What a cunt
God forbid he smile for a second after a game that was over as a contest at half time
Reidy has been working on placement from college since January with Browne in the same office, god forbid he chat to him at the end of the game!!
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Desperate carry on
What constitutes “almost before”?
They were having a coffee on the 65 with 3 minutes to go. He spoke to Galvin. I would not read a whole pile into it. Galvin is an alright sort. He would know all the lads. He is Hegarty’s cousin also.
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Was it a latte?
It was a mocca chocca latte.
I see that good old reliable line about Limerick only being good when they play hup ‘n’ whup hurling got another good airing over the last few days. I’ve long pondered what this phrase truly means; Do Cyril Farrell et al really suggest that we turn our backs completely on the direction the game has gone over the last two decades and just go back to pulling with gleeful abandon first-time on anything that moves?
I think I get it though. We have, over the last few years, perfected Gerlock’s “pure constipated hurling”. You can see that the concept of keeping possession has been beaten into certain players by a mixture of expensive Corkmen and the influence of the modern era. The recipe for Limerick, when the game is in the melting pot:
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A generous slice of jogging aimlessly up the field with your head kept firmly down and eyes only for the ball at the end of your stick.
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Simmer in a mix of opposing players, whilst your own team-mates helplessly try to disperse out of your way
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Garnish, if desired, with a hospital pass to a colleague who is mere milliseconds away from being as bad a position as you are.
The fact that certain players repeat these mistakes over and over, mostly when the pinch is on, implies that these are deeply ingrained natural instincts that will not be smoothed over with a little coaching.
Running the ball out of the backs and handpassing it around is a bizarre approach for many reasons. Clare have been at the running game for years, because (a) they need to do it - they have no confidence in their own forwards winning their own possession - and (b) because they have the players to do it - Cleary, Galvin, Kelly and Podge are ideally suited to the running game and have many years experience under their belt executing it. Even Conlon, a traditional nod to sturdiness in the half-forward line, hardly represents a sacrificing of mobility. I’ll put it this way: would any of Clare’s three half forwards looked as much like a fish out of water as Shane Dowling did, watching with his hands on his hips on the 21 as Conor McGrath poked the ball into the net for the killer third goal? So, to add insult to injury, we pick three players at half-forward who are able to contest in the air (two of whom are really inside forwards and have no real defensive instinct) and then, in a half-hearted nod to the hurling zeitgeist, we fooster with the ball in defence rather than give it direct.
It’s early days of course, but hopefully Kiely will go with his instinct here. The U21 in 2015 was won via a powerful half-back line, whose simple instinct was to hurl the ball. Amongst Hannon, Byrnes, Malachy, Hegarty, GOM (and maybe, with time, Ronan Lynch) there should be the basis there for three half backs who are comfortable under the dropping ball, comfortable with the arts of defending and comfortable with simply hurling the ball. While Hickey and Morrissey are both good athletes and can contest in the air, I would not class either as an out-and-out hurler. Kiely first focus this year was the half-back line and he has improved it, but I would argue that he should go further - build this platform and it is the first step in a long time for Limerick striking out with their own style, as opposed to trying to paper over cracks, or reacting to other teams.
Mike Casey had a good league but got a bit of a run-around on Sunday. I wouldn’t blame him so much for not anticipating the absolute clusterfuck Nicky Quaid made of the first goal, but the second was absolutely criminal as he watched O’Donnell run around him. He has to learn the bit of ruthlessness to stand the forward up, or haul him down in that situation and while it would be a tad harsh to drop him off the bat after Sunday, with Sean Finn playing well and Tom Condon and Stephen Cahill on the sidelines, the pressure should be on. Plenty enough has been said about Richie McCarthy in the last couple of days - while English has had a shaky spring after returning from injury and has his faults (the big Boris Becker smash strike is a pet peeve of mine), his time has surely come.
From 8-12 you need players who can cover every blade of grass. I’m a big fan of Pat Simon: a strong, direct runner but with plenty of hurling too. Along with Paul Browne at midfield and Cian Lynch at centre-forward, you have three strong players at 8,9 and 11 with hurling to burn. You need similar energy on the wings, but with an added emphasis on competing in the air and a willingness to attack the opposing defenders, both with and without the ball. Hayes has shown all these traits, and whilst Hegarty has had a productive league up front, a swap with Hickey, who has more outright pace and simply loves to run with the ball, would be a good fit.
The out-and-out forward of the season for me so far has been David Dempsey. He has a tendency to disappear for periods, but Limerick rarely produce a player like him: a knack for drifting into just the right position, a desire to go for the jugular and a mind concerned solely with scoring. His point at the start of the second half was pure class, something the pundits who ply the lazy line that Limerick have no forwards like to ignore. Nash struggled to make an impact after his point, but in that there was a glimpse again of the little unpredictable swagger that makes him difficult to defend against. Dowling is really being carried for frees. On that count, and with Fitzgibbon and Tobin gone and Ronan Lynch unlikely to make it onto the first 15, it’s probably a straight battle between him and Casey for a starting berth in the forwards. I’ve great time for both Mulcahy & Casey, but we can’t, and surely won’t, start with a full-forward line as light as we did Sunday. One or the other at most, play both and you are putting yourself at a serious disadvantage.
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Colin Malachy is as good a free taker as anyone and would offer a bit from play. I’d put Dowling into 14 and if he can’t do a job there he should be dropped. Eoghan McNamara needs to be approached again, college is done with for the summer.
1 McNamara
2.Finn
3.English
4.Casey
5.Byrnes
6.Hannon
7.Hickey
8.Browne
9.Pat Ryan
10.Cian Lynch
11.Hegarty
12.Hayes
13.Nash
14.Dowling
15.Dempsey
Jesus lads some of the stuff here you would swear Limerick won the AI . We lost to a Clare team whose goalie was poor , whose half back line struggled whose half forward line was poor and their free taker was bad .
Granted Lk had an inexperienced team but there is an utterly massive body of work ahead .
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What the fuck have you been reading??
COME ON LIMERICK ALWAYS 
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Aboy the kid.
Clare alway
Hello
He said Clare deserved their win … what more do you want, mate?
That’s a Limerick newspaper and this is a Limerick page…
Brian Ryan to Be added to the senior after exams.
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