Great day's action ahead

Looking forward to another great day's championship action with the final round of the hurling qualifiers and the Ulster football final replay.
The hurling season has stuttered along so far but last weekend was really the start of us getting down to serious business.
Cork shocked, I know it's a strong word given that they have one of the top two sides in the country for the last six season, all of us with the quality of their performance last weekend against Galway and their sheer guts and determination in the second half against the wind with a man down.
They defeated the Tribesmen in a game where we saw one of the great individual performances by a teenage Joe Canning.
When you see a young man put in a game like that you just have wonder how good he can be.
If he keeps his feet on the ground and remains injury free, which will be difficult given that he puts his body on the line to create space, he has the potential to become an all-time great.
However, the Cork half back line of Gardiner, Curran and O hAilpin looked like men on a mission and with Joe Deane on fire up front Cork looked irresistible.
Clare on the other hand have also a lot to prove after a fairly poor performance in the Munster final and they should at least not be as dependent on one player to do the damage for them as were Galway.
In the end I think Cork will edge it just because they take their scores easier than Clare but if the Banner can find the Cork net the way they breached the Waterford and Limerick defences early in the season then it could be quite a contest.
I fancy Waterford to overcome Wexford despite their over reliance on Eoin Kelly to beat Offaly last week.
I still think there is a big game in Waterford and it's now die dog or shite the licence.
Wexford are a poor side, their league form and their efforts in Leinster tell us that.
The gap between the rest in Leinster, Cats apart, and Munster isn't as big as some suggest, but the Decies know this is the last throw of the dice and I would expect some of them to begin to perform as they can.
I wouldn't even dream of calling Ulster. Prevailing wisdom that Fermanagh had their chance and that they will be eaten up by Armagh in the replay isn't going to happen.
Fermanagh are much too fit and physically strong to roll over for anyone. They know they had the game by the throat for the last 25 minutes and they will take great heart from that but they must do something about the free taking.
Armagh are methodical, clever and slick in full flight but McGrane is no longer a 70 minute player, he tired last week and the team suffered.
They are a little too pedestrian at times in the build-up and it was a tactical error bringing in Oisin McConville left the field.
The old Armagh disease of the two Brians era of not pushing on when they had a big lead cost them dearly and unless they address the issue of pace in their side they will be found out by better sides than Fermanagh no matter what Curran and McDonnell can conjure up.
I think we are in for another great battle as winning is everything in this one as the losers will find it very tough lifting themselves for the qualifers.

Deane a Rebel with a Cause

Cork's failure to unearth any new talent in the forward line in the last two years has been put in stark relief by the return of Joe Deane and Neil Ronan to the full forward line with All-Ireland winner Niall McCarthy also returning as centre half forward for this weekend's clash with Dublin in the hurling qualifiers.
Manager Gerald McCarthy tried out Pa Cronin and Paudie O Súilleabháin in their Munster exit to Tipp but it was only when Deane came on to the field in the last ten minutes that Cork carried any real threat from pace up front.
It has been the failure to bring in new players into the full forward line over the last three seasons which has seen Cork lose ground to Brian Cody's Cats.
Kilkenny have brought in at least one new face each season and with the level of competition for places it has kept the Cats fresh and more importantly ruthless.
Cork on the other hand are still heavily dependent on the team which made the breakthrough in 1999.
The O'Connors, Joe Deane and Timmy McCarthy all played back then and if anything the Cork forward line is going backwards.
Ironically Cork have a problem of a different hue in their defence as two of Cork's half back line Seán Óg Ó hAilpín and Ronan Curran are out with injury and what has been one of the most consistent lines in the country has an unfamiliar look to it with John Gardiner going into centre half.
It's probably as well for Cork that they are facing a demoralised Dublin who have suffered Senior, Under 21 and minor defeats in recent weeks.
The old guard up front will be good enough to see off the Metropolitans but while they have been great servants of their county I just don't believe that they have a collective last hurrah left in them, but then again I thought Kerry would see off their footballers too.

