FOLLOWING the collective delivery by Cork, Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary of an awesome opening round of action on Easter Sunday, enthralled supporters of the ancient game are still none the wiser as to the eventual outcome of the 2025 Munster Senior Hurling Championship.
The encounters in Ennis and Thurles both finished in thrilling draws (the odds on which were 165/1 to happen).
Courtesy of a bye, Limerick will metaphorically down sticks weekend before a trip to Walsh Park to tackle Waterford in round three on Saturday (May 3, 6pm).
Instead, Shannonside manager John Kiely – and his lieutenants Paul Kinnerk, Alan Cunningham, Liam Cronin, Ger Barry, John Flavin, etc. – will first monitor closely Sunday’s home outing of The Déise against All-Ireland kingpins Clare (2pm), and then keep a watching brief of Tipp’s visit to Páirc Uí Chaoimh to tackle League winners Cork (4pm).
It’s the first outing of the campaign for Waterford.
At Semple Stadium, the teams were level on a whopping 12 occasions and produced 50 scores between them, and it was also where Limerick young guns Adam English and Shane O’Brien, industrious all through, swapped goals with veteran John McGrath.
The attendance, which braved miserable weather conditions of light wind and cold rain, was a healthy 32,295.
Seasoned pundit and former Tipperary manager Liam Sheehy told The Sunday Game: “I think it definitely is (wide open) and it makes for a really interesting championship.”
“Tipp going to Cork, they’ll have learnt a lot from the league final defeat, and they’ll be buoyed by their performance today.
“Waterford, with Clare coming to town next weekend, if they get a result that puts them on two points.
“And Cork in that second half still have a lot of questions to answer. We all said it’s going to be Cork and Limerick and let’s see who follows them in in third position, but I think everyone will be thinking a little bit differently tonight.”
