Limerick GAA - knocked down, but will get up again

[Copper_pipe]

Out of stock on Elverys for the past 2 weeks

[Ashman]

Galway were very flat in the final . A few bad ref calls , limerick butchering an open goal & limerick sideline making a couple of bad calls left them back in it .

[anon32894817]

Limerick knotted up in the final 20 minutes. Understandable given the vast majority of the panel had no experience of a final. Galway were empty by the replayed Leinster final. You simply can’t afford two replays and two extra times in the lead up the all ireland unless you’ve got ridiculous depth.

[habanerocat]

@Raylan

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.

I like Enda, but “The Sage Theory”…

Le Sage’s theory of gravitation is a kinetic theory of gravity originally proposed by Nicolas Fatio de Duillier in 1690 and later by Georges-Louis Le Sage in 1748. The theory proposed a mechanical explanation for Newton’s gravitational force in terms of streams of tiny unseen particles (which Le Sage called ultra-mundane corpuscles) impacting all material objects from all directions. According to this model, any two material bodies partially shield each other from the impinging corpuscles, resulting in a net imbalance in the pressure exerted by the impact of corpuscles on the bodies, tending to drive the bodies together. This mechanical explanation for gravity never gained widespread acceptance.

[Phil_Leotardo]

Purchased mine online last Tuesday afternoon. Delivered to the door at 9am the next day.

The previous week it had been saying out of stock also but then they were back in again by last Tuesday. Keep checking if that’s the one you want

[Aristotle]

I agree. The green & grey were class. I just wouldn’t be a fan of a Limerick top with no sight of green at all. And the orange is a bit obnoxious.

[cowpat]

picked up the black one with green on the chest up. Nice!

[ciarancareyshurlingarmy]

@Batigol

Smashing. You could wear it to a wedding

Could you wear it with brown shoes?

[Batigol]

You can wear anything with brown shoes

[flattythehurdler]

Anyone who describes anything as “class”, anything made from100% polyester even more so, can wear brown shoes with anything.

[Aristotle]

I’ve never worn brown shoes in my life actually.

[flattythehurdler]

You’d look class in them

[Batigol]

Brown shoes are town shoes

[FlakeAway]

Plenty in the Elverys by Dunnes Parkway last week.

[Jahan]

Has the fixture list been released for w/e 21/04?

Limerick GAA website is partially updated. It lists the matches but with every throw-in on Thursday 18th at 1200.

[Aristotle]

It has. I could have sworn the website was updated. I don’t have the list to hand, I’ll post it in the morning if you’re still looking.

[Aristotle]

Bons Secours Hospital County Senior Hurling Championship Round 2
Na Piarsaigh v Patrickswell 21/04 Kilmallock 2.00pm
Deferred Showing on TG4
Adare v South Liberties 20/04 Bruff 4.15pm
Doon v Kilmallock 20/04 Bruff 6.00pm

Garryspillane v Monaleen 20/04 Caherconlish 6.00pm
Ahane v Ballybrown 19/04 Claughaun 6.45pm
Knockainey v Murroe Boher 21/04 Caherconlish 1.00pm

County Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship Round 2
Cappamore v Dromin Athlacca 20/04 Kilteely 6.30pm
Kildimo Pallaskenry v Pallasgreen 21/04 Claughaun 1.00pm
Blackrock v Mungret 19/04 Bruff 6.45pm
Bruff v Bruree 19/04 Kilmallock 6.45pm

Nick Grene Sportsgrounds Ltd Hurling Championship Round 2
Newcastle West v Croom 19/04 The Bog Garden 6.45pm
Tournafulla v Knockaderry 20/04 Newcastle West 6.00pm
Granagh Ballingarry v Glenroe 19/04 Kilbreedy 7.30pm
Feohanagh v Na Piarsaigh 21/04 Croagh 6.00pm
Effin v Hos. Herbertstown 20/04 Kilfinane 2.00pm
Drom. Broadford v St Patricks 20/04 Croagh 6.00pm

[balbec]

welcome to next week

[Jahan]

Great stuff, thanks.

[habanerocat]