Humble pie over Munster final

Endured dog's abuse yesterday over the Cork Kerry game.
I take my hat off to the Rebels they were brilliant in the second half and it was a great contest, much better than I thought possible in Munster.
I don't particularly think Cork are a great side, they are workmanlike and they possess some good players but the ease with which Kerry took their defence apart in the first half should give Conor Counihan food for thought.
Kerry's second half collapse was their worst since Armagh bullied and played them off the park in 2002.
The fact that this latest reverse comes hot on the heels of their collapse to Derry in the National League final will be causing manager Pat O'Shea nightmares.
Paul Galvin is a huge loss as his competitiveness and combativeness in the middle of the field was sorely missed.
The sending off of Marc Ó Sé was another huge blow and I thought he was very unlucky.
However, Kerry were over run in the middle of the field and they find themselves with what could be a tricky qualifier given the quality of some of the sides in the draw.
The Kerry full back line was also over run in the second half with Michael Cussen giving them all sorts of problems.
But what does all this mean in the greater scheme of things?
Cork have had false dawns before in recent seasons collapsing at Croke Park, especially at the sight of the Kerry jersey, after a good Munster.
Some of the younger players have made progress but Canty's injury will be a loss as he is a great man marker.
Cork are also a bit like Donegal in that they can overdo the hand pass and it was only when they got the ball in early to the full forward line in the second half that their fortunes changed.
The win can do their confidence no end of good but Kerry basically humiliated almost the same bunch of players who came back into yesterday's game in last year's All-Ireland final.
I have no doubt too that the Kingdom's training is geared towards the latter part of the season.
However, Kerry's midfield looked tired in the second half and I don't think that the pairing of Ó Sé and Scanlon will cut it later in the season.
I think that Darragh Ó Sé's physical powers are in decline and while I think that Kerry will be a different beast in a few weeks time they need to improve dramatically.

Poor fare on offer for a championship weekend

Early July and you would expect the championship season to move up a notch with the first provincial finals but instead we have one of the least anticipated weekends of the championship calendar.
In hurling the Leinster final is a foregone conclusion, Kilkenny to win with the only interest in the Cats' performance as we all hope to get some sort of a gauge on where their three in a row ambitions are sitting.
The Leinster final is now an non event, I'd rather watch a Tommy Murphy Cup game, no that's a lie but the Leinster hurling championship is right down there at the moment.
This week's qualifiers promise nothing better.
Antrim and Laois will feel like it is raining on them if the Galway and Waterford forward lines go out to prove to their respective managers Clare men Ger Loughnane and Davy Fitzgerald that they want to be in the side for the tougher tests which lie ahead.
It will be real men against boys stuff and wouldn't be allowed in boxing.
Unfortunately for everyone involved other than walking off the field in protest at the brutality of the beating (wonder has anyone consulted the Cork players on that one as they are the experts in these matters?) the players will just have to grin and bear it, ok if you're a sado masochist but just torture for the average GAA player, fan and referee.
I wonder do referees get counselling after a match like these as it must be traumatic to watch?
The only interest in these games will be if the Waterford players give any indication that they mean business after their dressing room coup which saw the end of Justin McCarthy.
The football doesn't get much better with the Munster Football final, yes they still have a Munster championship in football which all six counties enter but which is still only contested by two.
Those two Cork and Kerry play for this year's honours, yet again.
Kerry will win at a canter even though the Kingdom don't usually break sweat in Munster and have even been known to let a few provincial titles slip to the Rebels as they warm up the engine in preparation for the annual bad beating of the Cork men at Croke Park when it matters later in the season.
However, the only thing rebellious about the current Cork side is when they are on strike and they are poor enough to endure a bad beating earlier in the season than usual even though Kerry too will have a few players out to injury.
All in all not a lot to get excited over and I look forward to next week's fare which might just bring us a couple of real games!

Changing of the guard in Munster

Really enjoyed the Munster hurling semi final this afternoon.
I think we have just watched the changing of the guard in the province with both Cork and Waterford, who have dominated Munster for the last six seasons, out of the championship.
Cork had every chance to win this game, at one point seven up but Tipp chipped away at their lead.
However, Cork had the game in their grasp again early in the second half.
For the first 20 minutes of the half they missed a penalty and a whole series of chances.
Tipp hung grimly on as Cork's midfield and half backs were totally on top and they never slipped more than two points behind.
What will worry Cork is the fact that they visibly tired in the last quarter as the younger fresher Tipp lads grew in confidence.
There was only one team in it in the last ten minutes with Cork reduced to long hopeful balls into a full forward line which Tipp had by the throat at this stage.
Tipp will relish the thought of a Munster final against either Clare and Limerick with a league title and a historic victory over Cork under their belts.
Tipp look like a team which can go all the way and they will now fear no one.
For Cork, the worry has to be that their best players were the lads who have already taken this team to the heights.
Gerald McCarthy tried out a new full forward line but it didn't work out.
Cathal Naughton showed he has what it takes to step up to the plate, O'Sullivan had his moments but Pa Cronin has a poor day at the office.
Cork have struggled in the forward line over the last couple of seasons and even with everyone fit they look shy of the punch up front to win the Liam McCarthy this year.

