Sunday's league semi-final between Tipperary and Wexford should be an excellent game.
It's not the pairing that people might have expected but Wexford are there on merit.
They are coming off a very impressive victory over Kilkenny at Nowlan Park and are going to go in with huge confidence.
It's going to be a serious test for them but as we saw in the quarter-final, they're more than able for the so-called bigger teams.
I think they'll go with exactly the same game plan as they used against Kilkenny and it will be very interesting to see how Tipperary deal with the sweeper.
I know they've faced it in the past, against the likes of Waterford in the Munster championship, but Wexford have it mastered.
They have the right guys playing the sweeper role and their half-backs and half-forwards push back and cut out the space.
I'm sure Michael Ryan will start out with a traditional 15 but how he deploys his spare man in the backs is going to be very important - that's something Kilkenny didn't do very well.
I can't see Conor McDonald getting as much space after his performance (0-4 from play) the last day, or the Tipperary half-back line being dragged so far out the field. If they're not, it's going to make it difficult to put up a big score.
You'd love to see Wexford back in a league final, they haven't been in one since 1993. Though I'm not sure they'll have the firepower to pull it off.
Kilkenny played into Wexford's hands by trying to pick up the spare man, and lost their shape but I think Tipperary might be a bit too cute for them in certain areas of the field.
Michael Ryan is mad to win a league title; it's been nine years since they won one.
Their Munster championship quarter-final against Cork is just over five weeks away and he'll want to get close to his strongest team out.
A league title would be a phenomenal boost for Wexford but this year is already going to be seen as a success no matter what happens in the summer.
Winning promotion to Division 1A will be huge for the development of hurling in Wexford.
But deep down, Davy Fitzgerald has bigger ideas for these guys.
Galway and Limerick gaining confidence
I'm not sure either Galway or Limerick thought they would be in a league semi-final but beating the 1A teams will give them great self-belief.
I don't think Limerick put as much emphasis on the group stages this year - they're trying to peak for the Munster championship.
I expected Cork to beat them but they put up a fantastic performance and seem to be coming to the boil at the right time.
Though I think they're still only at about 70 or 80% at the moment and will be a different proposition come Championship.
We all know the potential that's in Galway. They've come very close to winning an All-Ireland in recent years and the time has come for them to step up and say 'we're able for the battle and we're able to get ourselves over the line'.
They showed great character to come back from 10 points down in the second half against a very defensive Waterford side.
With Joe Canning coming back into form, I think Galway will have a little bit too much for Limerick.
Free-taking competition takes the biscuit
If this weekend's games end level after two separate periods of extra-time (2 x 10 minutes, followed by 2 x 5 mins) they will be decided by a free-taking competition, with five players from each team attempting to score from the 65m line.
If two teams go at it hammer and tongs for 100 minutes, I think it's wrong that it can be decided with a free-taking competition.
For a league semi-final to be decided in that way makes a joke of it.
I know some people would love to see it but I think it would be very disheartening and unfair for the team that loses and hopefully it won't come down to that.
Listen to live coverage of the Allianz Hurling League semi-finals on RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Sport, watch highlights on Allianz League Sunday on RTÉ2 at 9.30pm and follow our live blog on RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News Now App
