No just in from NCW?
Not tonight, pal.
His first love Man U were on the telly
Sheridan Antiques Park
GAA | ENDA MCEVOY
april 11 2019, 12:01am, the times
Why tiredness will be Limerick’s toughest opponent
enda mcevoy
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They are not the bookies’ favourites to win the All-Ireland, an honour — such as it is — that rests, oddly, with Galway. They are anything but home and hosed to retain their title. But they are the best team in the country, they possess the best panel in the country and last week they added the National League to the MacCarthy Cup. All things considered, Limerick may only be starting to show us what they can do.
Are they likely All-Ireland champions? Of course. Are they probable All-Ireland champions? Of course not. Favourites — or in this case second-favourites — fall all the time, frequently when least expected to. Consider the curious case seven years ago of the most celebrated of all Limerick’s predecessors. Even Brian Cody knows what it feels like to take a tumble at a supposed plain fence.
Shortly before teatime on the evening of May 6, 2012 a chill descended on the hurling world. The National League final had just finished at Semple Stadium and it had not made for encouraging viewing; Kilkenny 3-21 Cork 0-16. Real shock-and-awe stuff. It was what Cody’s troops did when the mood took them and it was what they made a point of doing to emerging entities — in this instance Cork under the second coming of Jimmy Barry-Murphy — who might pose them a problem in due course. All very King Herod. Nothing personal, naturally, but never give potential rivals the slightest encouragement if it can be avoided.
Hence the ensuing chill. Kilkenny had regained the All-Ireland the previous September and were set on making it back-to-back titles. Even before a ball had been thrown in, the 2012 championship looked the most one-horse of one-horse races. Then the Leinster final came around and Galway went and blew Kilkenny away.
The moral of the story? Given that the men in stripes returned via the back door to retain the MacCarthy Cup, the reader may be tempted to say there isn’t one. But in hurling, with its small pool of top-level competitors, the storylines repeat themselves over and over again. If a team who had won four of the previous five All-Irelands and would go on to win three of the next four can come a cropper in the provincial championship, so too can a Limerick outfit a couple of years away from reaching their peak.
All-Ireland champions are as vulnerable as everyone else to the vagaries of fate. “Events, my dear boy, events,” as Harold Macmillan allegedly put it. How would Limerick cope if Cian Lynch, the conductor of the orchestra, picked up an injury? Who would carry the load in the last 40 metres of the field should Aaron Gillane, their scorer-in-chief, suffer a loss of form? How would the holders react as a collective to an off-day, perhaps away to a highly motivated Tipperary or Waterford, in the Munster Championship? Off-days, of which they have had only one — against Clare in Ennis last summer — since the beginning of 2018, are now as distant a memory for Limerick as managerial crises and player revolts.
Chances are they’ll react in style because they’re young enough not to overthink one defeat and resilient enough to bounce back from it. Chances are that they possess the breadth of resources to camouflage any injuries to — or form loss by — their leading lights; Shane Dowling and Séamus Flanagan demonstrated as much when introduced in the league final. Everything we’ve seen from Limerick since January indicates that they constitute the exception to the sage theory propounded by Seán Walsh, Galway Bay FM’s hurling commentator: “A team wins the All-Ireland and they’re automatically deemed to have great strength in depth when really they don’t.”
Kiely, the Limerick manager, celebrates winning the Division 1 final with Diarmaid Byrnes last monthRYAN BYRNE/INPHO
Galway themselves provided a cautionary tale in that regard last year. They looked probable two-in-a-row champions when they swatted Kilkenny aside at Salthill in May. They looked an even surer thing when laying waste to the same opponents in the Leinster final replay at Semple Stadium in July. It wasn’t long before they were beginning to leak fuel, however, a problem exacerbated by the lack of pressure being placed by the substitutes on the members of the starting XV from 2017, and come the big day at Croke Park the tank had run dry.
Although Limerick have something in hand on Cork, Kilkenny and Tipperary right now, they may not have quite so much in hand on the trio come late June or mid-July, which would open up all manner of interesting vistas. And while they look set to be a better team this summer than they were last summer, particularly when it comes to maximising their scoring opportunities, they’ll need to be.
The All-Ireland quarter-final was won by two points, the semi-final after extra time and the final by a point. No team keeps coming out on the right side of photo finishes. Think of Coventry City, who after an aeon of successful Houdini impressions ended up in one relegation battle too many.
In the end the most potent enemy may not be Galway or Clare but fatigue. John Kiely’s charges played eight games in winning the All-Ireland. It is not overdoing it to say that the feat rendered them the worthiest MacCarthy Cup winners in history. Retaining the silverware would entail a minimum of seven matches whereas up to 2017 they could have won the All-Ireland playing four games. Remember how many outings it took Kilkenny to do the three-in-a-row? Fourteen.
Limerick are a couple of lengths ahead of the rest of the field — but only a couple of lengths ahead. The All-Ireland final is four months away. Events, my dear boy, events.
The new gear with the loud orange is manky
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I actually think they’re nice tops. Was considering getting one when/if they hit the shelves.
Exactly what @chocolatemice and a few others have been saying for months… I dont think Limerick will have another gear come July.
I think they are manky . Last year’s we cool as fuck .
Enda is seething.
I’d expect a Kilmallock man to be better accustomed to the attention that comes with being top of the pile. It’s only a harmless few words in print, don’t let it rattle you that easy.
Ends is right. The only team than can stop limerick now is limerick.
It’s Enda that’s rattled because we have changed the hurling paradigm.
that’s some load of bollocks. Galway’s tank had run dry by august. They lost by a point.
Smashing. You could wear it to a wedding
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That’s the plan
The black is an ideal colour.