 times and won 15 of those encounters but since 2006 there has been some redress for Tipp; playing Cork 11 times and winning 8. Despite the roundrobbin/backdoor etc it doesn’t seem both hurling superpowers can coexist and be dominant to some degree at the same time. All wins over each other have a clustered or bunched distribution.
Waterford are really teetering on the brink. It is shit off bust next year. They should be targeting the league. Not much coming through either. It will be a travesty if they waste this current crop of players.
It’s all setup for Tipp to dominate. Just like the winter of 2010. Top dogs, a few of the elder statesmen with a few years left and a conveyer belt of competitive minor and U20 winners eager for places.
Absolutely, they are dangerously close to becoming a total non factor in Munster in the next few years and could go back to the dark days of pre 1998. Tipp and Cork will always be strong the latter have finally sorted their underage set up. Limerick and Clare will always be around albeit they both go through shit spells they will always be capable of matching the other two.
Whats even more worrying is their fanbase have become disillusioned and drifted away. For a county that struggles for funding anyway this is not good. They have sub standard facilities and an east west divide in terms of allocation of resources. The club game there is strong which is something I guess.
Well from the bottom up I know a bit about as we would have played the likes of Ballysaggert and Ardmore in challenge games. They did quite well in All Ireland series. Their intermediate winners are always quite strong too. Ballygunner do have it to themselves at senior alright.
I know Clonea gave the Bouncers a bit of a hammering in the Intermediate last year but I also know for a fact they had done some heavy drinking that week and had a fella sent off too.
I actually think Waterford do have some nice hurlers, even in the forwards, but look shorn of confidence.
They did target the league this year, and had a great win against Galway in the semi-final considering they were down to 14. They never raised a gallop in the league final though and that really seemed to affect them going forward.
Clonea are all hurling I think aren’t they? I think whatever few footballers they have play with Rathgormack and vice versa. They would be a very physical team and gave us a fair trimming before too.
I think you are bang on about lack of confidence. Some of their better players body language looked terrible this year. A year can hinge on one small detail and they felt sorry for themselves after that line ball going against them in the Clare game and the slow start after all was said and done about home advantage put a lot of pressure on them. When they lost their most winnable game at home interest went.
In fairness they made it to a league final this year. Wasn’t worth a hill of beans to them. A decent experienced manager will make them competitive again at the very least
