Hurling world gets ready to play latest round of catch-me-if-you-can with Kilkenny

In the year that the GAA has decided to set about next year reducing the counties in the MacCarthy Cup and creating a tussle for the right to be involved on the game's elite competition, competitive prospects at the other end of the hurling world are uncertain.

There’s no doubt that Tipperary will be more competitive than last year but that’s balanced by concerns that Galway might wake up to find that 2012 was all a dream. Kilkenny, meanwhile, maintain the stately trajectory that has made them the most dominant team in the history of the game.

This supremacy makes itself felt in different ways. Firstly and most obviously it can be seen in the bald statistics of the era. Kilkenny have taken six of the last seven All-Irelands, a feat of acquisition unprecedented in football or hurling.

Secondly, other counties become more and more obsessed with matching themselves against the perennial champions, both aspirationally as well as in more Byzantine methods of emulation.

There appears to be a view that to achieve a clean hit on Kilkenny come the championship, a team must be able essentially to ambush the champions. The county’s five terminal defeats in the Cody era – three All-Ireland finals and two semi-finals – have all been unexpected. Furthermore, whenever Kilkenny have been underdogs, which admittedly has not happened very much in the last 13 years, going into championship encounters they have delivered fairly stern rebukes.

In the circumstances it is not altogether surprising that opponents prefer the cover of darkness when preparing for battle.

Symbolically or not, Kilkenny made their way to another league title by driving through their biggest rivals in the knockout stages. More ominously, they have been able to promote new players during the spring, further strengthening the panel.

In what must be a concern for the pursuing pack, the champions have an array of younger, emerging talent – as could be seen earlier in the year, across the Fitzgibbon Cup – plus the ability to bring through mature players in their mid-20s, like Lester Ryan who hadn't featured prominently to date in the senior team but who is a product of the under-21 success of five years ago.

The league win was achieved without four of last September's starting forwards, all of whom are recovering from injury. On their return, Henry Shefflin, TJ Reid, Richie Power and Walter Walsh will create ferocious competition for places in a panel now considerably stronger than a year ago.

For those trying to identify the eagerly sought Achilles heel, there will be much interest in how speedily Shefflin can return, as last year demonstrated that despite his veteran status, when panic levels are rising he remains incomparably the key leadership figure.

Tipperary have already promoted as many of their under-age success stories as are likely to make it at senior level and the same goes for Galway, leaving both looking for alternative inspiration to kick on and enhance their challenge.

Tipp’s comparative optimism is the product of Eamon O’Shea’s return as manager and in a quote leading up to the league final he put last summer’s nightmare in context – and let’s face it, his whole task is about perspective – by saying that it was just one day on which Kilkenny happened to be better. That explains the desire to optimise the chances of that day coming in August or September.

There's plenty for Tipperary to do: a tightened defence, which involves making calls on the central positions at goalkeeper, full back and centre back, a more assertive centrefield. The league final eventually showcased a handsome centrefield partnership between Noel McGrath and Brendan Maher but can a fragile attack – and maybe even an incomplete defence – manage without them?

If Tipp’s recovery has taken its first necessary steps, the same can’t be said of the other contenders, Galway.

The county had a terrific year last season, coming from down the field to give Kilkenny what was just their second provincial beating in 15 years. More startlingly, they nearly repeated the dose in the All-Ireland final. The five-point interval lead should have enabled Galway to kick on but it also should have been bigger.

Indiscipline cost a couple of frees before half-time; otherwise the lead could have been seven or even eight.

The cheery supposition that they had Kilkenny's number for the replay proved unfounded and the starting point for Galway's 2013 became an 11-point All-Ireland final defeat. The county has traditionally struggled to challenge consistently at All-Ireland level in the era of the qualifiers and how Anthony Cunningham and his team address that issue will be the story of the season.

On the face of it they’re in much the same shape as last year: a semi-final defeat rather than a relegation play-off victory but the two matches with Dublin 13 months ago produced a template for the summer whereas last month’s defeat by Kilkenny simply aired old concerns.

Is there a button Cunningham can press to activate the team that swept to within 35 minutes of bringing the Liam MacCarthy west for the first time in quarter of a century? The Galway manager may know but it’s not as clear to the rest of us.

The remaining counties are still outside of the gates. Cork are suffering for not developing young talent at the same rate as their competitors over the past 10 years. Limerick and Clare have done better in this regard and they are slowly battling a way back up the mountain. Waterford on the other hand continue doughtily to slow their descent.

The viability of Dublin’s faltering revolution was just about maintained with a quick return to the top division of the league but the inability to compete with Tipperary in the semi-final wasn’t a good indicator of what might happen should they run up against Kilkenny for a fifth year on the spin in Leinster.

The Pied Piper of football has led so many of the children (those with under-age medals, anyway) – never mind the occasional senior such as Tomás Brady – away from the small ball that Anthony Daly is desperately stuck for convincing new recruits.

Once again, the qualifiers beckon and if you believe in the alternating theory Dublin are due a good year.

Kilkenny may be focused on the ultimate battle but there’ll be plenty of significance going on in the skirmishes to keep everyone paying attention until late July when the tanks start to roll in earnest.