A topsy-turvy campaign has it all to play for
LESSONS from the League heading into a defining last round of games? Kilkenny may just have unearthed the answer to the number three shirt dilemma with Pádraig Walsh being talked up as a worthy successor to JJ Delaney only this week. Brian Cody’s next problem is to try and find a clone at wing-back where Walsh had already established himself as All-Star material.
As the only team qualified for the quarter-final spot in Division 1A, Tipperary have the strongest squad in the country. Of that there is no doubt, turning over Waterford in Walsh Park with just six September starters was a perfect example.
Davy Fitzgerald has regained his messiah status, this time flying under the Wexford flag to inconvenience Galway and Limerick in Division 1B, the fixture makers clearly not expecting their meeting today to be a dead rubber.
Watching Tipp and Kilkenny play out a thriller in mid-March at Semple Stadium last time out, it’s hard to understand the speculation that the League could once again revert to the old style eight-team format in 2018. Having two finely balanced, six-team divisions in 1A and 1B has lent a helter-skelter air to proceedings and produced a catalogue of full throttle classics along the way.
What’s needed now is more summer games and a leaguebased model that is very much on the Hurling Development Committee’s minds.
Unpredictability is one of the most attractive features of any good competition. Judging by the results in Division 1A to date, almost anything can happen. Take Cork. Beating Clare who hammered Kilkenny. Going down limply to Kilkenny who lost to Waterford and beating Waterford in turn.
It all means everything is to play for heading into the last round of games, Tipp the only team in the top flight not simultaneously dicing with relegation and flirting with a quarter-final spot.