A club final to look forward to It is the one everyone is waiting for and seems to have grabbed the attention of hurling fans all over the country. Two fantastic hurling teams in opposite corners with the game set to be played on one of the finest surfaces in Ireland with plenty of space for the top players to showcase their talents. What makes this more interesting is the fact that both teams play an open brand of hurling with more attack minded game plans than you would see from most club sides. Club success is all about the little parish or village, the history attached to the club but more importantly, it is for the members who work all year round raising finance, looking after fields, those using their cars to take kids to matches and all the members who work behind the scene. This is their day of honour and their day of glory at Croke Park. The level of excitement at this stage around the town or the village can only be witnessed by taking a drive or a stroll around the area and immediately you get a feel for what the GAA are all about. I have said it so many times in the past that the stars of tomorrow are coming from our clubs and we must ensure they get every opportunity of performing at the highest level. I am glad to say that this championship has gone to a new level and AIB must be complimented here on the effort and commitment they have shown in promoting this competition. Let's hope we get the game we are all expecting and that for the neutral supporter, hurling is the real winner. Both sides have some top class hurlers and players who have produced it so many times at inter county level but often enough it is not the so called stars who perform but the lesser lights who come up trumps on the big day. Everybody will expect Ben and Jerry O'Connor to produce the goods for Newtown but what happens if Ollie Canning does a man marking job on one of these and is successful? You then need somebody else to take up the challenge and for Newtown that could come from a Cork minor from last year named Cathal Naughton. I have watched him closely in the games to date and have been very impressed with him. I know he is just a young lad, but the open spaces of Croke Park will suit his style. For Portumna - Damian Hayes is their star man and on his day he is a proven match winner on his own. A burning question though is - will Newtown be tempted to take Pat Mulcahy from centre back and give him the role of marking Mr. Hayes? If that happens the opportunity will arise then for another young gun in Joe Canning to take centre stage and he again possesses enough to give Portumna the advantage in this tie. There are a lot of questions to be asked and a lot yet to be answered. Many will make Portumna favourites for this one but do not rule out a backlash from the Cork lads after their poor semi-final performance. National Hurling Leagues The national hurling league has started with a bang and there have been some very unusual results. Antrim beating Galway, Kilkenny giving the Tipp boys a hurling lesson and Waterford set down a marker by destroying Cork with fourteen men for most of the game. The most impressive team at the moment has to be Kilkenny and there is no doubt that the Cats are hell bent on returning to the top but are also now giving the younger generation the opportunity to stake a claim for a championship place. For this time of the year they seem to have an awful lot of hurling done and this evident again recently in a challenge game against Cork when they beat the Rebels without breaking a sweat. Fair play to Antrim, this was a big win for them against the All-Ireland finalists and if they can build on this and take it a step further into the Christy Ring competition in the summer, they will be hard to bet against. Tipp are, according to Babs Keating, still looking for six or seven players and after the Kilkenny game he may feel they need much more because only for the goalkeeper Brendan Cummins, this could have been an awful lot worse than it turned out to be. That first half period could have seen Kilkenny score six or seven goals at ease and the game would have been out of sight. But Babs is on the road a long time and he will know that winning a national league will not win him any friends and that it will all come down to performances in May, June and July- three crucial months of the year when it matters most. Tipp are not as bad as they looked against the Cats and I would loved to have been at the next training session in Thurles - a few harsh words would have been spoken I am sure - Cork on the other hand have not done much better with their games to date and are now in danger of not making the next stage. I know they have been missing a good few of their regular players but so have many of the teams they have played and it is this time of the year when you are looking at the strength in depth of your squad and at those who will be looking for a place in the starting fifteen come championship time. Cork have not unearthed any new talent year to date and if they are to win the three in a row will need to be injury free for the year. It is still early days yet but in March a team now needs to be showing a certain amount of promise and form and the Cats are a way ahead of the posse at this stage Tweet

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