Ger Loughnane is. typically, not a man keen on qualifying remarks. Everything is emphatic. On League Sunday yesterday evening, he and Micheal Kavanagh previewed this year's hurling championship.
During the glorious summer days in the mid-1990s when Loughnane was the biggest man in the sport, he loved goading Tipp, gleefully claiming revenge against them for a century of hubris and apparent slights.
His tongue is no less sharp these days but when asked yesterday he did equivocate slightly, hemming and hawing on Tipperary's chances this year.
While he acknowledged that he has prematurely called time on this crop of Tipperary hurlers before (after last year's All-Ireland final replay he looked at their age profile and decided they wouldn't be back before re-evaluating during the League), he eventually concluded that they wont be climbing the Hogan Stand to collect Liam McCarthy this year.
They will be back as a big force but having been the nearly men so often, can they make the breakthrough?
Eamon O’Shea has still not won a trophy with this team and it’s his third year. Declan Ryan won two Munster championships.
Can Eamon O’Shea break through and win a trophy with the team? Personally, I doubt it.
While loath to write off Mr. Big in the peaked cap in Kilkenny, he said he fancied Waterford for an outside shot for the championship.
