'The league is the league and the championship is the championship." For years, even decades, it was an enduring hurling cliché. It's not true any more. It hasn't been true since Tipperary won the National League in 2001 and followed up by taking the McCarthy Cup a few months later. Then Kilkenny got in on the act and did the league/All Ireland double in successive seasons, 2002 and '03. League form matters. End of story.

Still, sometimes the exception proves the rule. Today offers scope for the form of springtime to be overturned not once but twice. Everything we saw during the league suggests that Tipperary will beat Clare with something to spare at the Gaelic Grounds and that Dublin should have a little bit too much for Wexford in Nowlan Park. But we can't be sure. Occasionally the league is still the league and the championship is still the championship.

Clearly Clare are up against it, and up against it big time, in Limerick. We've hardly heard a word from them or their manager since 5 April, when their relegation from Division 1 was sealed. Being his own man as always, Mike Mac played it his way during the league. Thus Clare trained hard the day before they met Limerick and Waterford. Not surprisingly, both matches were lost. So too was the county's top-flight status.

Such an approach may have done lots for Clare's physical shape. It can't have done much for their confidence. There's no question that the underdogs will be fit today. But Tipperary will be fit too. Match-fit, indeed, having had the benefit of two excellent tests in the meantime, losing to Kilkenny in that bruising league final before recovering in the closing stages to beat off the threat of Cork in the first round of the Munster championship, a game they might have lost and will be all the better for winning.

In Clare's favour today is the fact that Mike Mac has an auspicious track record in his first year with a county. Think of his initial spell with Clare; the glories of 1995 and all that. Think of his time with Galway in conjunction with Noel Lane; the memory of the 2001 All Ireland semi-final is one that Kilkenny folk will take with them to their grave. Think even of his time with Offaly, where he did better than he received credit for. He did very well too with Clare last year, setting off an Exocet missile across Munster by beating Waterford at the Gaelic Grounds. This, though, is his second year.

Philip Brennan's league form was indifferent but he keeps his place between the posts. Conor Cooney, who was being groomed for the full-back position, misses out and is replaced by Newmarket's James McInerney, a colleges' star in 2005 on a St Flannan's team Jamesie O'Connor coached to All Ireland success. At centre-back, Brendan Bugler is a fine athlete and a good hurler. But Clare need more besides. A lot more.

It is idle to point out that they'd have a better chance if the loss of Gerry Quinn had been avoided. This is what happens when a certain type of player meets a certain type of object – in Mike Mac's case, an object of the immovable sort. It is equally idle to speculate about what might happen if Tony Griffin and Tony Carmody show what they were once capable of. Or is it?

No question, these are two gifted forwards. They're big, strong, skilful, accurate and can make the hard yards. Carmody once scored four points from play in an All Ireland semi-final. Griffin scored four points from play in another All Ireland semi-final. It's not much of a leap to assume that they responded to the leadership provided at the time by Seánie McMahon, Colin Lynch and Brian and Frank Lohan. But that leadership has gone. Now it's time for the two Tonys to assume the mantle. Yes, they were both away from the game for a period, but they've been back long enough at this stage. If they're ever going to show what they're capable of again, this is the day. And if they can't, Clare haven't a prayer.

Clutch at straws and you might say that Clare like playing in Limerick and that their supporters will get behind them if they start well. To me this smacks of wishful thinking. Tipperary are well raced this year and pack serious threat up front in Eoin Kelly, Lar Corbett and Noel McGrath. Clare are too lightly raced. Only one outcome.

League form will also come under the microscope in Nowlan Park, where Dublin from Division 1 take on Wexford from Division 2. This is the fourth time in three years that the duo meet in the Leinster championship. Wexford won the first game by a point, the second ended in a draw and Wexford won the third by a goal. Three matches and two pucks of a ball in it at the end. There's not much between them. What's more, Dublin are getting closer.

Not close enough yet, granted, but they've moved up a couple of gears since last year in all departments. The appointment of Anthony Daly was simultaneously an obvious move and a stroke of genius. As captain, he was almost as influential a figure as Ger Loughnane when Clare ended a decades-long provincial famine in 1995. As manager, he led his native county to successive All Ireland semi-final appearances in 2005-06. Daly was far and away the best manager Dublin could have appointed.

Their league campaign was promising. They wound up in midtable and might have finished a little higher following some excellent performances. Arguably the best of them took place at today's venue, where they scared the wits out of Kilkenny two months ago. Johnny McCaffrey, Joey Boland, David Treacy and the absent Ross O'Carroll and Ronan Fallon have all tasted success in Leinster at minor, under-21 or colleges' level. Alan McCrabbe, Dotsy O'Callaghan and Stephen Hiney are talented and experienced. Liam Rushe is immensely promising. Many of the dual players have committed exclusively to hurling. All in all, Dublin look ready to beat Wexford for the first time since 1991.

Having said all of that, Colm Bonnar's team are not to be underestimated. Wexford avenged their defeat by Offaly in the Division 2 NHL final at Wexford Park three weeks ago and did so with a considerable amount of style, bucketloads of grit and determination. I'll be honest: I was pleasantly surprised by the appetite they showed and the imagination of their hurling. Keith Rossiter, Darren Stamp and Stephen Nolan were missing in defence, yet Richie Kehoe produced a blinder in his favourite position at centre-back while Gizzy Lyng gave a captain's performance up front, aided and abetted by Stephen Doyle, Mossy Waters and particularly two-goal Stephen Banville.

It's anyone's match. Call me biased, but Wexford may be hitting form at the right time. Don't underestimate their pride. I'll chance them to shade what's bound to be a close encounter. Wexford by the puck of a ball. Again.

lgriffin@tribune.ie