The hurling championship gets under way this weekend with the Joe McDonagh Cup, and the secondary competition offers more hope to those counties looking to bridge the gap to the top-tier.
It has taken a bit of time to get fully to grips with the new format of the Liam MacCarthy Cup, but if nothing else, it adds to the level of excitement for 2018.
To recap, the Leinster and Munster Championships will both contain five teams. The winners of the respective round-robin series will go into the All-Ireland semi-finals. The runners-up will have home advantage in the quarter-finals and from there is where things become more novel.
Their quarter-final opponents - there are just two quarter-finals - will be the winners of the third-placed teams versus the Joe McDonagh finalists, with the latter holding home advantage.
The hurlers of Antrim, Carlow, Kerry, Laois, Meath and Westmeath, who are all in action this weekend, begin the round-robin competition with genuine ambitions of competing in the MacCarthy Cup.
They are guaranteed five proper, competitive games. Those six teams should be in and around the same level. Laois, as well as Westmeath and Carlow, could well be a little bit ahead in terms of quality, but it should be a relatively level playing field.
The one thing these players want is to be playing in the Liam MacCarthy Cup, and this format allows for that as the two finalists will come into their quarter-final preliminary matches with a confidence that winning breeds.
Heavy defeats, which a number of the aforementioned sides have suffered in the past are no good for anyone. People often point to the plight of the defeated side, but it does little for the victorious side either.
I held a spectator's brief for Kilkenny’s Leinster win over Westmeath in 2006 due to injury.
You are expected to win those games easily, though it doesn’t always work out like that. They were very competitive for the first-half before we pulled away to win by 14 points.
In the last five to six years, the top sides have upped it a gear and the so called weaker sides have regressed rather than progressed.
That is a huge worry for the overall game. Those teams haven’t developed like they would have wanted. Until the GAA and these counties invest in their underage, it is hard to see that changing significantly, but the new format is at least a step in the right direction.
The Joe McDonagh Cup should cater for an improvement in standard, but I have one problem with it; the unfair conditions placed on Kerry.
If any of the other five counties win the competition, they are promoted to compete in Leinster from the following season, with the bottom team in Leinster dropping down.
However if the Kingdom come up trumps, they must play-off with the bottom team in Munster for the right to play in the Munster Championship the following year.
How can the GAA distinguish between Kerry and the other teams? I think that is wrong and unfair. If they are good enough to win the Joe McDonagh, they should be promoted automatically.
"If Kerry win the Joe McDonagh Cup, more questions will be asked regarding the format"
Whether you are the bottom team in Munster, or Leinster, it should be the same procedure.
Why couldn’t Kerry go into Leinster? Galway are there already, Antrim would be if they won the the tournament, so geographical boundaries aren’t as sacrosanct as they once were. Kerry haven’t competed in the Munster Hurling Championship since 2004.
If a Laois or Westmeath for example were to win the Joe McDonagh Cup, I have no doubts they would compete with an Offaly, Wexford, Dublin, or even a Kilkenny or Galway on their day. I don’t see a weak team in Munster, that’s just the way it is in the province.
In order for Kerry to be competitive, they need the same leeway as others and Leinster might provide a better solution.
If Kerry win it, more questions will be asked with regarding the format.
Back to the competition itself, and you would have to feel that at this point, Laois are favourites to lift silverware. They open their campaign against Westmeath on Saturday at O’Moore Park, another side I expect to see in the shake-up.
They finished top of Divsion 2A, but disappointed in the final defeat to Carlow who gained promotion.
The winner I feel would come from one of those three sides, with Carlow hosting Kerry at Dr. Cullen Park on Sunday.
The Kingdom, along with Meath and Antrim, who meet at Pairc Tailteann, are perhaps a little behind, but I can see them causing one or two surprises along the way.
It should make for an intriguing championship.
