KK natural game.
3 Likes
Plus if you’re trying to sweep in front of full-back his favourite ball is played well out to the corner pulling you completely out of position
1 Like
They will do that I’d say but I can see Richie Reid sitting deep to try and protect the full back line
1 Like
Joe recognises that Leinster hurling is shite
Joe Canning: Cian Lynch the key figure as Limerick reserve their best for the biggest day again
Champions’ conversion rate was incredible on a day when Kilkenny, just like Galway in the semi-final, were eventually overwhelmed
Expand
Cian Lynch celebrates a score: when Limerick were struggling in the first half, he did more than anybody to keep them in the game, being directly involved in six of their nine points before the interval. Photograph: Morgan Treacy
Fri Jul 28 2023 - 06:00
When I was playing the stats guys used talk to us about scoring zones. It was all about percentages. It’s a big thing in football now, but hurling teams are conscious of it too. It used be drilled into us not to shoot from certain areas of the pitch because the odds of scoring just didn’t justify it.
Looking at Limerick last Sunday, and on lots of other Sundays, they seem to be dealing with different odds. How many of their scores in the second half came from green light scoring zones?
Peter Casey scored two of his points from in front of the subs bench, 60 metres out, on the sideline. Cathal O’Neill scored a point from the other wing where one of his feet was nearly out of play.
The Limerick players have licence to shoot from anywhere. It seems to be a case of whatever it takes to reach 30 points. Some days the wides mount up, but that never stops them from shooting. When Limerick beat Kilkenny by 11 points in the league final they hit 15 wides in the second half; last Sunday, Limerick only had three second half wides. Their conversion rate was incredible.
READ MORE
Joe Canning: Cian Lynch the key figure as Limerick reserve their best for the biggest day again
Mary Hannigan: There’ll be no throwing caution to the wind in Perth
‘This crowd have rewritten Limerick GAA history forever’ - Damien Quigley
Over one million viewers watch Limerick’s four in a row All-Ireland hurling final triumph
Both days they met their primary target of hitting 40 shots or more. In his post-match interviews John Kiely is always talking about efficiency, and that’s what makes the difference for Limerick. Their efficiency was down at various times earlier in the championship, but in the biggest game of the year they had a conversion rate of about 73 per cent, which is phenomenal.
It was an amazing team performance, but some of their big players really stood up. Peter Casey was named as man of the match on The Sunday Game, and it was a perfectly legitimate choice. His five points in the second half were absolutely superb. He got two vital scores when the game was still in the melting pot, but Limerick were four points ahead when he got his third, and I would say that three of his scores came when Limerick were in the home straight.
Learn more
On The Sunday Game, the man of the match award is thrashed out by about 10 people and everyone makes their case. I argued strongly for Cian Lynch. When Limerick were struggling, he did more than anybody to keep them in the game.
Limerick only scored nine points in the first half, but he was directly involved in six of them: scored two, made the assist for two, and was fouled for two converted frees.
The key move in the game was Lynch going to centre forward. Richie Reid likes to sit off and that allowed Lynch the space to go to town. In the second half he had three more assists, but his overall leadership was superb.
People might have been surprised that we picked Kyle Hayes as the Hurler of the Year, but I thought it was a good call. He was phenomenal again on Sunday, and you could argue that he was more entitled to be on the shortlist for man of the match than Diarmaid Byrnes – who had a lot of trouble getting on top of Tom Phelan.
Aaron Gillane: he had some top class performances during the season, but Huw Lawlor beat him hands-down on Sunday. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
I don’t think Hayes produced a performance all year that was less than 8/10. In the Munster championship, when Limerick were struggling for form, the two players that really kept them going were Tom Morrissey and Hayes.
Morrissey’s form tailed off from the Munster final onwards, but Hayes’s level of performance never dropped. In the first half again on Sunday, when they really needed to stand up, he won some great possession and drove on.