Tradition will carry Rebels through

Tipp are travelling to Páirc Uí Chaoimh tomorrow trying to get an 85-year-old monkey off their back.
Buoyed up by winning the National League and with some of the young players like Shane McGrath showing a new maturity and hunger this is Tipp's best chance to defeat the Rebels at home since 1923.
All bad runs have to come to an end sometime and the Premier men must feel like they are the team on the up while Cork are still backboned by a core of players who saw great success earlier in the decade, playing in four All-Ireland finals in a row in the process.
Tradition shouldn't mean anything in a game like this but I believe that the Cork vets will just about hold on tomorrow spurred on by a big local support and determined not to be remembered as the Rebel side which lost to Tipp at home.
I am still confident that both these sides will end up in the latter stages of the All Ireland regardless of tomorrow's result but I think Tipp will have to wait another year on Munster success.
However, if Cork were to fall tomorrow on their home patch and go out of Munster at the semi final stage for the second year running it would be a huge shift in a province which has been dominated by Cork and Waterford for the last six seasons.

Scrap the Munster football championship

The latest offerings from the Munster football championship only hardens the case to scrap it.
Yesterday the footballers of the four hurling counties Limerick, Tipp, Waterford and Clare served up two very poor games and showed once again that outside of Kerry and Cork there is no football championship worth talking about in our most southern province.
This gives the Rebels and the Kingdom a huge advantage in the All-Ireland championship.
No one else in the country has the luxury of preparing for one game in their provincial championship while happily getting on with the task of training for the All Ireland.
In Leinster, despite the poor standard of football on offer the championship remains competitive, and even in Connacht Galway and Mayo usually have to work a bit to beat Sligo or Roscommon.
In Ulster they knock forty bells out of each other over the three games and although Tyrone and Armagh have come out on top in recent seasons no one would bet against Derry or Donegal being real contenders.
All these sides have to come to two peaks in a season, one in their provincial championship and again for the All-Ireland series.
In the meantime Cork and Kerry can work on speed and conditioning and play challenge games aimed at peaking late July, early August.
This football championship is as distorted as the Munster hurling championship, which works against the south's finest.
It is long past time to scrap the provincial championships in football as they are now an anachronism, and the sooner we get to an Open Draw the better, fair play demands it.

Kerry Cork postponement a sign of the times

While the debate rages about the grants scheme for players and the growing professionalism in the game we were reminded today of the changes which have taken place in our games in recent years where money and viewing figures dictate when even some of what used to be our biggest attractions are played.
The annual Kerry Vs Cork game, ok it's formally known as the Munster Football final even though the rest of the province will be off somewhere that day knocking either a sliotar or a rugby ball around, has been put back a week as result of our new TV deal which involves RTE and TV3.
Now even though the Munster football final is about as interesting as watching paint dry, well Cork always give it their best shot while Kerry try to muster up a bit of enthusiasm to play a game which is now only an irritant in their build-up to their All-Ireland preparations, the authorities believe it would be better postponed for a week so that we can have some TV coverage rather than miss out because of other games on the original date of June 29.
I couldn't see this happening back in the day when GAA men were men and sheep were nervous.
The bad news for anyone hoping that there may be some alternative live action on the new date of July 6 is that the only other action is the Leinster Hurling final which is usually as one sided as a Kerry Cork game in the All-Ireland series when the Kingdom feel the need to actually turn up and Cork surrender faster than you can say Dunkirk.

Cork average but ruthlessly efficient

Cork gave Limerick quite a beating yesterday in the National League quarter finals without really moving up through the gears.
The hurling was scrappy enough but Cork kept punishing the Treatymen's mistakes and in the process I think they have scored a big psychological win over Richie Bennis' side.
I can't see any way that Limerick will build on their journey to last year's All-Ireland final and while they still have a few top-class hurlers I feel there are too many journeymen in the side to go all the way.
Cork didn't exactly set the ground alight either but they were ruthlessly efficient when they got on top and from the moment they cancelled out Limerick's one-point advantage at the half way mark there only looked to be one winner.
I don't know yet what to make of Gerald McCarthy's side.
People like Ben O'Connor, Seán Óg and John Gardiner are worth their weight in gold but Tom Kenny is still not firing on all cylinders and both centre half and centre full forward look like they will continue to be difficult positions for the Rebels.
Ronan Curran has not been the player of two to three seasons ago when he looked almost invincible and I'm not convinced about any of the others who have played there including Gardiner who is an outstanding right half.
Tipp did move up a gear yesterday and they have some good youngsters on the verge of breaking on to the team.
Their battle with the Cats will be an indicator of what progress they have made but for us neutrals the hope will have to be that Galway might just challenge the Big Two when they take on the Rebels.