John Horgan: Hurling championship hasn't caught fire, we need a cracking Munster final

So, how has the hurling year been for you with the curtain having been drawn on the round-robin series of the provincial stage of the competition?

Would it be fair to suggest that the fare on offer in both provinces did not contain the drama and nerve-jangling excitement of past campaigns?

In fact, some might be of the opinion that it has been overshadowed by the goings on with the big ball game with the new rules contributing largely to that viewpoint.

We await the two provincial hurling finals and those two games may well have us gasping for breath again at their conclusion, in keeping, particularly in Munster, with previous deciders.

Three of the four provincial football finals were certainly cracking games, the exception, not for the first time being in Munster.

The hurling championship just does not seem to have ignited yet.

That's not saying that it has been a poor campaign, that would be well out of order but you would like to believe that the best is yet to come in both provincial finals and subsequently the All-Ireland series.

At the outset, it was generally predicted, again more so in Munster that the final would be contested by Limerick and Cork with Kilkenny and Galway renewing acquaintances in the Leinster decider.

Nothing, of course, had been set in stone and after Galway's 11-point defeat by Kilkenny in the opening round of the Round-Robin in Leinster there might have been serious doubts about their participation again in another final.

Dublin were looked upon as their most dangerous opponents in that regard but that has not come to after Micheál O'Donoghue's Galway got the job done against them last Sunday in Parnell Park.

Most observers had Limerick, Cork and Clare emerging in Munster but the portents might have been there for the Banner in the league when they lost their status as a Division 1A team. Their comeback from being 12 points in arrears against Cork to force a draw re-energised their ers but losing to Waterford and Limerick effectively ended their innings for the season.

It certainly has been a talking point that the All-Ireland champions from last July will not be hurling again until next February.

To be fair, they had quite a number of injuries to deal with and the depth of their squad turned out to be not as strong as their Munster opponents, Limerick and Cork.

The re-emergence of Tipperary after a desperately poor campaign last season has certainly been a huge fillip for the ers in the Premier County and being one of the three counties to be coming out of the province has to be viewed as a big positive.

Whether they are good enough to mount a serious challenge for the McCarthy Cup remains to be seen but they appear to be on an upward trajectory again and that has to be good for the overall health of the game.

Waterford fought the good fight again, had a spectacular victory over Clare but at the end of the day their hurling year is over again, failure once more to make the top three in the province.

If one is looking for the best performance of the season to date in both provinces it's very easy to look no further than Limerick's scintillating display against Cork in the Gaelic Grounds, a performance that took the breath away in the opening 35 minutes.

CHANGE

John Kiely's team had been relegated to second-favourites for the big prize in July prior to that game but that changed very quickly after that display.

They did lose to Clare last Sunday after numerous changes to the starting 15 had been made but that outcome will be just a footnote at season's end.

At the same time, Kiely and Paul Kinnerk will not have been happy with the outcome.

Now what we have is another installment in what has become hurling's biggest rivalry, Limerick and Cork again in the Munster final next Saturday night week.

In that regard times have certainly changed, a Munster hurling final on a Saturday night would have been unthinkable in past times.

The Munster hurling finals of old were huge, a super Sunday in the square in Thurles, the walk down the Ennis Road in Limerick or a similar walk down the Centre Park Road and Monahan Road on Leeside.

The Gaelic Grounds in Limerick will still be packed to the rafters next weekend, there won't be a ticket to be got but it's still difficult to get the head around that the Munster final is not on a Sunday.

Maybe for those of us of the older generation, we are too set in our ways and we just have to adapt to change.

Both finals in both provinces are certainly very interesting in so far as that the earlier clashes between the counties, Kilkenny against Galway and Limerick against Cork, the games were far too lopsided.

TROUNCED

Galway were 11 points in arrears at the final whistle in Nowlan Park and Cork got trounced to the tune of 16 points against Limerick.

So, it goes without saying that Cork and Galway have so much to prove, so much to improve on from those defeats for the second coming together next weekend.

Can both counties bridge the huge gap from the previous encounters and certainly in Cork's case there is a significant redemption job on their hands.

But that's the great beauty of hurling, no two games are ever the same and past history has shown us that the pendulum can swing very much in a different direction in a repeat game Limerick may well have produced their season's best in the earlier meeting between the counties while we are still waiting for Cork's best.

They have got the job done in reaching the final, mission accomplished but Pat Ryan will be fully aware that a lot more can be forthcoming from his team as a unit. There is still that lack of consistency over the 70 minutes.

That was the case again last Sunday when aided by a huge wind, they allowed Waterford reduce a gap of eight points down to just three in the second half and that scenario created a lot of nervousness among the home .

Both Cork and Galway against Kilkenny will not be lacking in the motivational stakes, setting out to prove that the outcomes of a few weeks ago were a one-off, just a very bad day at the office. The message will have to be this time, we are much better than that and now is a golden opportunity for us to prove it.

Limerick are seeking a seventh Munster title on the trot, that is a gargantuan achievement in a province that is so competitive.

They have been the best side that we have seen by some distance during the round-robin stage of the two provincial campaigns.

Next Saturday night, Cork get the first opportunity to make a statement that will throw the rest of the championship wide open.

The hurling has been good without being great up to now, let's hope that the best is yet to come and the ingredients are surely there for that to be case.