With Kilkenny in line for a 3 in a row of league titles if they can add this years crown to their remarkable recent success it’s time to look back and see what other teams have achieved the feat since the league’s inception.

There have been plenty of back to back titles down through the years, including Kilkenny twice in the 2000s, but the 3 (or more) in a row has proved much more difficult to achieve.

The last time it was achieved was 1959-1961 by Tipperary. That was the start of the great Tipp team of the ’60s as they went on to win 4 out of 5 All-Irelands between 61 and 65. Indeed all through the late 50s and 60s Tipp were regular winners of the league.

The only other occasion the 3 in a row was achieved was in fact part of the greatest league run ever when the great Limerick team of the 1930s won 5 league titles consecutively from 1934 to 1938 inclusive. Inspired by the legendary Mick Mackey Limerick were unstoppable in the league at the time. They added the All-Irelands of ‘34 and ‘36 to their crown and but for a strong Kilkenny team in that decade aswell they might have won much more.

So while the cats chase another league crown to add to their dominance they still have a long way to go to emulate Limerick’s 1930s legends.

Round 2 of the hurling league is this weekend and there’s some top class games on offer.

• Waterford v Cork (Walsh park). Should be a cracker, both teams had big wins in round 1. I’ll pick Waterford to edge it in a high scoring affair
• Offaly v Down (Birr). Offaly should take this one easily enough, especially with home advantage
• Clare v Wexford (Ennis). Wexford should improve from their awful display last time but it’s unlikely to be enough to topple the Banner men
• Limerick v Galway (Gaelic Grounds). Another great match in store. Limerick got a good result on day 1 while Galway were on fire under the Ger Loughnane spell. I’ll go with Galway to continue their run
• Antrim v Dublin (Casement park). Dublin should be fancied given that they drew with Kilkenny last time out but Antrim are always a tough prospect at home. The losers will likely be in for relegation. I’ll go with Antrim to shade it
• Kilkenny v Tipperary (Nowlan park, live on TG4). Top class hurling in store in nowlan park on sunday, should be plenty of scores and I’d expect Kilkenny to win through by 3 or 4

Feel free to add your own predictions in the comments and we’ll see if anyone gets 6 out of 6!

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