Ever since Lar Corbett broke through for a goal in a largely forgotten yet pivotal 2008 league semi-final in Nowlan Park to announce the Liam Sheedy era and the Tipperary revival, it’s as if there have been two kinds of games in the life of a Tipperary or Kilkenny hurler — those against their fiercest enemy and those against everyone else.

In the past the Eircom National League has found itself in all kinds of controversies from player registration forms going amiss to ineligible players being fielded for all sorts of competitions.