When reflecting on the province’s box-office returns for the 2023 championship, Munster chief executive Kieran Leddy described its hurling championship as “the competition that keeps on giving”.
A year later, he appeared more inclined to treat it all as a memento mori.
“We know that sport is cyclical. Teams come and go. Competitions have periods of huge public interest and periods of declining interest. Munster senior hurling is riding the crest of a wave at the moment . . .”
Attendances paid no heed and the record figures went up again. Just under 329,000 spectators made their way through the turnstiles for last season’s fixtures.
READ MORE
Cork have been central to these glad tidings. Last Sunday, they played before an eighth successive championship capacity crowd, with a ninth to come next weekend when Limerick arrive in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. That is unprecedented territory in terms of ticket sales. For good measure, they also sold out two league finals in a row.
Any fear that the Rebel hordes would be discouraged by what happened last July have been assuaged, partly by Ben O’Connor’s new management promising a new approach and the introduction of a couple of outstanding forward talents in William Buckley and Barry Walsh.
One of the big attractions of the round-robin format is the heightened jeopardy of contenders not qualifying for the All-Ireland stages. This brings an edge to matches that doesn’t exist in Leinster. It partly explains why that province struggles to match the public engagement in Munster.
Kilkenny have qualified every year from the six iterations of round-robin. And of the other “permanent” members, Dublin, Galway and Wexford have done so four times, each missing out on two All-Ireland knock-out stages.
Munster is intensely competitive. Every county is capable of taking points. Waterford have the poorest record, never having gained advancement from the group stages. But only once did the county finish with no points and in any given year, they are capable – as Nicky English wrote last Saturday – of taking the points off a team and condemning them to fourth as a result.
Last year, their defeat of Clare meant for the first time, defending All-Ireland champions failed to make the cut.
On Sunday, Waterford clung to Clare’s coattails right until the end but couldn’t grab a draw or better.
Back in Walsh Park next Sunday, they have the opportunity to inflict fatal damage on the latest All-Ireland champions, Tipperary. Nothing summarises Tipp’s boom-or-bust championship proclivities as accurately as their fate in Munster’s modern format.
Of the six championships played in the round-robin era, Tipperary have won two All-Irelands – more than any team except Limerick – but equally, they have failed to progress in half of them. A defeat on Sunday would almost certainly cost them progress to the knock-outs.
It’s not that teams with four points can’t qualify but Liam Cahill hardly wants to turn the Limerick and Clare matches into must-win fixtures.
During last year’s gradual emergence as champions, Tipperary were fitter than most teams in the league and sharper as the summer unfolded. Sunday was worrying for Cahill because they didn’t appear to hold either of those advantages.
The county has form in responding to overwhelming setbacks on the way to All-Irelands. Twice they have been drubbed by Cork and rebounded to lift Liam MacCarthy, in 2010 and last year. Limerick destroyed them in the 2019 Munster final, but they were still the last team standing by the end of the All-Ireland.
That regrouping has to start happening on Sunday.
The nature of the round-robin has been that first-round matches are too early to settle issues but impressions last. Cork had to win and they did. Tipp needed to be better – after all, their wonderful 2025 was flagged in the first match against Limerick when they showcased resilience as well as the restored goal menace of John McGrath.
The Cork bandwagon now rolls into Páirc Uí Chaoimh in high enough spirits for the latest meeting with Limerick. Two years ago, the same clash was do-or-die for the home side, who pulled out a sensational win before going all the way to within a score of winning the All-Ireland.
Limerick’s performances last year had the stuttering staccato of a badly serviced racing engine – not quite winning matches they should, notably the Munster final, and yet roaring to a big win over the same opponents just a couple of weeks earlier. The engine finally blew against Dublin.
This year, John Kiely’s team beat all their nearest rivals on the way to winning the league, including a comfortable dismissal of Cork in the final. A forceful display and win this weekend will leave them very obvious front-runners for the championship.
But this has proved beyond them for the past two years.
Even during Limerick’s heyday of winning six consecutive Munster titles, the provincial round-robin was hotly contested. Their most devastating victory in the final came in 2019 when they ended up being eliminated by Kilkenny.
Two of the three Munster finals against Clare were epics. It went to extra-time in 2022 and would have done so again a year later had an obvious free been awarded. Ironically, Clare’s most decisive defeat prologued their All-Ireland win two years ago.
There’s no telling.
– sean.moran@irishtimes.com
