Experienced champions likely to justify favouritism tag

WHEN is enough, enough? When does greed become a vice? Today, Portumna bid for their third All-Ireland senior club hurling title in four years, Waterford’s De La Salle are trying to win their first.

In such circumstances, in almost any other sphere of life, the Galway champions would be looked on with very little favour. But this is sport, where the parameters are different. If the De La Salle fairytale is to continue today, it will have legitimacy — especially for De La Salle themselves — only if they defeat the likes of Portumna.

It was thus for Portumna when they won their first title in 2006; it was thus for them when they won their second, last March. And it will ever be thus.