As you were in hurling

The weekend's National Hurling League gave the first true hint of what's to come in the season ahead and unfortunately it looks like we are in for more of the same and we will have to wait at least another year for a breakthrough team to challenge the old guard.
Antrim were wiped out by Waterford who had Ken McGrath back for the first time this season.
The 19-point winning margin puts into perspective the progress Antrim have made to date this season in the Walsh Cup and in registering a win over Leinster also-rans Wexford a couple of weeks ago.
The Saffrons are still a long way off the pace at the top level. They are a young side with a lot to learn but all too often in the past they have found just how difficult it is to turn potential into success when facing the big guns.
Dublin too fell short of the mark when playing against an out of sorts Cork team who enjoyed their first competitive outing of the season after the players' strike.
Dublin tried hard and huffed and puffed but at this level they still at times needed two touches when the top sides require one.
The Dubs like Antrim are making some progress in the underage grades but success will not come easy and it won't happen this season in senior.
Clare too put up a show in the first half against Limerick but collapsed in the second. Like all Clare sides who have followed the great 1990s team which lifted two All Irelands this one is tough, uncompromising but lacking genuine fire power in the forward line. Gilligan still has too much to do up front with little sign of anyone breaking through to consistently ship some of the load.
Clare will remain competitive and will beat good teams having a bad day at the office but they won't be there at the end of the All Ireland series.
Galway are the periennal 'great white hope' outside the top three but their last All-Ireland win was 20 years ago and they lack the physique to beat the top sides in the latter part of the season.
Wexford are not even at the races and are playing from memory of a once proud hurling county, while Waterford will remain the neutrals' favourite given their pulsating battles with the Cats, the Rebels and Tipp in recent seasons but the worry is that they have missed the boat given that a number of top players have a lot of miles on the clock.
Offaly are gone, Laois never made it and only Limerick look like they can make a challenge this year again.
However the Treatymen will not surprise anyone this season and at times Clare made them look very ordinary.
The Cats are poised once again on the verge of three in a row but both they and Cork have fallen at the last hurdle already in this decade.
Already they are cranking up the gears and with Cork slightly on the slide you have to feel at this stage that the only side who will beat the Cats are the Cats themselves.
The League will hot up even more from now on in as the sides rev up for the championship. Expect the winning margins between the top tier and those struggling to break through to be consistently more than ten points during the run-in, and that in the long run is not good for hurling.