Limerick's slide All those involved in the backroom setups of Clare and Limerick hurlers will have been quick to point out that their teams did not do themselves justice in the Munster championship and that they could not wait for the qualifiers to start so they could rectify the situation. The first round of the qualifiers arrived and we were given a local derby in Ennis, a big crowd and a tight pitch - all the ingredients for this to be a hum dinger of a game and the opportunity to steal a march in qualifying for the All-Ireland quarter-final. What happened defies logic, even if Clare showed that they are a better team than the one that played against Cork a few short weeks back. Clare were only worried about themselves and their own performance and they duly delivered. The big question is - what happened to Limerick? I do not understand and for a team that was beating everybody in sight at the start of the year and contesting a league final, it must be soul destroying for management and backroom staff who have committed so much time and energy to achieve success. But more importantly, what about the players themselves - these guys have probably given more commitment and spent more time training than any other team in the country and when it comes to 70 minutes of championship hurling, they have failed to give a performance to justify that commitment. So what is wrong? The match against Clare backfired on them so much that it is hard to know where to start. Management obviously will have to take a lot of responsibility for the team's performance because it seemed from the throw in that morale was low and the body language from players was not good. Clearly part of the reason for this was that players were played out of position and discontent spread like wildfire throughout the other members of the team. How many times have we seen a defender been transferred to the forward line and it failing to work. To complicate matters further for Limerick, they take off Brian Geary rather than moving him back in defence where he has been tried and tested. Also it was not the time to experiment with a new full back given the importance of the game. The man mentioned above was the ideal candidate to fill that role rather than be substituted. You cannot build confidence in a team when this is happening and it now has Limerick in a position where they might not make the quarter-final and what a disaster that would be after all the effort put in to date. Yet another Munster gem What a cracker of a day to begin with - the sun splitting the stones, a full house, great colour and banter and not an ounce of trouble in sight. To top it off we had a game of hurling to justify it all - fully committed, played at an electric pace but also very sporting - there was not a dirty stroke in sight. This was a game all hurling followers throughout the country needed, this was the day when Tipperary hurling stood up and was counted. This was a day when the opposition countrywide will take solace from the fact that Cork can be beaten, even if it will take a good team to do it. This was the day when the hurling championship really came alive and hopefully the next few weeks will be even more entertaining. I try to be positive at all times but up to Munster final day, we had all suffered, we had all worried about the future of our game and some of the games were a damp squib. Having spoken to GAA President Nicky Brennan, I am led to believe this will all change for the good next year- no more 20 matches to get back to the same starting position at quarter-final stage. It is only now that the real hurling begins and there is no doubt that something will have to change from April to June to keep us on all on the edge of our seats. Anyway back to the real action - Tipperary will take a lot of positives from their performance in Thurles but underneath it all I suspect Babs Keating will be a bit disappointed as they had Cork under severe pressure from the word go. Scoring an early goal was crucial as it lifted the crowd and team alike and we all knew we were in for a good game. Going in at half time level will have instilled further confidence in Tipp and to be level with a couple of minutes remaining will have meant that the game could have gone either way. There is a lot to build on for Tipperary going forward and if there was to be one criticism of the sideline, that would be for not introducing natural forwards earlier in the second half rather than defenders trying to play up front. Remember last year Webster had Diarmuid O'Sullivan in his pocket for long periods of the game and for me; it was left too late to introduce him. All is not lost though and competition for places will be as great as ever in the Premier County for the next outing and that has to be a healthy sign. Leinster Championship I am not trying to brush past Leinster hurling as quickly as possible but you will have to agree that there has not been much to talk about so far and I am not going to dwell on the Offaly against Wexford encounter only to say, thanks be to god that they have a second chance. Everybody knows that they are better than this and I thought Offaly would do better than this. Kilkenny have a nice blend of youth and experience and now that DJ has decided to retire, the door is open for a new star to shine. By the next time I put pen to paper, we will have seen at first hand the quality and strength of all teams left for me to be in a position to predict an overall winner. There is a lot of hurling left - beware of the DEISE men. Tweet

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