Rebel rising would give game a shot in the arm

AS any of its citizens would be quick to tell you, the world needs more of Cork. To be precise, hurling needs more of Cork.

Even with Tipperary’s injury problems complicating preparations that had been cast under a pall by their heavy League final defeat, it is difficult to see Cork shocking them today.

They don’t have the spread of quality their rivals can call upon and their impressive players have not been tempered by seasons of high-class Championship action as the Tipperary leaders have been.

However, the progress they made throughout the League was substantial, and after a decade stewing in mediocrity, in a recipe of their own making, the evidence of recovery is undeniable.

Spring-time happiness often fails to survive first contact with the tougher conditions of summer, though, and that is the danger for Cork. A bad defeat in Semple Stadium today could unpick some of the progress made under Kieran Kingston (above).

Make or break are three words regularly utilised in previewing big matches, but it would be wrong to apply them here; more than one good young team has taken a shellacking in May or June and survived it, and Cork’s revival does not hinge on 70 minutes.

Yet it would do the Championship a power of good to see the game’s sharpest rivalry renewed by a rising red force.