Two teams will bow out of contention for the national league hurling title this Sunday and it will not be a disaster for either of them, despite what you read and hear in the papers and airwaves next Monday. I bring this up because I was struck with the response to Dublin’s win over Cork and Mayo’s loss to Derry at HQ last Sunday. Both football games were a joy to watch and the introduction of the black card is clearly helping the flow of action – albeit for games played in early April.

Do Cork really have huge question marks over them because of their “collapse” against Dublin? Have Mayo failed yet again to win the big one in Croke Park? The answer to both of those questions is no. The explanation is that this is only the league and anyone reading deeply into either result is way off the mark. The same will be true of this Sunday.

Cork didn’t collapse but were eventually overrun by a clinical second half from the All-Ireland champions (playing at home yet again). Fall away like that in September and then we can start talking. The Rebels have looked decent in topping the Division 1A table and hammering Kerry in Tralee was worth more to them than any league semi-final.

As for Mayo, they destroyed the defending All-Ireland champions in Croke Park last summer and have beaten the defending All-Ireland champions on the same ground for the past three of four years. They have no problem winning big games in Croke Park – just All-Ireland finals. It would be a foolish man that writes off either and I’d fully expect to see them both in Croke Park in August anyway.

If Munster lose in Toulon the weekend after next we will hear of the need to rebuild and what is wrong with the team – the achievement of being the only Irish side in the last four will quickly be forgotten. Rory McIlroy is a young man who cannot win every major. It is only two years since his last one – Tiger has gone six years without one. Rory will be fine. But that’s sport these days, over-analysis and knee-jerk reactions, leading to the language of failure. (Sometimes the lads on Newstalk’s Off The Ball have too much airtime on their hands!)

Sunday in Limerick is as tasty a hurling double header as this time of the year can offer. Both games have much appeal, with Tipp and Clare probably justifying top billing. Things are so bad in Tipp hurling that they are 70 minutes from a league final and hottest of favourites to win their Munster championship semi-final against Limerick in six weeks’ time.

They have struggled in the league to date but did just enough to reach the playoff stages and saw off Cork in the quarter-final without impressing. What better way to reach a semi-final? Throw in the possibility of Lar, Pauric Maher, John O’Brien and Niall O’Meara all being available to play and there’s a few counties that wouldn’t mind such a crisis.

Both Clare and Tipp can hardly help but have one eye on the championship before the ball is thrown in, but once it is I suspect both will have two eyes on this game. They won’t be able to help themselves. This is a chance to lay down a marker or two for later dates, and quite possibly a Munster final at the same venue. Expect fireworks.

Tipp’s problems have been easy to identify: they are leaking scores. A fully fit Conor O’Mahony and perhaps a returning Pauric Maher would help shore them up. The tightness of Pairc na nGael wouldn’t hurt their cause either. I’d still fancy Clare, though, even without the talismanic Shane O’Donnell who is out for a month with a pulled hamstring. Podge Collins and Conor McGrath are in disruptive form – both ran riot when the two sides met in March. They can again. Clare have been motoring along these past few months and, young as they are, they know only one speed. The ground is hardening up too and that will suit them. They want to win a league – something that has escaped the Banner since 1978. They’re the favourites and rightly so.

The curtain-raiser involves old foes Kilkenny and Galway. Whispers on the grapevine suggest the Tribesmen will be without Iarla Tannion, Fergal Moore and possibly Niall Healy, three key men these past few weeks. The plus is that Joe Canning should start.

It appears to be all good news for Brian Cody as Michaels Fennelly and Rice, JJ, Jackie, Taggy, TJ, Richie and Walter (will I keep going?) are all expected to play some part. Kilkenny could be very close to having their preferred 20 togging out on Sunday. Dangerous doesn’t begin to cover what they might be this year.

As serial league winners, their intent can’t be questioned. They will be as good as they can be for the middle of April. And these two have previous. The two All-Ireland finals of 2012 left an aftertaste – not having a guard of honour for the champions the following spring in Salthill didn’t help either.

To return to the summit this year Kilkenny will need a clean bill of health and a cause. The doctor’s waiting room that was last summer appears to have eased significantly. Henry is back earlier and fitter than ever and looking sharp. Rice and Fennelly are possibly the last pieces of the Cody jigsaw and once that picture is completed, then we’ll find out if they are gone because last year can be written off on the HSE.

As for a cause, well it always helps to have one, real or imagined. This year they have to retake Leinster from the Dubs, clip Cork or Tipp one last time, before reminding Clare they didn’t beat the greatest of all time last year – all the while giving Henry his 10th medal.

That journey begins before a big crowd in the Gaelic Grounds and a tight pitch that will suit. A physical Galway will also suit them. Championship 2014 was a struggle from start to finish for Kilkenny. This year the plan is to get back to the Cats’ way of winning in games that matter. That is the Cody way. Goals early and often. Games over long before the finish. This Sunday might be a bit early for the full treatment, but it will still tell a tale.

The Banner and the Cats to reach the final. Cue premature sporting obit twittering in Galway and Tipp.