RTÉ hurling analyst Shane McGrath has suggested that Cork may have little interest in the league on the evidence of their seven point loss to Kilkenny in Nowlan Park yesterday.
Cork, who've won back-to-back Munster titles, and who need to win an All-Ireland title this August if they're to maintain their record of nabbing at least one Liam McCarthy in every decade since the 1890s, slumped to a 2-18 to 0-17 defeat in their league opener against Brian Cody's side.
The rebels were somewhat under-strength with a relatively sanguine John Meyler telling RTÉ Sport he was content to rest his Fitzgibbon level players, including Mark Coleman, Robbie O'Flynn and Shane Kingston, happy that they'd be back well in time for the championship.
The Allianz National Hurling League is in a curious transitional phase this year with the pending change of format in 2020 removing the threat of relegation for 1A teams this season.
And McGrath, speaking on Game On on RTÉ 2fm, sensed that Cork weren't gunning for the league in 2019.
"There's no relegation this year so there's no fear of anyone going down and I just wonder looking at Cork are they just resting on that and are they not really bothered.
"Every manager says it's all about championship and you use the league. But Cork just looked to have absolutely no interest in Nowlan Park yesterday at all.
"Okay, the scoreline was 2-18 to 0-17. I thought Kilkenny were a 10, 11, 12 points a better team."
Notwithstanding his suspicions about Cork's motivation levels, McGrath was highly impressed with Kilkenny's new crop of players.
Kilkenny haven't reached an All-Ireland semi-final in the past two years but the 2010 All-Ireland champion suspects they could be building a formidable panel for 2019.
He said: "The worrying thing for everyone else is the amount of talent that Kilkenny have in depth. Before the game (we heard) Richie Hogan can't play. Kevin Kelly comes in for Hogan and scores eight points from frees. Billy Ryan comes in and scores 1-01 from play and is directly involved in passing the ball to Richie Leahy for his goal on 26 minutes.
"Huw Lawlor at full back I thought was absolutely brilliant. John Delaney at wing forward, and we know how good he was last year, scores three points from play. Conor Delaney pops up with two points and he scores two points from wing back.
"And this is all without Richie Hogan, Paul Murphy, TJ Reid, Colin Fennelly and Padraig Walsh. That's one third of a team, definite starters.
"Kilkenny are going to be a serious force this year. What you have to admire that they're after adapting their game a small bit. They were playing the ball through the lines yesterday. It wasn't all route one like we're used to seeing.
"I'm actually really worried about Kilkenny are going to do this year but Cork showed no intent at all yesterday."
