No point in Munster football minnows complaining if they can’t take their points

Take this statistic: In the last 100 years of the Munster senior football championship Cork and Kerry have, between them, taken the crown 94 times.

The other four (Tipperary, Limerick, Waterford and Clare) have six titles between them – and only one of those victories has come since the second World War.

Is that an argument for or against the new seeded format in Munster?

Either way, there was at least one advantage to come from the controversial scheme (which probably guarantees more Cork and Kerry dominance in the province) – Tipperary didn’t have to play Kerry in the first round this season.

The Kingdom have beaten Tipperary in the first game of each of the past four seasons – last year’s heavy 17-point defeat particularly dispiriting in a county that has been hoping to build on recent underage success.

The day before, Cork emerged walked out of the Gaelic Grounds with 18 points to spare over the home side.

The seeding in the province has been met with almost universal disapproval, but the stats make for grim reading. Saturday was the first victory by Tipperary in the Munster senior football championship since 2003.

And it’s not as if Limerick, Clare or Waterford have been putting up much of a show either recently.

Clare and Waterford clash next weekend for the right to face Kerry, while Tipperary’s prize for victory at the weekend is a date in Páirc Uí Chaoimh with the home side.

If two more hammerings are handed out in the semi-finals, the arguments for reversing the seeding arrangement will not hold much water.