BET ON RED

Bookmakers have Cork as favourites for All-Ireland title and after Rebels' League final win over Tipperary it's hard to argue with current odds

- PAT NOLAN

FOR the first time since 2006, Cork hurlers will enter the Championship as All-Ireland favourites.

Of course, that doesn't count for anything in practical terms but it is a reflection of how they have placed themselves at the front of the pack for the first time in some two decades.

For what it's worth, they are priced at 11/8, ahead of Limerick on 9/5, followed by 7/1 Kilkenny and holders Clare at 9/1.

They were already leading the betting markets before Sunday's League final win over Tipperary and the emphatic nature of that victory has only hardened their status. There has been little in the way of hard luck stories behind Cork's failure to win an All-Ireland since 2005.

They came closest when leading Clare by a point in injury time in the drawn 2013 final before Domhnaill O'Donovan popped up to force a replay.

They could argue there was some misfortune attached to that but the reality is that another day out was the least Clare deserved and they won the replay well.

Indeed, Cork enjoyed some luck on the way to that final themselves.

Still, expectations were high on the back of that 2013 run the following year and they justified them up to a degree by winning a first Munster title in eight years but were decisively beaten by Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final and Jimmy Barry-Murphy's second coming as Cork boss fizzled out from there.