The list of candidates likely to put a halt to their gallop isn't a long one.

Limerick have shown steady progress but are a little off the pace still, especially when their big guns . . . of which they don't have many . . . are absent. They certainly missed Mark Keane in the league final. Tipp haven't got their act fully together in Babs Keating's first year in charge. In Waterford the wheels appear to have come off the wagon completely; you'd hope they recover in time to regain their equilibrium in the qualifiers. Offaly have made steady progress but lack sufficient strength in depth.

Galway failed to build on their 2005 breakthrough during the National League, though perhaps Portumna's involvement in the club championship cramped their style and options. As they also failed to build on their appearance in the 2001 All Ireland final in subsequent seasons, let's hope their return proves more permanent this time. This leaves Clare as the most probable of the outsiders . . . if Clare can even be described as outsiders at this stage . . . to upset the apple cart.

I think Cork handled the league well.

They didn't need to win it, they were never going to win it, but they tried a raft of new faces (with limited success as regards the forwards, it has to be said) and generally kept ticking over. As a unit, they still look good enough. They'll enter the championship fresh. Be sure that Cork are winding up for a supreme effort.

This is a special group of players.

Bright, determined, very close-knit.

They've a great togetherness about them, a spirit that had its genesis in the strike four years ago, a bond that will never be broken. They are, to put it another way, an inter-county club team.

For players who've reached the last three All Ireland finals and won two of them, along with a brace of Munster titles, they're a driven bunch. As of now we can truthfully say that their appetite doesn't seem to have abated, though of course we . . . and they . . . can't be definite about that until push comes to shove later in the season. Of one thing we can be sure, however. These guys will want to immortalise themselves by doing the three-in-a-row, just like the Cork teams of the early 1950s and mid-1970s did. To be regarded as a super player in Cork, you have to pull off super feats. A threein-a-row would be such a feat.

Naturally everyone will be gunning for them, nobody more so than Kilkenny.

Cork spoiled Kilkenny's treble dream in 2004. Brian Cody's team will be only too happy to return the compliment in 2006.

Where Kilkenny have the upper hand over every other county is in their genuine and permanent strength in depth.

They'll be there or thereabouts.

Even with the expansion of the All Ireland series, even though the real business won't begin until the quarter-finals take place in late July, the Munster championship is still relevant. It still has cachet. It's still a prize.

Not so its Leinster counterpart. Every year we talk about the Leinster championship being in danger. To be fair, something normally comes along to save it, such as Wexford's upset of Kilkenny in the semi-final two years ago, completely against the odds. Wexford folk will be hoping for another appearance in the provincial final. But the competition is running out of saviours and is hanging on by its fingernails.

At this point I won't bore you by yet again saddling up my trusty old hobbyhorse as to why Galway joining the Leinster championship would suit everyonef Hearing people complain about the All Ireland qualifiers annoys me. What's the matter with them? Should Limerick lose today . . . and for the record I expect them to beat Tipp . . . nobody in the county will be moaning if they negotiate the qualifiers safely and arrive at the All Ireland quarter-final stage a stronger proposition. Remember, the Champions League, to take a clear parallel, doesn't get serious until the knockout stages.

The problem is that GAA people are born, bred and buttered on knockout hurling and football. The concept of the winner-takes-all championship continues to beat in the heart of every Gael. It's time that stopped. Get used to the new format. This is what we're going to see for ever more. Straight knockout is dead and gone. Good riddance to it.

It's a pity Dublin won't be participating in the Christy Ring Cup, for doing so would have assisted their progress.

Antrim, who will be, are doing the right thing by trying to start from scratch following their relegation. Seeing Antrim win an All Ireland championship in Croke Park would be wonderful, especially for underage hurling in the county. If Derry fully embrace the challenge, they have sufficient talent to do the business in the Nicky Rackard Cup.

Finally, congratulations to the Carlow minors and the Dublin Colleges team on their marvellous victories recently.

These are the incremental improvements that hurling desperately needs.