Allianz Hurling League outright predictions, tips and betting odds: Tipperary and Cork can hit the ground running in 2024

Best bets

Tipperary to finish top of Division 1B
2pts 4-1 BoyleSports

Cork to finish top of Division 1A
2pts 2-1 BoyleSports

League outright previews

This weekend sees the start of the National Hurling League and Limerick have unsurprisingly been installed as 13-8 outright favourites, a tag they seem to thrive under as they go in search of a fourth league title in six years and more importantly their fifth All-Ireland in a row.

Opposing Limerick is ordinarily a futile exercise but there is always reason to believe that John Kiely's men will start on the back foot in this competition with a view to peaking during the Munster and All-Ireland series and that looks especially the case this year. They began 2024 with a pretty comfortable five-point win over Clare in the Munster Hurling League before their fixture against Cork was postponed three times due to the weather before the competition was discontinued.

After losing to Tipperary 3-27 to 1-20 in last Sunday's Dillon Quirke Foundation challenge match, manager John Kiely bemoaned his team's lack of game time, intimating that his squad will have to undergo a gruelling training schedule during their league campaign to catch up with their counterparts and that a "broad depth of panel" will be used.

This Limerick side do have form for stuttering through the league prior to sparking in the championship given in 2021 and 2022 they won just three games out of a possible ten in this competition. However, after suffering a narrow loss to Cork in their opener, they dominated and handed out some bad beatings along the way, most notably when streaking 11 points clear of Kilkenny in the final.

Normally, it would be tempting to oppose them given they are likely to be firmly in preparation mode but they have Antrim and Westmeath in their first two games which gives them plenty of time to get up to speed. Nevertheless, they still haven't topped their group in three years so odds of 4-6 for them to do so look skinny.

Tipperary seem to be overpriced at 4-1 to top the same group given manager Liam Cahill tends to have his squad well equipped for battle early in the season. Cahill guided Waterford to a League triumph in 2022 and Tipperary had an excellent campaign last year, winning all five of their group games and racking up a massive 34.4 points per game.

They came unstuck against Limerick in the semi-final but were far from disgraced in losing by six points and look set for another productive competition.

Galway were well beaten by Wexford in the Walsh Cup final last weekend and may take a couple of games to hit their stride given they will be missing Kevin Cooney, Cathal Mannion, Brian Concannon and the St Thomas' All-Ireland winning players for the opening fixtures.

Group A features two teams who are in dire need of a promising start due to disastrous 2023 campaigns. Wexford narrowly avoided relegation to the Joe McDonagh cup with a heroic victory over Kilkenny in last year's championship but it failed to gloss over an abysmal season. However, they have a new man at the helm in Keith Rossiter and their talisman Lee Chin has hopefully put his injury woes behind him.

Chin and Jack O'Connor were in flying form against Galway last week and Wexford are capable if they can get into a rhythm.

Davy Fitzgerald's Waterford simply have to perform this year after three desperately sore defeats in last season's Munster championship. Austin Gleeson is undoubtedly a loss and they have a sizeable injury list heading into the opening rounds, which includes the likes of Dessie Hutchinson and Jamie Barron.

Clare tend to take a few months to get up to speed under Brian Lohan but Cork will be a dangerous proposition and 2-1 is a decent price given their main challengers, Kilkenny, will likely be fielding experimental teams judging on their starting 15 against Wexford last time out as Derek Lyng drafts in some more of his Under-20 All Ireland winning team from 2022 and waits on the O'Loughlin Gaels contingent to return. 

Cork rocketed out of the blocks last year, defeating Limerick in their first outing and racking up 4-24 against Galway in their next game. They were unbeaten in their group before an uninspiring display against Kilkenny in the semi-final knocked them out and they will be a force to be reckoned with again.

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