To be honest the year looks like it’ll boil down to beating Clare in June as to whether it was a success or not.
Win that and you’ve a Munster final and an AI quarter final. Respectable displays in both and you’ve made progress in 2017, considering all the new faces being introduced.
Lose and it’ll be hard to raise a gallop in the qualifiers.
At least JK is calling it as it is, I’d be more worried if he was saying all was rosy and that second half display was ok. We’ve strung a few decent passages of play together at times against Wexford and Galway, before fading at other times and going ten or 15 mins without a score.
Never really had high hopes for this year but he’s already sorted out the half backline to some extent and given loads of guys their debuts. 2015 and 2016 were so bad anything would have been an improvement but I think we’re definitely on an upward curve. Trying to work out the correct balance in the forward line considering we don’t have any marquee forwards is the the next conundrum.
Backs look fairly settled at this stage, I’d say the full back line will be as it was yesterday. O’Mahony coming back into half back the only possible complication, presumably Hickey and Hannon would still start somewhere else if he does. As bad as Byrnes was yesterday I’m sure he’ll be one of our top players come summer.
The front 8 is mad hard to pick.
Will Browne be fit and in form in time to start? In January I didn’t think Jimbob should start for summer, I still don’t.
Find it very hard to pick the forwards. Jury still out on whether Hegarty will make it and on what the best use of Cian Lynch is. Ronan Lynch looked mad anxious to get on the field and get on the ball yesterday but was only given 90 seconds, he could still come into contention by summer. Hayes and Dempsey have done well but I don’t think they’re ready for central roles yet. Still think Dowling is best at full forward and would provide a better focal point there.
Nash Dowling Casey and Cian Lynch to take up four forward positions for me. Hayes Dempsey Lynch Morrissey Hegarty or even O’Mahony to take up two other spaces. Not room to start both Casey and Mulcahy, Casey edges it for me, Mulcahy a quality sub to come in.
I think Condon will still have a decent shot at taking a corner-back slot, I don’t think Casey was so impressive yesterday that he nailed down a spot. I do like Casey, but I wouldn’t write off Condon yet.
I’d be shocked if Byrnes doesn’t start at wing-back come Championship. Might be no harm dropping him for the Cork game just to give him a bit of a kick up the hole, to show he’s not undroppable. I do think that the physicality that Byrnes & Hickey bring on the wings is important, and I’m not sure Gavin offers the same. And Hannon went as well as could have been expected yesterday. Bit disappointed that he didn’t offer himself a bit more as a distributor but hopefully that will improve with time.
Jim-Bob was non-existent yesterday but he has been pretty decent so far and I’d be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Again, maybe drop him for Cork and leave it up to him to fight his way back in for inclusion. Provided Browne comes back in form, it’s hard not to see him being picked. I do like Browne next to a more physical player, and Jim-Bob generally goes very well against Clare.
I’d nearly go with Lynch in the half-forwards. He did well at the start in the corner but I really think you need players with that ruthless instinct in the corner. Lynch wants to play passes; despite having the pace & physical strength to take on a man and beat him, he didn’t do it enough in the corner. Could be an option in midfield too obviously, but he’s a good man to pick up breaking ball in the half-forward line too. Dowling definitely in the half-forwards for me.
If they’re both playing well, I’d start both Casey & Mulcahy. Two natural corner-forwards, good first touch, pace to burn… if you give them good quality ball, they’ll win frees at the very least. There is the temptation to start someone like Nash in the corner, as a more physical option too but he could be useful in the half-forward line aswell. He’ll definitely start come Championship. It looks Hayes will aswell, probably rotating between 14 & 10 as he did yesterday. Maybe rotating with Nash.
There was a classic Hickey moment in the first half yesterday, he had just horsed some Galwegian out of it on the Uncovered Stand sideline, to appreciative, guttural roars from the Treaty faithful. Thirty seconds later Hannon cleared the ball to Hickey in space on the same sideline who inexplicably attempted to double on it, only for the ball to bobble up the sideline to an unmarked Galway defender. In a brainless attempt to retrieve the situation, Hickey sprinted up the field after the ball, leaving his own man behind in oceans of space, who received a simple dinky pass from the defender and slotted it over the bar.
Make no mistake Hickey looks to have improved a deal on the last two years but it was good to see he can still reliably produce the odd Laurel and Hardy moment.
There were a few moments like that from Limerick players which were absolutely stupid, handing easy points to Galway. Particularly in the first half when we were the better team. If we had gone in 4 or 5 points up instead of just 1, maybe we would have held on.
Hickey did that, there was another time where Galway fucked up a sideline but we delayed on getting it clear, conceded another sideline which Joe put over the bar. We gave away two stupid frees in our half-forward line which he bombed over with the wind at his back. Couple of other aimless balls to unmarked Galwaymen which they scored from. If you can cut out silly errors like that, it’d be huge, that’s just making it unnecessarily difficult for yourself.
I’d still have McCarthy as the weak link in the full back line tbh. Still yields a few yards to his man, once the forward is in possession and has turned all Richie can do is foul. Been impressed by Casey, English is so tight on his man watching him should almost carry a 18+ cert. Finn and Condon haven’t really had much of a chance due to injury, but all four are much quicker than McCarthy. Looking at it from a horses-for-courses point of view, the one thing Cork will definitely bring is pace up front.
Midfield was the big issue against Galway and has to be addressed against Cork. We can’t afford not to play someone with a serious intercounty-level engine here in the Browne/Hickey mould. Lynch was moved out here towards the end of the game yesterday, he’ll enjoy the freedom there and obviously can be a effective and sometimes sublime link between defence and attack.
Half forward is probably the trickiest line in the field because Limerick are still stuck with the stone age mentality that the primary function of half forwards is to throw up the lámh and catch puckouts. The really worrying thing is that there doesn’t seem to be a Plan B to this approach, so come June we’ll no doubt be bemoaning the fact that our half forwards won no primary possession in a game where Clare simply pass the ball out from defence under little or no pressure. There has to be a willingness here for players to run the bollix of themselves and hassle anything that moves. Kyle Hayes, the surprise package of the spring, keeps getting a jersey because that is precisely his attitude and mixes it with no little skill. Though Nash was rusty on his return, the sight of him running halfways back up the field and eventually getting the dispossesion was at least a statement of intent.
Up front, taking on your man is vital. Though I have seen matches where the game has passed him by, David Dempsey strikes me as a player who is always willing to put the head down and I would be keen to see more of him closer to goal. Dowling will surely get a turn at full forward again, while we can get away with one of Casey/Mulcahy/Tobin in the corners, but not both.
