This time Tipp know what to expect

SO, a couple of weeks after its Leinster equivalent and a week after the football, the Munster senior hurling championship kicks off with Tipp and Cork, and what a mouth-watering way in which to start.

This is their sixth meeting in Munster in seven years, after somewhat of a drought period before that — but this is a relationship that never gets old.

Last year is our only real reference point so early in the season, and there are parallels. In 2010 — even though they were heading to Páirc Uí Chaoimh — Tipperary were raging hot favourites. They were coming off the back of a near-miss in the previous year’s All-Ireland final. Facing them were a Cork team seen to be in transition, a team with too many members whose best days were behind them.