Emmet Moloney writes for the 'The Irish Farmers Journal' and is a former sports columnist with 'The Kerryman'.

This week’s mild weather means we have turned a corner. The shadow-boxing of the early rounds of the national leagues is over. Emmet Moloney writes...

This weekend’s league fixtures have statement written all over them. Cork and Tipp. Kilkenny and Waterford. Dublin and Galway. It’s coming to the end of March and experimentation is parked. It is time to lay down a marker.

Good teams will always lay down a marker when the time is right. That’s what the Irish rugby team did last Saturday in the Aviva Stadium. The World Cup is their championship this year and the English game was the last one of the league. A league final, if you like. They played like they meant business and of the six hurling teams mentioned above, at least two of them will do the same this Sunday. But let’s start with some housekeeping first.

The great Ken McGrath announced his retirement last week and that was a marker in itself. I loved watching Ken play. At centre-back in particular he had a freedom about his hurling that made him unique. He looked loose, but he was far from it. He looked slight, but he was far from it. He could catch a ball with the best of them and there was no more thrilling a sight in Munster hurling that Ken McGrath bursting from defence, after plucking it from the air and launching clearances with his tidy shoulder turn.

Ken McGrath was a leader on the field and hurlers like that are hard to replace. Waterford are lucky in that Brick Walsh is cut from the same cloth. McGrath will be missed, but not as much as he might have been.

Maybe it’s because of my age now, but I’ll never get used to hearing that players are slowing down, losing pace and just not up to it anymore when they reach the ripe old age of 30, 32 or 34! Apparently they “don’t have the legs anymore”. I wonder how many players of that ilk actually believe such nonsense. The public are far too gullible with generalisations like this.

If you’re good enough, you’re old enough, or young enough – whatever the case might be. McGrath was always good enough.

There is loose talk these days that Kilkenny are struggling on the age front themselves. Losing a 10-point lead to Galway two weeks ago has prompted a couple of naysayers to venture out. They’re getting old. They miss Shefflin. They don’t have the forwards anymore.

Brian Cody must love hearing whispers like that. They have not and will not go away. They’re still the team to beat and probably just three games from an All-Ireland. Do they need another national league title? That’s Cody’s call. If he thinks they do, then they will win this one. Like the Irish rugby team, they’ll produce when it’s needed. Still the favourites.

Super Sunday
Cork and Tipp in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. That has to get the blood flowing. Denis Walsh appears to have gotten over the Sean Óg bump in the road, one that he handled badly, and the second-half performance in Nowlan Park has put their season back on track. There is intent down Leeside and no-one better than the Premier County to bring it out in them.

Declan Ryan has his own dilemmas. The year after winning an All-Ireland is a very tricky one to manage where the league is concerned. Most managers are happy to let the season drift along as the panel regains its hunger and fitness at a very different pace to the year before. There is usually no pressure on them as they have walked the walk. But Ryan is a rookie inter-county manager and he doesn’t have the luxury that Liam Sheedy would have were he still in charge. So Declan Ryan would like to see his charges make a statement of their own. This match should be a cracker and a month’s suspension from Sunday wouldn’t unduly affect championship preparations! Bi Ullamh.

Then we have the fascinating clash of Dublin and Galway in Parnell Park. These two could be best friends before the year is out. They could meet in a league final and they should meet in the Leinster semi-final for the right to topple the Cats in a provincial decider.

Both teams mean business this year. Galway are the perennial horse with form. Tipp were lucky to beat them by a point last summer, they have the club champions in Clarinbridge, Joe Canning hasn’t even hurled yet this year and already they have Kilkenny’s scalp. Of course, they have been here before. Despite their undoubted assembly line of talent, this year is make or break for the manager and plenty of the squad. They will make an impression.

So will Dublin. Conal Keaney and Ryan O’Dwyer have added greatly to their make-up and could even offset the loss of inspirational captain Stephen Hiney. Unlike most hurling counties, this league is crucial to Dublin. It offers games that matter against the big boys and that’s what Anthony Daly needs to convince his players that they belong in this company. And belong they do. Dalyo is no fool; he knew the raw material he was inheriting in Dublin and this team will go places. Watch their progress on Sunday.

And so to Davy and Brian Cody. The third of the “Super Sunday” match-ups (apologies to Offaly and Wexford but none to Sky Sports) takes place in Nowlan Park. There won’t be an ounce of grass visible at half-time with all the kids treading the same turf as their heroes. As it should be.

We will be spared the entertainment of Davy Fitz stalking Brian Cody on the sideline thanks to Davy’s ban, but there won’t be much sparing elsewhere. The Déise are a team that sparks on days like this. The 2008 All-Ireland aside, they have always given the Cats their fill of it. Kilkenny are coming off a loss and the only two-in-a-row they do is All-Irelands, not defeats.

As I write there have been no referees appointed to these three marquee matches yet. There will be a bit of deliberation on those appointments because Sunday is the first real serious inter-county hurling day of the year. Those referees will have to be looking at their calendars before the throw-in. A three-month ban for any player rules them out now until the provincial finals. One month will be manageable. It’s the time of the year when we can start thinking about such things.

The shadow-boxing is over.
To catch Emmet's latest column, get 'The Irish Farmers' Journal' every Thursday...