I think I speak for most sensible Limerick fans when I say Iâd be happy just to beat Cork. Theyâve actually beaten us in the championship more recently than weâve beaten them.
On last yearâs form youâd fancy Waterford to beat Clare (though I think the current Clare woes are overblown) and face Tipp in the semi. Think Tipp might have a HSE-style âtransition yearâ this year. Sheedy has a lot of lads coming to the end and needs to blood young talent.
The clandestine training sessions in Martinstown that Limerick have been doing during lock should be beneficial. The multi million euro gym JP installed last year was a genius move. You can only admire the mans foresight.
The league will be interesting but Tipp looked a spent force last year. Be a tough one for sheedy to balance out the bringing through of talented younger tipp lads and phasing out the older lads. If he can get another good year out of seamie then theyâll give anyone a game.
Iâd expect Galway to be there or there abouts again.
Waterford improved a huge amount last year, be interesting to see can they sustain that and then add more to it as they will need to. I think its a big ask and they may slip back a bit.
Tony Clarey could give anyone a game on a day so long as Tony can keep at that level, which again is a big ask.
I donât know about Cork. Theyâll need a big revamp. But if it clicks quickly youâd never know. Iâm not expecting much from them but the league will tell a lot.
Limerick will obviously be favourites again and rightly so, if it was a league format weâd win it, but you only have to get caught once. Back to backs are hard to do.
Canât see where the improvement comes from in KK and canât see Cody tweaking the system at this stage, but again on a day if TJ fires and they drag you into a battle anything could happen.
Wexford who knows. My gut would be that Davy has overstayed his welcome. But if he can get them back to two years ago levels and tweak the system a little then theyâve as good a chance as anyone. Think they are lacking two or three players though.
Donât expect much from Dublin or the rest.
I think at this stage Limerick, Galway and to a lesser extent Waterford are the only teams with settled managers, styles, panels in roughly the right age profile and have no major question marks hanging over them
It was very evident last year that Tipp had very little done . Their conditioning wasnât great . . They still have a good cadre of older players and have decent young lads .
I would still fancy them to comfortably beat the winners of Q/f .
The reality is the IC hurling is going through a bit of a trough now .
It is, a number of teams are in transition and not at the level they were at 2 or 3 years ago. But history has shown that teams can turn around pretty quickly with an infusion of youth/fresh blood - the problem is that the new under 17s and 20s championships and no third level for two years means the platforms for player development arenât there compared to a few years ago.
On what basis do you say that? Clare have been shite and getting worse while Waterford last year were good and youâd expect them to improve further. Clare will surely improve a bit but Iâd expect Waterford to beat them comfortably enough.
The game last year between the two was closer than people think . If Clare can get Conlan and Peter Duggan back & get Colm Galvin interested I still think they could win that . I donât rate that Wd team really .
After seeing the improvement Waterford made in a year I think they will go up a level again. Clare have an awful lot of holes to fill. We will see I suppose.
Itâs rare enough that youâd have 3 or more teams at the peak of their powers at the same time.
The most exciting Championships tend to be when there is no âgreatâ team. Even in 2018, Limerick were good but are much better now. Galway werenât what they were in 2017. But in 2017, Galway had no real challengers.