League successes and failures: Which counties have benefited the most this spring?
Nine games, nine wins. The story of Clare’s 2016 thus far and they will fancy (privately, at least) extending that run when they face Tipperary the weekend after next. The same questions that were asked of Clare over the previous two seasons remain – discipline and shooting accuracy – but they have done everything expected of them thus far without Tony Kelly around whom this team rotates.
They had looked slick at times in games prior to their winner-takes-all clash with Clare but were found wanting once more when it mattered most. Returning to the top flight was a priority for both the group and the county board. A seventh season in the second tier in 2017 is a tough pill to swallow.
Beyond their victories over Tipperary and Kilkenny, and second place finish in the Division 1A table, this has been another useful spring for Waterford. Pauric Mahony stepped back into the inter-county arena for the first time in over 10 months yesterday, the performances of league debutants Conor Gleeson, Colm Roche and Shane Roche are proof positive of the strength-in-depth of Derek McGrath’s squad, while forwards Patrick Curran and Shane Bennett, both still U21, have shown themselves to be massively exciting prospects.
Michéal Donoghue has tinkered with the team that came within 35 minutes of All-Ireland glory last September, but aside from bringing Fergal Moore and Davy Glennon back into the fold, there are few other departments on the field where Galway have benefited from the experimentation of the new management. Dropping to Division 1B would see the knives again sharpened out west.
They may yet end up getting relegated, which seems unfair on a side which won two games. Their win in Portlaoise on the opening day showed what the Christy Ring winners can do. They gave Limerick a run for their money and had the character to come back and shock Offaly yesterday after shipping heavy defeats to Wexford and Clare.
A few years ago Kerry were in Division 4.
There are a lot of Offaly people who would regard a campaign which saw them win just one of three home games as a failure, not least when one of those losses was to Kerry. But they have reached the quarter-finals and the win in Wexford showed what they are capable of. “Our aim was to get to the quarter-finals, maybe not the way we got there,” was a fairly accurate summation of their campaign by manager Eamon Kelly.
Michael Ryan bookended three competitive contests with facile wins over Dublin and Cork to hit his first target in the hotseat. John McGrath and Michael Breen look certain championship starters on their league form. And with Seamus Callanan back yesterday, and Jason Forde and Patrick Maher to return, Tipp look particularly well stocked up front.
The hits just keep coming for Cork. They suffered another loss yesterday, with the Tipperary defeat meaning they failed to produce a win in the group games of Division 1A. The spirited effort against Kilkenny will raise hope we saw Cork’s true level that night. But Cork lost every league game — has that ever happened before?
Brian Cody: “You’d learn something the whole time, that’s what you have to do. The whole league we’ve been looking at a few players and trying to win matches at the same time. I suppose from our first league game, having lost it, we’ve come and won the rest of them to make a quarter-final."
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