02-05-2025
Hurling Nation: Calendar needs work, Déise need a win
I've said it before and I'll keep saying it; the season is too short and the schedule makes little sense.
There aren't many games in the whole season, yet we had five games in each of the first two weekends and then just one game this weekend.
Play it on a Saturday and then you have to pay the GAA cash to view it on their channel. Are we trying to promote hurling or smother it?
There's no Joe McDonagh Cup action. Surely it would be a weekend to showcase this because it could do with some help.
It's the eighth staging of the competition. The idea is a good one, but the teams who reach that level desperately need support from Croke Park if they're to push on. Reaching this level should release funds and personnel for those involved.
Of the six teams competing this year, Kildare are in the competition for the third time. Everybody else has been present for five or six years, outside of Kerry, who've been a permanent fixture for all eight seasons.
The Joe McDonagh is looking more like a destination than part of a journey. Hurling needs oxygen and it needs a breakout success.
Anyway, the microwave championship gives and the microwave championship takes. Waterford have had just six days to recover from the Clare game last Sunday, which isn't good, but they came into the Clare game fresh, which helped.
They're at home in Welch Park for the second week in a row. That's an advantage, and as we know, as is dána gach madra i ndoras a thí féin (every dog is bold in his own doorway).
The last time the Déise beat Limerick in championship hurling was 2011 - hard to believe. Waterford were reigning Munster champions and Limerick were at a low ebb. A fella called John Mullane scored a late goal to clinch it.
Since then, Limerick have written legends and Waterford are finding it hard to get out of Munster. They haven't slipped much, but the round-robin system has fenced them in.
Last week, the Déise were three points ahead starting the second half and we expected Clare to subdue them. Yet when Clare got back to within a point, Waterford kicked on and won comfortably. They looked like a team who knew what they were doing. They'll need to be just as certain against Limerick tomorrow.
The Treaty's need is as great as Waterford's, that's the beauty of this competition.
I'm going to be a coward and go with the data this week, and 50% of this year's Munster Championship game so far have been draws, so don't rule out another one tomorrow.
Sin é a chaird. Get out to a game - if you can find one.
Dónal Óg Cusack was speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland
