Ger Loughnane feels there are doubts over Kilkenny’s hopes of retaining the All-Ireland despite cruising to the Allianz League crown last week against Cork.

The Cats regained the Liam McCarthy Cup last year by beating Tipperary and following an impressive victory over the Rebels in Semple Stadium, Brian Cody’s men are regarded as strong favourites to claim the top honour again this year.

Loughnane, speaking at the launch of RTÉ’s 2012 Championship coverage, believes injuries could raise questions over Kilkenny.

He said: “If you just looked strictly at the league final, you would have to say that Kilkenny are over-whelming favourites to win the Championship. But Michael Fennelly, their most influential player, and that is among many influential players, is injured.

“There are doubts over when Fennelly, Richie Power and Henry Shefflin will be back, and if Shefflin is back will he be in the same form as before.

“They haven’t played in a long time and when they do come back and Kilkenny play their first game, likely to be against Dublin on 23 June, what will their form be?

“There are question over Kilkenny and very often times when you play well in a league or a league final, you find it hard to repeat that level of intensity and the quality of that play when it comes to the Championship.

“Other teams have been lying low and haven’t pushed themselves in the league. Maybe when it starts we will see some team playing the kind of hurling they haven’t played so far this year. You never know, all we know want early on is a shock and that is what would really make the Championship.”

Many counties have been labelled with using 2012 as a building block for the future but the former All-Ireland winning manager feels there could be a surprise from one of the teams emerging this year.

“Galway are being linked with the future as are Limerick, Clare, Cork and Waterford and Wexford. So there are so many teams bidding for the future. I found with Clare that we were always going for the future but actually the future happened that year.

“It can happen like that, with the players making a huge advances when the training season starts from April to June.

“Maybe there is some team out there making massive progress and we’ll see something from them that we haven’t seen before.”

Loughnane is returning to The Sunday Game following illness and he revealed it is a nice feeling to be in studio again for the new season.

“It is great to be back again. It is great to have all of that behind me and be back again and I’m really looking forward to a new hurling season. There is a certain excitement when the season starts and no better place to start than with the Munster Championship.”