There’s hardly time to draw breath and we’re at it again this weekend.

With Clare off I can finally see some other teams in this hurling championship. There are three options, Wexford for what I think could be the most intense game of the year to date, Páirc Uí Chaoimh for what could be one of the most pivotal or the Gaelic Grounds for what could be the first bona fide shock!

If there is one drawback to this new format, it is the scheduling of the games and who that suits. For now, it seems to me that the armchair supporter is much too comfortable with the order of matches, while genuine followers who want to go to games are restricted in their choice beyond their own county.

This weekend is the first opportunity to see two Munster championship matches in the flesh and this is the way to go next year, splitting the games to Saturdays and Sundays.

We could also do with Davy’s suggestion of an extra week off in there too somewhere.

Saturday sees unbeaten Wexford and champions Galway clash in Innovate Park at 5pm and this will be hard-hitting stuff.

Kilkenny couldn’t live with the Tribesmen’s physicality in Salthill and you really should read that sentence again. A Cody team could not stand up to the power of Galway.

This is why Galway are the warmest of favourites to repeat last year’s success and it isn’t hard to see why.

They appear to have all the skill and touch required at this level, among a team of six foot somethings who are fit and strong as horses.

But Davy will have a plan and his team won’t stand back from the hot and heavy exchanges. Because it was Kilkenny, Galway were up for last Sunday, six days later they will need the same mental fortitude again and sometimes even the great teams struggle with that.

Standards

It has been a highlight of the round robin thus far, the understandable difficulty for amateur teams to maintain such standards a week apart.

It is probably why Cork hit the wall in the second half in Thurles and why we might see Galway flatten a little bit too on Saturday evening, especially if we get the high temperatures expected this weekend.

Supporters getting angry at players’ mistakes should keep in mind that most of them are at work on Monday mornings, less than 18 hours after playing championship hurling. For four weeks in a row!

Wexford’s win over Offaly was very impressive given that under Kevin Martin the Faithful had been competitive in recent weeks.

The dearth of depth on their panel probably told against them along with the short break, but this result was still to be noted.

In Nowlan Park the Cats were kept in view until the last 10 minutes, in Tullamore the contest was over after a quarter of an hour.

I think the place will be rocking on Saturday night. It was for the league encounter eight weeks ago and the home side responded accordingly.

While there is still a trip to Nowlan Park to come, which I believe Wexford will have enough for, this is the game they want, this will offer us a real measurement of this year’s championship.

These two met in last year’s Leinster final and Galway were a step above Wexford in every department. I suspect the gap has narrowed.

This could very well be the first of two, if not three meetings between this pair in the coming months.

I see both as All-Ireland semi-finalists, I see Saturday going down to the wire. Wexford winning shouldn’t be a surprise, this is set up for them.

In the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday few will see anything but a clear cut Tipperary win over a depleted Waterford side. I’m not so sure.

One pattern that has emerged already from the new format is that teams with their backs to the wall will conjure something up.

Tipp were there a week ago at half time in Semple Stadium and found something. It’s what championship hurlers do. It’s why they are county men. They can lift.

Tipp have done it, Clare did it in Cusack Park, Dublin the same in Parnell Park. Being written off is still a powerful motivational tool.

Pride

The facts are the Déise could be missing Austin Gleeson, Pauric Mahony, Tadgh de Burca, Kevin Moran, Noel Connors, Darragh Fives and Barry Coughlan.

Huge losses for sure, but they will still have 15 on at the start. They will still be fit and strong, they will be players who have been part of the squad all year.

Lest anyone has forgotten, this squad went all the way to last September. In 2013 they captured a minor All-Ireland, an U-21 in 2016. They have hurlers in Waterford.

So despite the venue, the injury woes, the gloom and so on, do you really think that dressing room will be talking about only fulfilling a fixture?

Last Sunday with 10 minutes to go against a rampant Clare this ‘makeshift’ Waterford side, down to 14 men, trailed by 12 points.

Did they fold up their tent and sulk? No, they out scored the Banner 0-6 to 0-3 to the end and showed more fight in that spell than Tipp did in their first three halves of championship hurling.

That showed me something.

They’re a proud team and rightly so. I still fancy Tipp but they’d better be tuned in or they will suffer.

I think I have to shout for Cork on Saturday night and this goes against everything I have believed GAA-wise for almost 50 years!

Limerick are Clare’s opponents in the last game and if my permutations are right, defeat on Saturday means a Clare victory in Ennis on 17 June guarantees the Banner advancement, unfortunately at Limerick’s expense.

It will probably get more complicated before this is done, but Saturday night’s winners will have one foot in a Munster final.

Limerick travel in confidence, after a win and 13 days off. The Rebels will have six days to shake their second half in Semple Stadium.

This is another game to savour. The value of home advantage might pick Cork up just enough. Regardless, I still believe these two will emerge in the top three yet.

It’s why I’ll be spending my Saturday evening sitting in Blackrock traffic for at least an hour or two around 10pm.

Say hello if you see me, I’ll be the fella trying to get to Killarney in time for a Munster football semi-final the following day.

You see Fitzgerald Stadium is where Clare are going to trump Longford and Carlow’s heroics by beating Kerry.

Long shot? Maybe, but nothing beats being there. Just in case.

Read more

Time for Tipp to find top gear

Let hurling nirvana begin