Golden age for hurling? Bring it on!

Wrote yesterday that the fire is back in Ger Loughnane's belly and that can only be good for the game because he is a hugely passionate hurling man.
Today he is predicting a golden age for the game and he feels that the gap is closing on the big two of Cork and Kilkenny.
I'm not sure because the Rebels and the Cats responded to the hurling revolution of the '90s by going back to the drawing board and matching their undoubted skill with the type of fire, commitment and physical strength which gave Offaly and Clare in particular such an edge in the last decade.
Since 1999 the big two have won every All Ireland except for one Tipp win in 2001.
But there is a window of opportunity this season for anyone hungry enough to take it.
The Cats are chasing the coveted three in a row and it's difficult not to become a bit stale after notching up their fifth win of the decade.
And although I think that Cody is playing cute at the moment by not cranking up the momentum too early in the season, without their destroyer in chief Henry Shefflin the Cats looked at least human on Sunday.
Cork are going to be very difficult to beat but they too have lost that aura of invincibility which almost took them to a three in row and which saw them play four finals out of four.
They have lost a couple of big players and the quality of replacements are young and raw, guys like Cathal Naughton who may come good but who are nowhere near being the finished article.
Loughnane obviously believes his own team can be one of those to end the domination of the big two and he also rates an improving Tipp and thinks that there is more in Waterford.
I for one hope that he is right although I feel that the current Waterford team may have shot its bolt and blown the county's best chance of an All Ireland in fifty years.
Hurling could do with another spell like the '90s when the championship was almost magical as the citadel was stormed. Bring it on I say.