Room for improvement if resurgent Rebels are to challenge for an All-Ireland crown

I took two things from Thurles on Saturday.

Firstly, I didn’t see any All-Ireland winner and secondly, I saw no man-marking whatsoever.

The league was very slack in this respect and I was hoping it would tighten up in the championship. What did we see scored on Saturday between the two games, 9-79? That’s an average of over 2-20 per team — where was the marking? God forbid, but is hurling becoming more and more like football?