Aaron Gillane is still a lot of people’s favourite for Hurler of the Year, and he had some top class performances during the season, but Huw Lawlor beat him hands-down on Sunday. A couple of points from play was not enough to tip the scales. Lawlor was Kilkenny’s best player on the day, in my opinion.
No sooner had Limerick won four-in-a-row than people were chalking them down for five-in-a-row. I don’t believe it will be as simple as that, and Limerick definitely won’t buy into that kind of talk. They’re an incredibly grounded group and they have the right people around them.
Over the next few months all of the other counties will be looking at themselves. During the week I heard it said that Kilkenny are not that far away. By the same token, the perception after the semi-final was that Galway were a long way off. I don’t see much difference between what Kilkenny did last Sunday and what Galway managed against Limerick a couple of weeks earlier.
They both led by six and lost by nine – a 15 point swing. Galway stayed with them for about 45 minutes whereas Kilkenny probably lasted a few minutes more, but not much longer. They’re both starting next year from a similar position.
The place to catch Limerick is probably in Munster. Clare beat them this year, Tipperary drew with them, Cork lost by a point, Waterford lost by two points. When those squads get back together for winter training, they’ll all believe they have a chance. That’s how it works. Players are competitive animals. Limerick will have to earn everything they get again next year.
The big thing against their rivals is belief, and sustaining that belief for 75 minutes, or more. That’s a huge challenge when you’re playing against a team that doesn’t have any doubts. Limerick never panic, and that comes from winning. They have massive belief in their structures and in their way of playing and every time they win that confidence is cemented. That feeling is priceless.
ADVERTISEMENT
All through the year, when they needed to come up with something they found it. That’s the mark of champions.
1 Like
Letting Galway into Leinster was our first and most fatal mistake.
7 Likes
Did he hit the last one one-handed?
2 Likes
He did I think
That was from last year against Ahascragh.
He looked a bit fitter in 2022.
1 Like
Some Dive by Davy glennon
Welcome back Joe, we missed you.
Conor Cleary of Clare and Limerick’s Conor Boylan. The score that changed the momentum of the game was basically a fluke but what will worry Clare is how they then fell apart. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Fri Apr 26 2024 - 06:00
When people analyse matches they always work back from the final score. After Limerick won in Ennis last Sunday the narrative was that the All-Ireland champions are brilliant at problem-solving and coming up with in-game solutions. Is that the whole story?
When you’re at a match, rather than watching on TV, there’s always stuff going on off the ball that will catch your eye. Standing on the RTÉ gantry in the corner of Cusack Park last Sunday, I was looking down the sideline in the middle of the second half and John Kiely was panicking. Out on the pitch Cian Lynch was going a bit mad. To me, they didn’t look like a team that could see a way back into the game.
The score that changed the momentum was basically a fluke. Diarmuid Byrnes, probably the best long-range striker in the game, mishit a free that Clare should have dealt with. I don’t want to be too harsh on Conor Cleary and Eibhear Quilligan, because you’re talking about split-second reactions. But in that situation, where a ball is dropping in the square, you expect your full back to tie-up the full forward and leave the ball carry through to the goalkeeper.
That’s what Huw Lawlor does with Eoin Murphy, it’s what Diarmuid O’Sullivan used to do with Donal Óg Cusack. I was often wrapped up by a full back myself when a ball was dropping. Between the full back and the goalkeeper they needed to manage that situation and when they didn’t the whole energy of the game changed.
READ MORE
Joe Canning: Cork have even more questions to answer than Clare
No split loyalties for Ciarán Kilkenny as he targets Faithful scalp
Cork make six changes for Clare clash as Cahalane and Lehane left out
Colm Nally’s Kildare role takes him behind enemy lines
What will worry Clare is how the game fell apart for them once the momentum changed. Quilligan should have saved Limerick’s second goal, there’s no question about that. When a shot bounces twice before it reaches the keeper, it must be stopped.
