Tipp and Kilkenny ticked all the boxes

The selection process

There are very good reasons why. Here goes.

Player turnover in Cork has been immense; the Darren Sweetnam of 2012 may well have been here had he hung around and kicked on but he didn’t. Limerick have travelled a distance but, in the words of the venerable sage Steven Patrick Morrissey, the last mile is the hardest mile. Wexford weren’t sighted till last summer. Waterford have been in decline for age-profile reasons. Dublin have mixed the excellent (a National League and a Leinster title) with the abject. Galway have been more Galwayesque than ever.