With the quivers of excitement still reverberating around the game from last Sunday’s Munster Final, the GAA yesterday launched the All Ireland stage of this year’s Hurling Championship.
It would be hard to match that game with any from history but everything needs an ebb and flow to retain a sense of wonder and the games this weekend will come in at a different pitch, albeit not one without its charms.
Wexford travel to Kerry and Cork to Antrim in the Preliminary Quarter Finals with the winners joining Clare and Galway in a bid to then face either Limerick or Kilkenny in the Semi-Final.
The Final will take place on July 17th, a mere five weeks away so it will be helter-skelter for the teams left in.
Antrim are fresh from winning last week’s Joe McDonagh Cup and have a chance of upsetting a Cork side, albeit one that has regathered themselves during a Munster Championship that will most likely produce the Finalists in Croke Park to battle for the Liam McCarthy Cup.\
“We felt we were doing good things in games but we just probably weren’t coming together for the 70 minutes,” said Cork’s Robert Downey at yesterday’s launch.
“Our backs were to the wall against Waterford and we could maybe play with a bit more abandon while sticking to the game-plan and process too.”
“Thankfully it came together for us on the day and that gave us a bit of confidence going on to the Tipp game when it was more or less the same thing. Luckily enough we came third in Munster and here we are now.”
After travelling up and down to Dublin in the day for last Sunday’s Joe McDonagh Cup Final, albeit with the help of a flight laid on by Farranfore, Kerry will be grateful for the home comfort of Austin Stack Park in Tralee, though Wexford will be heavy favourites to progress.
It will be a measure of how close the challengers are to breaking into the golden circle of hurling.
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