Results do matter
Killinan End
It was implied recently by Liam Sheedy on television that the format of the National Hurling League is a contributory factor to the unstable nature of the results that are occurring.
One of the standard cliches of the modern era is how teams look “leggy” on their bad days with the associated implication that, rather than preparing specifically for the game in question, they were in fact training heavily with an eye on other days. No doubt the nature of the hurling season now where competitions and games are coming thick and fast leads to this. The pity is if it impinges on the integrity of the National Hurling League and leads to strange outcomes which do not reflect the assumed ability or trajectory of teams.
Outcomes which are not consistent with expectations certainly are dotted around this year's National Hurling League results. Perhaps the starkest example was the goal-laden destruction of Clare by Cork in Ennis. There are arguments that maybe Clare are not quite the powerhouse an All-Ireland title recently won suggests they should be. Several key players are edging on in years and the scoring potential and playmaking capacity of Shane O'Donnell is an incalculable loss. Yet, none of this excuses or explains the concession of six goals on home turf or any other turf for that matter. However, its timing was brilliant with the same counties meeting at the same venue in just a matter of weeks in the first round of the championship.
Clare rarely need much firing up before any championship but if there was any shortfall in motivation or good old-fashioned Ger Loughnane-era paranoia that League match should set them right. In the old days it would emerge later that some Cork guy passed some loose remark after or during the game add fuel to Banner fire. It’s not the 1990s anymore and in these days of deferring to science maybe the grudge has lost its currency value.
Still there is little doubt that whatever significance Clare had placed on the defending their League title with honour this defeat and its manner will have cut deeply. If the Banner county does not produce a performance when the red menace returns in April the signs for the rest of the year will be ominous. A League result merely not in line with expectations right now but one which might yet cast a long shadow.
Kilkenny’s tame display against Tipperary was followed up by an unlikely win against Limerick who had looked good against Galway. Much used to be made of Kilkenny’s tendency to dish out bad beatings in the League as if to send subliminal messages of superiority to other teams that they might call upon on days when margins were tighter. Two years running Limerick have failed to put their foot on Kilkenny throats – last year in a League semi-final and now in a regulation League game at Nowlan Park. Even on this occasion they had the momentum beforehand yet were unable to force it home having conceded a ludicrously big lead in the first half. Slow starts proved Limerick’s undoing last year on both days against Cork and might bite them again this year. Quite what the real Limerick is provides quite a conundrum. Are they the irresistible force that they still looked at times in the League or are they vulnerable to a team prepared to get in amongst them and to sustain that?
Whether it is the format or not, the League leaves us little the wiser on their form or indeed that of Kilkenny’s. While the win over Limerick, and more importantly the resilience of the performance, were welcomed on Nore-side with the hint of a sigh of relief, their League has been up and down. It is also fair to assume that those clad in Black and Amber will be largely the same cohort as tried their luck last year and the year before. Even if Kilkenny are probably guaranteed an All-Ireland semi-final berth before the competition every starts - which certainly puts downward pressure on bookies’ odds – they may fall foul of the sage advice against the wisdom trying the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome.
Tipp’s League has been a roaring success of course, with a League Final appearance ahead of us. What could possibly go wrong? Well plenty actually. We had a fine record (played 5 lost 1) heading into last year’s League semi-final, albeit achieved in a far weaker group than this year. The outcome of that semi-final was as abysmal a performance as we have ever had. In 2017 we qualified for the League semi-final – which was won against Wexford at Nowlan Park – with the same record (played 5 lost 1). Another dire and lethargic performance awaited against Galway in the League Final and as with 2024 it presaged a difficult year. With those recent examples in mind we’ll maintain a healthy scepticism about what is ahead. And bearing in mind Liam Sheedy’s observation about the swaying fortunes in the League and the lack of a pattern in results, we can await the visit of Clare to Thurles with an equally open mind. They will hardly countenance another performance like their last one.