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There will be time to draw breath soon enough, but this Sunday the hurlers are back at it again. And we just can’t look away.
With both Munster games starting at 2pm on Sunday, there will be half time murmurs reverberating around Semple Stadium and the Gaelic Grounds as scores from the other venue are digested, akin to classic courtroom scenes from the movies when the witness drops a clanger.
Eventually, there will be a movie made about this Munster championship. It deserves it after last weekend alone.
While Leinster’s top three was decided before last weekend, Munster could yet be decided by calculators. It’s been hectically wonderful and we can hardly stand any more drama! But I think we’re going to get it.
This Sunday, Limerick return home with a chance to book their place in the last six, possibly a Munster final too, if they beat Waterford.
We know the Treaty county are back, reeling Cork in with 14 men in Páirc Uí Chaoimh was all the proof we needed.
The conditioning of this Limerick team is highly impressive and if we notice some similarities to Galway’s current style and look, that’s all for a reason.
There’s still room for the small man in hurling and Greame Mulcahy’s resurgence is proof of that, but Cian Lynch is the man that is making them tick.
He reminds me a little of Galway great Joe Cooney with his touches and the instinctive way he plays the game. Lynch always seems to have time on the ball, rarely wastes it.
That’s some teammate to have – players like new kid on the block Seamus Flanagan are revelling in the supply he provides.
Limerick appear to have the ingredients, whether the main course is ready this August, I’m not so sure, but they are top table worthy.
All of the above would suggest they are going to beat Waterford but once again the Déise have a touch of the crusade about them.
Much has been made of Derek McGrath’s generosity towards the match officials in his post-match interview last Sunday.
And rightly so. But not for a moment to take away from McGrath’s well put empathy in not putting the boot in, the man is also clever enough to know he didn’t need to. That process was well underway already, being led by Dan The Man!
Waterford supporters will feel they were hard done by and they will travel to Limerick this weekend to get behind their county. They are now a team with a cause. Such teams are dangerous.
Having felt they’d rise against Tipp, I see different emotions at work here, but the same result. They’ll come back to the Gaelic Grounds and they will make it a battle.
Limerick have to come down from Cork and get back up again because if they’re not at the same pitch of work and attitude, they will be caught. They still might be.
Tipp’s last chance
An hour down the road, Thurles will host a game that could define Clare and Tipperary hurling for the next few years.
Defeat for either is the end of the road I feel, although there are permutations that would keep Clare in the play-off hunt if they lose.
But they can’t, not if they are to be a player this summer. Even Tipp folk would acknowledge that their team is creaking and can’t keep going to the well.
This is week number four-in-a-row for them and if they go behind again, surely another comeback is beyond them. Isn’t it?
There is an air of Kilkenny in 2013 about Michael Ryan’s squad. That Cats team stayed in the championship a month longer than they should have out of pure defiance and pride.
They struggled to beat Offaly by five points, lost to the Dubs after a replay then beat Tipp and Waterford in extra time when they really had no right to. It was Cork that eventually administered the euthanasia shot.
Clare can be that team this Sunday and that should be a powerful incentive for any Clare man, woman or child to be in Semple Stadium.
In my lifetime Tipp have performed the mercy killing of various Clare teams and I could bore you by listing them all! They were only doing their job of course, but now this Banner side have to do theirs.
Tipp took off Bubbles, and both McGraths last Sunday when the game needed to be rescued, a real statement about where they are if ever there was one.
Seamus Callinan is still not back to where he needs to be, Paraic Maher was also vulnerable at times.
The resistance leader was Brendan Maher and he really stood up in the last 15, lifting those around him.
For a man playing his 10th year of championship hurling, it was a heroic performance. But they’ll need more than him raging against the dying light and I’m not sure it’s there.
Clare come in rested and buoyed by beating Waterford, with a shot at redemption for the last few years of non-performing if they can get down to business early.
Hold Tipp goalless in the first half, send them to the well again in the second and the Premier might find it has run dry.
Davy’s mind games
I see Davy Fitzgerald has suggested putting the house on Kilkenny to beat his tired Wexford side in Nowlan Park on Saturday night. Do that and you might have mortgage troubles!
One trend we can take from the new format is that teams tend to respond to a poor performance the following week. That suggests both might hit the ground running and give us a game to savour.
We are due one in the province and don’t be fooled by those who theorise that neither will want to meet Galway again in a Leinster final.
This game matters because the loser goes into the play-offs on the back of two losses. And it’s Wexford versus Kilkenny.
We might see Richie Hogan, we should see fireworks. I have a hunch the visitors will enjoy their evening Noreside.
Football
There are seven football qualifiers on across the weekend. By late night at least two former heavy hitters from Kildare, Tyrone, Derry or Meath will be gone for the year.
Mayo reappear in Limerick but their summer is just starting (someday there will be a movie about them as well!).
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