Thank God for Munster!

It's back and with it for me the beginning of championship hurling.
I am of course referring to the first game of the Munster hurling championship between Waterford and Clare this Sunday.
And yes I know that the Leinster and Ulster championships have already started but let's be honest we haven't seen any competitive hurling yet.
Leinster and Ulster are two dead certs, I doubt Paddy Power would give you a double of 1/100 of Kilkenny and Antrim which is about as good a punt as you'll get at the moment in these post Celtic Tiger times.
But the Munster hurling championship, that's another ball game altogether. Three out of five of the contenders have won the championship this decade while last year's All-Ireland runners-up Limerick lost to Waterford in the final last year, so despite the era of qualifiers and back doors no one seems to have told the Munster men that their local rivalry is any less important than it ever was.
To be honest the Munster Championship is the only fiercely competitive hurling we'll see before we get to the latter stages of the All-Ireland championship and without it the hurling championship would be a snore, unless the authorities had the courage to go for an Open Draw and if the provinces could set local pride and revenue to the side.
But I'm not holding my breath waiting for the change and in the meantime I simply can't wait to see Clare and Waterford go for it on Sunday.
When this draw was made I could only see one winner, the Decies, but things have changed a lot in the past couple of months.
Waterford had a poor league campaign, for God's sake even Wexford beat them and that was their only decent result in a campaign which saw them relegated.
There was a theory then that the Decies were keeping their powder dry, that Justin McCarthy was allowing his veterans to rest up in anticipation of an All-Ireland campaign which might see them finally lift the Liam McCarthy again.
Then the injuries came, Ken McGrath, Eoin Kelly, Paul Flynn all out and Dan the Man on the treatment table too.
Big Dan will be back but even he was not firing on all cylinders earlier in the year and I think that Clare can smell blood.
The Clare men have had their problems too with an injury to top scorer Niall Gilligan but apart from that the Banner will be at full strength.
Clare are not yet back in contention with the top sides but they improved last season and they will know that a big effort on Sunday could fell the Munster champions at the first hurdle.
Like most neutrals I have watched this Waterford team in hope more than expectation that they might break the monopoly of the Big Two on Liam but I fear that on Sunday we may be watching the beginning of the end.
I hope I'm wrong!