Tipperary and Kilkenny were convincing winners at the weekend, so will this year’s All-Ireland winners come from a select group of two?
Conán Doherty says: YES.
There’s no shame in conceding a two-horse race when you’re dealing with two teams like Tipperary and Kilkenny. It’s not a reflection on anyone else, rather the strength of the two superpowers right now.
Take, for example, Armagh. For the last decade and a half, club football in the Orchard county has been virtually ruined because of the dominance of Crossmaglen. Is it anyone else’s fault really that, for the most part, they were contesting with one of the finest club sides of all time? It didn’t make the rest of the clubs in Armagh weaker, but it did ruin the competitiveness of the championship.
But you shouldn’t speak too soon and all that. Anything can happy on any given Sunday and sure look what happened to Dublin last year in the football. Yeah, the Dubs got caught by a team with a slick system but Kerry – yes, the usual suspects Kerry – ended up winning the All-Ireland anyway.
Kilkenny got caught five years ago. Tipperary ended up winning the All-Ireland anyway.
Unfortunately for hurling as well, whilst it often helps the spectacle, it is much, much harder to spring an upset.
It doesn’t cater for systems and strategies as much, it’s more dependent on skill.
You couldn’t ‘Donegal’ a team in the hurling championship and, for that reason, the likelihood of a shock result is vastly decreased. You fight your corner, the man with the greatest skill usually comes out on top. The element of surprise is gone.
Then, you take Kilkenny.
Kil-bloody-kenny.
This generation of Kilkenny hurlers is nothing short of ridiculous. They have proven themselves to be some of the finest sportspeople the world over and, even when they lose six of their greatest ever servants in the one off-season, they come out and destroy Wexford in such a fashion that you couldn’t even see where those retired legends would’ve fitted in anyway.
Who’s left to compete with them?
Waterford? Galway? The Clare of two years ago?
Good sides, but no.
No punter in Ireland would look anywhere past Kilkenny. Some of them would chance their arm with Tipp and their better odds and because the Premier county actually has some of the players who could do the damage on the day. No-one else does.
And no-one would flutter a quid on anyone else outside the Kilkenny-Tipp stronghold and harbour any realistic ambitions of getting a return.
On Sunday, hurling took centre stage and closed out the football world. You nearly missed some of the defensive stand-offs with the larger ball because both Tipperary and Kilkenny had their jobs done before you even got comfortable in your seat.
Both of those games were built up to the high heavens, both of them had so much promise. All we got though was a sobering realisation that last year’s finalists are still streets ahead and the rest of this summer will feel like a bit of a procession now until they meet a real challenger.
Until they meet each other.
There are only two teams in this competition. Maybe it’s time that the hurling championship is split into five tiers…
Conor Heneghan of JOE.ie says: NO.
Question: What do the Kerry footballers of 1982, the Cork hurlers of 2006, the Kilkenny hurlers of 2010 and the Dublin footballers of 2014 have in common?
Answer: All of those teams and many more in the GAA’s history were cast-iron certainties to win an All-Ireland title only to ultimately come up short in the end.
You’d think that people in the GAA would learn from the folly of making rash and premature predictions but if the weekend just gone is anything to go by, that’s obviously not the case.
Sure, Kilkenny and Tipperary were awesome in their victories over Wexford and Limerick respectively; the combined 40-point winning margin is a testament to that.
But to say that it’s a two-horse race already? In June? When both sides have only played one championship game apiece? It’s absolute madness.
Last year’s All-Ireland champions and runners-up are worthy favourites and the gap in the odds available on Kilkenny (7/4) and Tipperary (15/8) to win the All-Ireland compared to the rest (Galway lead the chasing pack on 6/1) reflects the general belief that they’ll be contesting the decider again in September.
Joe Canning and Galway have delivered some very convincing performances so far
Hell, I don’t even mind saying I think Tipp will end up winning the whole thing; they’re a class outfit who appear to be reaching their peak in Eamonn O’Shea’s third year in charge.
But I also think there’s a lot left in some of the contenders and in true GAA style, I’d be pretty pissed off if I was reading some of the early obituaries for the challenge of those contenders that seem to be de rigeur in the last few days.
If I was Derek McGrath or a Waterford player, I’d be pretty pissed off that a fiercely exciting team who have yet to be beaten in 2015 were being written off.
Derek McGrath (pictured with Dan Shanahan) is over something really exciting in Waterford
Similarly, if I was from Galway, I’d be taking motivation from the fact that few people are acknowledging that this year is looking like one of those all-too-rare years when the Tribesmen are coming on strong and are going to take some stopping.
I was about to say something similar of Clare, but Davy Fitz seems pissed off most of the time anyway – particularly when he goes in front of a camera on matchday – without somebody telling him his team have no chance of winning an All-Ireland this year.
Despite losing so convicingly on Sunday, Limerick aren’t done yet and while I wouldn’t have the same faith in Cork or Dublin, they’re not out of the hunt yet either.
Besides, has nobody been paying heed to what’s actually happened in the Championship in the last few years?
Around this time last year, the Tipp players were being blasted for going on the beer after losing to Limerick and they came within the width of a post of winning an All-Ireland title.
Seamus Callanan and his Tipp team-mates faced serious criticism after losing to Limerick last year
In 2013, Clare were beaten and beaten well by Cork in Munster and nearly went out to Wexford in the qualifiers before turning their season around and claiming their first All-Ireland title in 16 years.
Kilkenny were beaten out the gate by Galway in the Leinster Final in 2012 and ended up beating the same team after a replay in the All-Ireland Final two months’ later.
Cork had ten points to spare over Tipp in Munster in 2010 and it was the Premier who went onto lift Liam at the end of the season.
I could go on and on, but surely those examples, all from the last five years, tell a cautionary tale?
I’ll even go as far to say that one of Tipperary and Kilkenny will be beaten by one of Galway or Wexford in their respective provincial finals; you heard it here first!
Just as I’m not writing off the challenge of the chasing pack now, defeat in the provincial decider would be but a speed bump in Tipp’s or Kilkenny’s aspirations of landing Liam.
That’s the beauty of championship, anything can happen and very often it does.
And there’s plenty of twists and turns left in the 2015 edition yet.
