Tipperary manager Colm Bonnar feels that the new split-season format has left county players trapped in "a vicious circle" with no period of downtime
This will be the first time that the Munster Championship group stage format has been run since pre-Covid times in 2019 and speaking to the media ahead of Sunday's opener with Waterford at Walsh Park, Bonnar said that the lack of preparation time between league and championship was hard to deal with.
In that 2019 campaign, the Premier County had 58 days to ready themselves between their Allianz Hurling League quarter-final defeat to Dublin and their provincial opener against Cork. This term, with the split-season arrangement bedded in, it’s 29 days – and that’s with Tipp missing out on the league knock-out stages.
"It’s difficult to put your head around it because by the middle of next month, the middle of May, there’s going to be two huge teams in Munster and two big teams in Leinster out of the championship," said Bonnar.
"Normally you would think that championship should only be starting around the middle of May. That’s going to be a big shock for a lot of the hurling world and whatever two teams in Munster it is, it’s a crazy time to be out of hurling.
"It’s hard to get your head around that when the games should only be starting.
"Having been involved in it this year, the old style of wintering well for a lot of inter-county players, there was a bit of time off between when their own club season finished before the National League started up again.
"Looking at it now, if players aren't fully fit when they come into you – most of the [club] campaigns are finishing at the end of October – a lot of them are in to November if they’re in to the final stages of their own hurling campaigns in the county.
"There’s just no time off for players anymore. It’s a vicious circle and we’ve found that if players weren’t coming to us....we’d have a six-week period leading into the league where we’re officially allowed to train the players and if you’re not fit coming in there, you’re straight away struggling and probably won’t make the league. The league will be over before you get your fitness and before you know it the championship is on top of you.
"You have a five-month window really from January to May and it’s your championship season. It’s over before you know it. That’s going to be very, very unusual if they keep that format.
"It just means players if they want to play for their county, they’re going to have to keep that conditioning and that preparedness constantly as long as they want to play hurling at a high level."
Tipperary may sit comfortably in second in the Munster roll of honour, 12 titles behind leaders Cork but 20 above third-placed Limerick, but realistically they are currently ranked fourth out of the five teams involved.
Limerick, irregardless of some poor league form, remain the team to beat while Waterford were crowned Division 1 champions recently after victory over an improving Cork outfit. It would be hard to argue that the Premier men should be ranked higher than any of those three.
They also enter this season’s campaign minus some of their most experienced players from recent times.
Key forward Seamus Callanan was due to miss the first two group games after breaking a bone in his hand in training in early March, but his manager explained that he could be facing a longer period on the sidelines.
"In Seamie’s case it’s a bit of a nightmare for him," he said.
"The infection now has got into the bone so it’s going to be probably a bit longer in terms of trying to manage that injury that he got.
"The break was bad enough but the infection has carried through. It’s going to be very difficult for him."
On top of the absence of Callanan’s evident talent, John 'Bubbles’ O’Dwyer will miss the entire campaign with a knee injury while Padraic Maher and Brendan Maher have retired since the end of last season.
Bonnar said that they need to find a way to adapt to the loss of such outstanding players, but believes that he saw enough during the league to suggest that the talent is there to succeed.
"There’s low expectations out there externally," the manager continued.
"Whether it’s the general public or outside the county, everyone is looking at what Waterford are doing and what they’re bringing.
"They are looking at Tipp and they’re probably saying ‘are they in transition’, ‘are they in a rebuilding phase’.
"They are looking at the players who have moved on, they’re once in a generation players, obviously Pauric, Brendan Maher retiring and the likes of Ronan Maher that will probably not make it in time, Seamie’s injury – they kind of see Tipp in a kind of transition.
"In that sense it’s good that we’re coming in under the radar, there’s not a doubt about that, everybody already has it that it’s Limerick, Waterford and Cork to come out of Munster. That’s the general expectations.
"Obviously ourselves and Clare will be hugely gunned to try and change that around and we think we have the players to do that. The championship can throw up everything."
Follow Waterford v Tipperary and Cork v Limerick via our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app, watch live on RTÉ 2 and RTÉ Player or listen to national radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Sport.
