'The Munster championship wouldn't be the thrilling competition it is without the level of jeopardy involved. This is the formula for all championships in both codes.' - AnthonyNash6 column.
Anthony Nash I FEEL LIKE I ought to tread carefully here. It doesn’t take too much for a former Cork goalkeeper to be deemed a raging hurling snob. So maybe it’s wise not to praise too extravagantly the Munster hurling championship. But, seriously folks, has it not been something else? And there’s the last round of games and a final to come yet.
Nobody loses a Munster championship game and talks of ‘learnings’. The only fitting response is ‘oh shit.’ You can’t have this amount of thrilling games without this level of jeopardy. In the Leinster championship, Galway or Kilkenny could lose to each other and know that realistically they’ll both make the top three — although Wexford have gone some way to making the Leinster championship appear precipitous with their shock loss to Westmeath.Yet while Leinster has teams in it the equal of those in Munster, at least, the presence of tier two sides reduces peril.
I also know enough to realise that Kildare and Sligo’s draw means one of them could well progress with two losses and a draw. It’s a knockout competition in all but knockouts, with the element of competition compromised too. There are a few factors in play here. Limerick simply have a stronger panel than their rivals at this time, Cork included. They are misfiring by their own standards, but still managing to draw with Tipp and beat Waterford and lose by a single score to Clare. You get the feeling they could be one performance away from scaring the rest of the country rigid.
Cork have had bad days against Limerick, but these days happened in the context of a rivalry that goes back well over 100 years. If Cork hurling stands for anything, and I would say it stands for a hell of a lot, it’s a capacity for coming back.
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