1. Will this be a sexier hurling league?
Cast your mind back to Easter Sunday last year. The nation’s attention was focused on the big ball, Castlebar and Roscommon’s smash-and-grab job against Mayo who had been crowned league champions the week before.
What it wasn’t focused on, was the hurling league final between Limerick and Kilkenny, in unloved Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Because the league is worthless and a bit boring.
Until now! Now we have a genuine – can’t get enough of this word – jeopardy – built in.
Instead of one side going down, we now have the chance of numerous teams going to Division 1B.
And from 2025, the bottom two teams in Division 1A will go to Division 1B, to be replaced with the top two in the latter.
The leagues will eventually shake up to have seven teams in each of the five divisions, thereby guaranteeing each county three home games, no doubt swelling the coffers of county boards.
The threat of relegation and lack of exposure to the top teams will do enough to sharpen the competitive instincts of managers and players. The top three teams in Division 1A and 1B, along with the best fourth-placed team, will make up the Division 1A in 2025.
2. Will Waterford bounce back?
No matter where your sympathies lie, Davy Fitzgerald will be a massive draw in this league. He always is, no matter where he goes.
And in year two of an agreed three-year term, he has some positives before he sets sail.
Biggest of all is having Walsh Park back. Last year they were stationed in Fraher Field on occasion but it wasn’t a great fit. Truth be told, there was a puzzling lack of fans willing to go along to Dungarvan, let alone the journeys to Thurles as their home base for Munster games.
Calum Lyons and Shane Bennett have recently returned from Australia and will be integrated into the panel. The three Bennetts – Stephen and Kieran also – will be involved. There is uncertainty around Iarlaith Daly’s place on the panel. Fitzgerald has said he has some ‘exam pressure’, but he did line out this week for UCC in the Fitzgibbon Cup.
However, all this has to be viewed in the context of missing the 2016 Hurler of the Year, Austin Gleeson who appears to have fallen out of love with the game, while Tadgh de Búrca is still recovering from his cruciate injury sustained in the Munster opener last year against Limerick.
If they bomb again, could you imagine Davy hanging around for year three?
3. Which county will grab the opportunity of a lifetime?
Ronan Sheehan is the second-longest serving intercounty manager, taking over Down one season after John Kiely came to power in Limerick.
Tom Mullaly has been with Carlow since the start of 2021. Around the same time, Kerry were appointing Stephen Molumphy of Waterford as their manager.
Then you have Willie Maher, the Tipp native with a world of managerial experience having led Cuala to the Dublin hurling championship in 2019 and 2020, in charge of Laois. Kilkenny All-Ireland winning camogie boss Brian Dowling is now at the helm of Kildare, while Seoirse Bulfin remains in charge of Meath.
This league is set to be the opportunity of a lifetime for them with the chance of getting into the first division. Will it matter to them that it will be Division 1B? Not a bit of it.
All of those managers and counties are within a shout of getting up and thereby enjoying three home games against top-quality opposition in 2025.
4. Who needs a trophy?
The answer is Cork. They are the side that need to win something this year.
It’s been 26 years since they last won the league. And their hunger under Pat Ryan has to be through the roof given how they stalled in Munster last season despite their competitive performances.
It’s coming up to 19 years since the Rebels last won an All-Ireland title. Fine and loyal careers have come and gone and the Liam MacCarthy has never come to Leeside.
This is the longest they have gone in their history without an All-Ireland. They need to start picking up some silverware and getting into that habit.
Would it hurt Clare to be lifting something? No. But can they do it without Tony Kelly? Doubtful.
Dublin? Wishful thinking here. Wexford? Unlikely.
Tipperary? Well, the gap back to 2008 is starting to stretch back a bit with no real reason jumping out at us.
But no. We keep coming back to it. Can Patrick Horgan’s career really pass by without winning a single national title? It happens, for sure, but it would be a tremendous pity.
5. What do Kilkenny and Limerick need this spring?
Kilkenny need a few things out of this hurling league.
Top of the priorities will be keeping TJ Reid fresh for a summer assault. Nobody will understand that better than the man who is self-employed in the fitness industry.
He also has the enforced break after having lost the county hurling final against O’Loughlin Gaels.
Speaking of which, manager Derek Lyng will have to handle the likes of Huw Lawlor, Paddy Deegan and Mikey Butler with kid gloves after the disappointment of losing the club final.
Can they unearth a player or two? Richie Hogan has slipped away. Padraig Walsh has called it a day. It’s getting difficult to see where TJ’s successor is coming from.
What do Limerick need? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. A chat with someone close to the panel revealed that the frontline players will not be seen until the third round at least.
If they get relegated, so what? It’s all about the big push for immortality in what may well be John Kiely’s final season.
