I would say it’s the most open Munster has been in a few seasons and i think Tip are very weak favourites for the title indeed.
Standards can slip very quickly. In fairness to Michael Ryan, it’s a difficult time to take over no matter how good you are. It’s not like John Allen taking over a setup that essentially ran itself. Given his alleged poverty of training expertise he would always face problems eventually, but with Waterford being so laden with veterans and novices he’s ran into trouble straight away and he’s on trial from the off.
Whatever the state of the management, there’s no denying that they’ve heaps of talent. If they can settle a spine and hurl with a bit of the freedom you associate with Waterford they could well be a tricky proposition yet.
Very good chance of that imo. Lot of cracks beneath the surface in Tipp and if the goals don’t flow they’ll be beatable. Depends on how good the new generation of Cork forwards really are though. Their backs are nothing to write home about yet and they’ll need a bit of the old Cork magic at the other end.
It will boil down to who has the most hunger and who gets riled up the most after being written off by everyone.
Who are the veterans that Waterford are laden with pray tell?
Obviously Browne but the rest are not that old surely?
Mullane 30 going 31, Kelly 29/30. Brick 28/29.
They are veterans, ESP when in a side not on the verge of winning
They’re hardy over the hill. Browne could clearly flop this year but the other 2 be fine age wise.
Hardly laden with veterans all the same.
They are key players… No point in kidding yourself
Just looking at the odds for next weekends games, are Galway that good and Waterford that bad that the blaas are 5/1 to go there and beat them??
Galway went to Thurles last week and were pipped in injury time. Waterford shipped 31 points. Galway also beat the Cork team in Cork that beat Waterford in Waterford. Maybe 5/1 is a bit much but Galway deserve to be strong favourites on current form.
Yes but that’s not the way hurling or sport goes, you can’t just judge future games based on the bare form. I don’t think Galway have become world beaters overnight…
Not sure you are trolling here or something but Tipp will walk Munster.
Yes, but they’re not trying to beat the world. They’re trying to beat a Waterford side that spend their training sessions pulling on tyres.
I’m not…I don’t think they will. Deserved favs but without Corbett and Kelly they are manageable
If the flow of goals is stopped they’ll struggle.
They scored 31 points at the weekend, not sure you’d class that as struggling WTB!
I wouldn’t read too much into that. They rarely open a significant margin in white flags against the best teams in championship hurling. Last year Dublin were the only side they outpointed and that was by a single score. 2010 they got one more than Galway and Waterford, one less than Cork and Kilkenny. In 2009 the only team they outpointed was Limerick in a massacre.
It suggests a possible reliance on goals to get past the top teams on a consistent basis. And they’ve lost one of their most important players in that respect.
Kilkenny
My mistake. A game in which they failed to score goals and duly lost.
I would still have Tipp as favourites for Munster for the simple fact that all the other 4 sides have fairly big question marks about their defences at this point in time. If Tipp have an off day they may well come a cropper but on all known form it is very hard to look past them in Munster. But they have come back to the pack somewhat and have fairly big question marks about the right hand side of their defence and the form of experienced players like Shane McGrath and Eoin Kelly, not to mention the absence of Lar Corbett which might catch them out as the year progresses as there will be a lot of pressure on Noel McGrath and Brendan and Paudi Maher to take up the leadership mantle which they are more than capable of doing but if those three aren’t firing then Tipp could struggle