For the third goal there was a complete breakdown in communication or a systems breakdown. Cian Lynch went deep for possession, John Conlon let him off, but nobody else picked up Limerick’s most creative player. David McInerney had been marking Gearóid Hegarty but Limerick switched Hegarty inside, McInerney completely lost him, and Hegarty wasn’t passed on to another Clare defender.
I don’t think Clare realised that Hegarty had been moved. When Lynch looked up Hegarty was completely unmarked. That kind of defending was kamikaze.
This is a huge week for Clare. I would say the defeat last Sunday ranks alongside the two All-Ireland semi-final defeats to Kilkenny in terms of psychological damage. If they don’t process properly this week it could haunt their season. With such a quick turnaround they’ll have to come up with enforceable solutions and move on. Clare will also need to focus on all the reasons why they were nine points in front and in control for three quarters of the match. They can’t afford to forget that.
One thing in Clare’s favour is that they’re meeting Cork this weekend, a team that I would say have even more questions to answer. Throughout my Galway career we always regarded Cork as fragile. Nice hurlers and all that, but not a team to be afraid of in a close game, going down the stretch. I think I lost one championship game to Cork – and I’m talking about U16, minor, U21, senior.
Waterford manager Davy Fitzgerald celebrates at the final whistle after the victory over Cork at Walsh Park. Photograph: Ken Sutton/Inpho
Davy Fitzgerald couldn’t have dreamed up a better scenario than the one Waterford faced last Sunday. Cork were hot favourites, Waterford were being written off after a terrible league. Davy was being doubted all over the place, there was talk that the Waterford crowd weren’t going to turn up and all of it fed into a siege mentality.
Over the years Waterford have struggled when they were favourites but they were complete underdogs against Cork and that was perfect for the kind of bite and aggression they needed to bring.
I’m also conscious that for a lot of my Galway career we would have been labelled along the same lines that I’m talking about Cork now. Kilkenny always thought that we might stick with them for 50 minutes but then we’d fade away. I’m sure other teams had that opinion of us too.
The only way to change that perception is to deliver in high-pressure situations and in pressure games. That’s the challenge facing Cork on Sunday. They will have a massive home crowd, all of them hugely frustrated by the performance last Sunday and wanting to see a different version of Cork out on the field. Not just changes in personnel but in attitude and work rate. I don’t know if that’s in them.
Galway against Kilkenny is the other big game of the weekend. I hear people saying that it doesn’t really matter, both teams are going to qualify from Leinster and they’re almost certainly going to be meeting again in the Leinster final.
I don’t buy that. Wexford have beaten Kilkenny for the last two years. Galway only drew with Dublin last year and were 12 points behind at one stage. I don’t think Galway and Kilkenny are so far ahead of the other teams that they can afford to take anything for granted.
Kilkenny coming to Pearse Stadium is a big game, regardless of what happens over the next few weeks. Neither team will want to take a backward step. Kilkenny have been one of the top three teams in the country for the last couple of years and there’s never really any mystery about them.
Nobody knows where Galway are yet. The team that started against Carlow won’t be the team that lines up on Sunday, but I couldn’t tell you what their championship team is right now. This game will help with that question. This is Henry Shefflin’s third year in charge and he’s under pressure to win something. There’s no point in saying otherwise.
The championship is only a week old and already you can feel the heat.
2 Likes
He doesn’t spare Cork there.
8 Likes
Joe has savaged them. He is too modest to say that the main difference between Cork and Galway in those years was probably Joe Canning!
1 Like
Galway never feared Cork
In fairness to Joe he acknowledges Galways softness in his early career. Tessio brought steel to that group and Trendy gave them the final push (with a little help from Joe)
Joe - There’s no men in Cork
He’s absolutely done em in there.
4 Likes
Joe doing the Limerick bidding again. Limerick want to see the back of Clare, and that is as naked a piece of propaganda as ever you’ll read.
Looking for the free round at Adare and to shift a few shnackboxes.
I’d absolutely love to meet Clare in the all Ireland final, it would be immense.
Joe is a great guy.