Munster Hurling Championship Round One Talking Points

The 2019 Munster Hurling championship roars back into life this Sunday with a double bill of games. At 2pm Cork welcome Tipperary to Pairc Ui Chaoimh while at 4pm Walsh Park gets its first taste of Munster Championship this century for the clash between Waterford and Clare.

Limerick are on a bye week as they prepare for the clash with Cork in the Gaelic Grounds next Sunday.

Ahead of the return of the Munster Championship we look at the main talking points.

Cork seek three in a row

The last two seasons have seen Cork win the Munster championship against Clare before bowing out in the All-Ireland semi-final to another Munster team in the next game. Last year’s loss to Limerick will have been particularly hard for the Rebel county with the manner of the loss difficult to comprehend.

Last summer it was argued that Cork’s lack of quality of the bench was a deciding factor in their loss to Limerick with the likes of Shane Dowling, Peter Casey and Pat Ryan coming off the bench to devastating effect for Kiely’s men. In the league, John Meyler blooded a number of players with Tim O’Mahony plugging the gap at centre back.

Cork have flexed their muscles in Munster the last two years and while there has been some talk suggesting Cork would be better suited coming through an All-Ireland quarter-final instead of advancing straight to the last four, the Munster Championship is far too competitive to be looking ahead to the All-Ireland series.

Limerick are second up for Cork and a defeat against Tipperary would single out the Gaelic Grounds clash a must win against the current All-Ireland champions with a trip to Walsh Park still to come for Meyler’s side.

Yet, the return of Alan Cadogan to an already star-studded forward unit also bodes well for Cork as they prepare to host Tipperary. On paper, their starting XV is as strong as any in the country and should the new members of the panel add something off the bench, it could be a fruitful summer for Cork.

Liam Sheedy’s return to the Munster championship

However, Cork’s opener comes against a Tipperary side under the tutelage of Liam Sheedy in the Muster championship for the first time since 2010. His previous reign yielded a brace of Munster championships as well as an All-Ireland title.

He comes into a side lacking in confidence after a disastrous 2018 Munster championship where they failed to pick up a win for their four round robin games. Yet, they did manage to snatch a draw against Sunday’s opponents after finding themselves down by nine points at the half.

This should give the side confidence coming into the game as they look for a first Munster title since 2016.

Sheedy has serious attacking options at his disposal with two of the premier forwards in the country in Seamus Callanan and Jason Forde. Last year, the pair didn’t seem to click and this will be one of Sheedy’s main jobs in trying to get his star pairing to sing off the same hymn sheet.

Should he succeed in doing so, Tipp may just get a first Championship win since 2017.

However, as shown in the league, Tipperary are frail at the back still and such is the quality of the Cork forwards, it will be a tough ask for Sheedy to return to Munster championship action with a win.

Walsh Park Factor

Waterford welcome Clare to Walsh Park this Sunday for the first Munster championship game in the venue in sixteen years. After failing to win any games in the championship last summer, Waterford will be desperate to get their championship campaign off to a good start.

Last year, under the tutelage of Derek McGrath, Waterford were underwhelming in their opening round 2-27 to 2-18 loss to Clare in Ennis. This was followed by a draw with Tipperary and losses to Limerick and Cork.

Since then, McGrath has left his post and been replaced by Pauric Fanning who successfully guided his side to the 2019 National League final against Limerick where they came up short against Kiely’s men at Headquarters.

Under Fanning, Waterford have adopted a more attacking approach with the likes of Jamie Barron and Austin Gleeson returning to form this Spring.

The Deise have some of the top hurlers in the country at their disposal and with an avid crowd behind them, 2019 looks to be a promising one for Fanning and his men.

However, first up is a Clare side who defeated last years All-Ireland champions in Munster in 2018 and were also the width of a post away from reaching the decider.

Predictions:

Waterford v Clare:

These sides met in the quarter finals of the national league where a Division 1b Waterford put Clare to the sword in the second half, coming out on top 0-31 to 1-14, outscoring Clare 0-20 to 0-4 in the second half.

However, the league for Clare was primarily used by the Banner to unearth new talent and in Diarmuid Ryan and Shane Golden they certainly delivered.

Waterford with the advantage of the Walsh Park contingent will be difficult to beat but I expect Clare to avenge the league defeat and start their campaign with a win over the Deise as they did in 2018.

Cork v Tipperary

This is an intriguing clash between two giants of Munster hurling having won seven of the last eight championships between them.

Cork are defending back to back champions but will be wary of an onslaught from Tipperary who should be rejuvenated by the return of Liam Sheedy after almost a decade that produced just a solitary All-Ireland championship.

In the final round of the league, Tipperary swept aside Cork 1-29 to 1-16 that guaranteed Tipp’s progress to the quarter finals while Cork had to make do with a play-off to determine who finished last in the group.

Yet, Tipperary’s defeat to Dublin in the subsequent league quarter final and Cork’s recent pedigree in the competition, as well as home advantage makes Cork favourites to come away with the victory.