Tipperary hurlers need to focus on the positives ahead of opening championship match

The phoney war of the National Hurling League is over for another year. The days of teams playing league matches on testing surfaces, in between punishing training sessions, and affording fringe players the opportunity to stake their claim for a regular place in the starting fifteen, won’t be witnessed again until 2026.

The league is always a competition worth winning, and it serves its purpose as preparation for what will follow later in the year. However, it pales in comparison to the glory and allure of the championship.

The start of the championship this weekend means that the serious business of the hurling year is about to begin, as counties set out with optimism in the hope of navigating a successful course through the blood and thunder that is about to radiate from venues such as Semple Stadium, Croke Park, the Gaelic Grounds, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Cusack Park and Nowlan Park.

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Nowhere is that more true than in the white heat of the Munster championship, where Tipperary will get their campaign underway this Easter Sunday with a clash against Limerick at FBD Semple Stadium at 4pm.

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Tipp will enter the province’s round robin series of games on the back of a league campaign that held so much promise, as they topped the Division 1A table following wins over Galway, Wexford, Cork, Kilkenny and Clare, the only reverse coming against Limerick.

However, that feelgood factor was shattered in the horror show of the league final, when they were outplayed by All-Ireland favourites Cork.

That game was effectively done and dusted by half-time, when Cork led by 3-16 to 0-12. Tipp may have “won” the second half by 0-11 to 0-8 but that was cold comfort on a day when they were defeated by ten points, and well beaten at that.

The nature of that setback led to a sharp revision of the team’s prospects for the championship. That’s certainly true in the opinion of one bookmaker’s firm, which has now pushed Tipperary out to 14/1 in the betting for the All-Ireland championship, behind 6/4 favourites Cork, who are followed by Limerick (2/1), Kilkenny (15/2), Clare (8/1) and Galway (12/1).

Limerick are odds-on 3/10 favourites to win on Sunday, with Tipp an 11/4 chance. You can get 12/1 on the draw.

It may have “only” been the league final, the optimists will suggest. But given its proximity to the championship in the unrelenting inter-county schedule that is now part of the GAA landscape in the split season, Tipp and Cork have barely had time to catch breath before this weekend’s matches, with Cork travelling to Ennis for a date with Clare.

Capturing their first league title in 27 years with a performance that had a definite swagger about it means that Cork will approach this Sunday’s opener with a spring in their step.

That will hardly be the case with Tipperary who, despite that reality check that they received at Páirc Uí Chaoimh almost a fortnight ago, can’t afford to feel sorry for themselves as they prepare for the visit of Limerick.

“The league has been good to us,” manager Liam Cahill stated in the aftermath of the defeat by Cork.

“We’ve got great experience, you can have 20 training sessions to the benefit of what we got out there today, with the experience these newer players will get from playing in a big arena like that with a big crowd and big Cork support.

“I think where we are versus where we were, we have a lot more versatility to our play”.

Their more optimistic supporters might also take comfort from the comments of selector Declan Laffan in the build-up to the league final.

“It’s not a million miles from a championship match but you can’t throw everything at it either, because if things don’t work out you might have nowhere left to go after that”.

Tipp need to draw on the positives that were so evident during their league campaign. Foremost among those has been the bedding down of players in several positions, which has given the team a more settled appearance than last year. Players such as Robert Doyle, Eoghan Connolly, Craig Morgan, Bryan O’Mara, Joe Caesar, Sam O’Farrell and Darragh McCarthy have all benefitted from getting a run in the league through the late winter and early spring.

The experience of "older heads” including captain Ronan Maher, Jason Forde, Jake Morris and Michael Breen will be crucial too for the four stiff tests that lie ahead.

The county’s championship record in recent seasons hasn’t been anything to write home about, to put it mildly. In the last three seasons, over the course of 12 games, Tipperary have won just one match, with three draws and eight defeats.

Even for a team that is still in the rebuilding phase, there is no time like the present to begin the task of putting that right.