[fetchmail] ssh via plugin vs preconnect for pop3

I've used the ssh tunnel described in the old fetchmail 5.0.x man
page I started with:

 preconnect "\
  ssh -f -L \
  1234:pop3.eskimo.com:110 eskimo.com sleep 20 </dev/null >/dev/null"

and it continues to work well for me after installing fetchmail 5.9.0
as part of a "new" distro a while back.  But I notice in the newer
man pages, the ssh preconnect tunnel example is gone, and in its
place is an example for using ssh with imap:

  plugin "ssh %h /usr/sbin/imapd" auth ssh;

I tried variations on the plugin example with my pop3 connection,
but was never able to hit upon an incantation that worked.  My ISP
requires that I ssh first to "eskimo.com" where I'm known to ssh,
then tunnel from there to "pop3.eskimo.com" where the mail lives,
and maybe that's an architecture unsuitable for "plugin."

I ask simply because of the change in the documentation, if it's
better to use "plugin" if I could get it to work.  When I STFW,
I find only the old preconnect example for tunnelling to pop3.

Jim