THE hits are coming thick and fast now. Still reeling from events in Wexford town, we have Munster hurling this weekend, not to mention a couple of intriguing football contests. By the weekend the Leaving and Junior Cert will be over and there’s a suggestion of 21°C .

The summer is definitely upon us.

The hurling championship is well and truly boiling now, Wexford have seen to that. By Sunday night we could have the unthinkable – Kilkenny, Tipp and Cork all in the qualifiers. It kind of happened in 2013 though the Rebels did reach the Munster final. I don’t forsee a Cork win this weekend, meaning three big guns could leave the provincial final stages clear to Clare, Waterford, Galway and Wexford.

Would Sunday night be too late to lob a motion into Central Council to revert back to a knockout championship just for this year?

On Monday morning next the draw for those qualifiers takes place and it will be must-hear radio. The Rebels and Déise hardly needed extra motivation to reach a Munster final, but the prospect of going to Nowlan Park or Thurles will ratchet up Sunday’s pressure ever so slightly.

Thurles will be bristling for this contest and we should see in excess of 30,000 as both counties bring huge support when there is expectation. Cork’s brilliant performance in dethroning Tipp has seen to that, while there is a definite air of ‘this is our year’ about Waterford.

Derek McGrath has put all eggs into the championship basket and his team has justifiably reached that point in their development. I even suspect they might have preferred Tipperary, having lost the last two Munster finals to them, but will fancy their chances equally as well against a Cork side they beat comfortably in the championship two years ago.

Of course this is a different Cork team and if let play the thrilling brand of hurling that ran Tipp into the ground three weeks ago, they will beat most teams, Waterford included. But they won’t be able to do that because the wide open spaces offered a few weeks back will not be available this Sunday. They know this. They are not going into Semple Stadium blind to what’s ahead of them. Tactically they will have to break Waterford down and this is another fascinating element to this semi-final. Can they get it done? It’s not impossible but is unlikely.

Cork were a revelation against Tipp and nearly every single player performed near to or at the uppermost of their capabilities. Doing that two championship days in a row is a rare feat, achieved only by the great teams. Cork are not there yet, although they may have taken the first and often most important step on that road.

I think they will struggle with the roadblocks that Waterford will offer in the middle third of the field. Cork’s runners will not have the lanes they danced through in the quarter-final and from there Cork, or indeed any team, start to break down.

That is the Déise formula without the ball and with it they can mix serious hurling as well. They have sublime stickmen in both Bennetts, Pauric O’Mahony, Tadgh De Burca, Patrick Curran and Austin Gleeson, but the heart of the team is their veteran engine room. Brick Walsh and Kevin Moran are two warriors that the rest of the side take their lead from. These are championship men who give everything for the cause.

Even with players like Spillane, Ellis, Cadogan, Luke Mead and the flying Conor Lehane operating at the same levels as the Tipp game, Cork will need a physicality that they weren’t asked for in that first outing. It will be called for here and that remains a question mark for them.

The momentum of that marvellous first win can’t be discounted, but the feeling is that Waterford will eventually overpower Cork, winning the hard way, as is their wont. Should that happen, Cork folk should not fear Morning Ireland on Monday, they’re still in this championship. The same mightn’t be true for Waterford because they yearn for the front door this summer.

Big BAll

There are four first-round qualifiers down for decision on Saturday, with Louth and Longford the pick of them, although it will be interesting to see how Waterford fare against Derry after their heroics against Cork.

Westmeath and Offaly meet again in the Leinster quarter-final after a draw on Sunday that apparently had very little to recommend it. If you are from either county or in the vicinity of Mullingar on Saturday afternoon, go along to the replay because a desperate first match nearly always guarantees a classic second tie. The GAA is funny like that!

It would appear that this could be a poor weekend for the Faithful mind you, their hurlers will definitely lose out to Galway in their Leinster hurling semi-final on Sunday. Released from his box, Davy will surely be on hand to keep an eye on the Tribesmen.

Potentially the two best football matches of the weekend are the semi-finals in Leinster and Ulster. It is worth pointing out that the losers of these ties are in the same side of the qualifier draw (with Clare!), as are Mayo so while the prospect of the Dubs in a final in Croke Park might fill some supporters with dread, it’s a stamped ticket to the last twelve.

Kildare and Meath should be decent. We’re not so sure about Tyrone and Donegal. When these two meet a football match rarely breaks out. Expect Ulster’s own patented intensity, followed by a low scoring draw!

I’m picking the Lillywhites to cope with the Royals in another good pick-up for Sky Sports who seem to have had first call on a lot of games to date.

This leaves us with Roscommon and Leitrim in the Connacht semi-final. It must be the Rossies, after all their manager Kevin McStay did something unthinkable in this day and age – he named his team six days before the match!

Even Brian Cody has succumbed to the temptations of mind games last weekend, not naming his starting fifteen until the day of the Wexford game. With Cody gone the way of the ‘reformers’, we have only McStay left among the purists. Don’t make a liar out of me now Kevin and make three or four changes before throw-in. CL

PS – Kerry will win the football All-Ireland this year and I won’t be changing from my view between now and September. Sorry for the pundits curse lads, but it’s yours to lose. They were highly impressive when they needed to be last Sunday. I took note and I wasn’t the only one. I met a devout Kingdom follower and avid Farmers Journal reader after their win over Clare in Ennis and Denis Lucey from Glenflesk nailed it when he told me; “They were asked the question and they answered it.”

Sure, since when did a Kerryman not have an answer?

I’ll see you in Croker in late September, Denis.