Kyle will be playing, Lynch won’t be. I mean I guess those things you say could happen, that the forwards are seriously restricted but Hego got 0-4 the last day before getting sent off. Tom did only get 0-1.
Against Waterford; the quartet of Tom, Hego, Boylan & Mul got only 0-4 from play. But we still hit 0-30. Gillane & CON hit 0-9 from play between them and the others were still winning frees.
Similarly, the last day for Clare, Kelly hit 0-5 from play and Fitzgerald hit 0-2; none of their other starting forwards scored from play.
I don’t think anybody was seriously predicting a cricket score, I do think Limerick will win, but for it to be a cricket score, Clare would have to seriously malfunction.
There isn’t any lack of marquee forwards. Cian Lynch and Tony Kelly play the game in a way that no player ever before has done. Austin Gleeson is sensational. Gillane is on his way to being a similar player to Seamus Callinan. The guard changes, that’s how it goes. There are players playing now that no one sees as a marquee forward yet but that in ten years time people will be talking about as in the frame for all time greats. That’s just how it works.
I think the performance of O’Donnell and Duggan against Waterford was fairly telling. Both tore into the game like they were men with a point to prove and obviously felt that they let the Limerick game pass them by somewhat.
Downes, Hannon and Dowling along with Graeme Mul and Seanie Tobin was a very exciting LK forward combination back then too.
Maybe twas more evenly spread out or its just that conversing with a Tipp or KK guy, they are unbelievably light in the forwards now relative to what they were.
We need someone to create a definitive marquee forward list from the Liam McCarthy counties. I’d be hopeful that Rory O’ Connor and potentially even Lee Chin would make the cut. Interestingly if you’d created a similar list around 2016 then a young John McGrath would have been a shoe in but now at just 28 he’s no longer a regular in the Tipp team. A bit of a grey area around players like Gearoid Hegarty. Is he a marquee forward in the current game? Not the traditional type of scorer in chief like @glasagusban was alluding to.
Waterford with a couple too. Stephen Bennett a marquee forward now and Dessie Hutchinson too I would say. Austin Gleeson probably plays too far out to the field to be considered an out and out forward.
In addition to those like Whelan, TK, TJ who are still playing; Gillane, Cody, ROC, Lynch, Hutchinson, Bennett (despite a poor Championship season) would all have to be on it.
Concannon, Mannion, Casey probably not far off either.
Tipp probably lacking an out-and-out one at the moment, McGrath still probably their main man, Forde flatters to deceive. Cork a weird one too, a good spread of scorers, Horgan still the “name” but Connolly, if he keeps his form of the past two games up, may overtake him.
Adrian Mullen should be for Kilkenny. Chin is massive for Wexford too but similar to Hegarty; gets lots of scores but a different type of player to the others listed.