Gary Kirbys finger says hello
The TUS San Siro Gaelic Grounds
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You’d get the ciddy lads in from the train, busloads from east limerick and the west tipp crew by mule and high Nelly.
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If they had skin in the game, they’d beat them alright.
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Trigger alert, brace for impact.
What about Ard Comhairle?
Was that Blake’s? Well it was at one point. On non match day, was a dodgy enough spot back in the day.
I’ve heard about that place. I’ll ask around
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Free programme is about it, unless you’ve an invite to the meal for whatever jubilee team is being honoured
@Gary_Birtles_Lovechi here you go
Anthony Daly: Limerick to stay alive and a Doomsday kick from Wexford
Who would I prefer to be, John Kiely or Pat Ryan, in this scenario? The obvious answer is John but, being totally honest, I’d much prefer to be Pat
CLASH: Limerick’s Cian Lynch with Tommy O’Connell of Cork during the league clash in February. Pic: INPHO/Evan Treacy
SUN, 28 MAY, 2023 - 10:52
In the modern bubble of inter-county management, everything is controlled, dictated and directed from within the group. Outside noise is irrelevant. Innuendo is ignored. The contagion of speculation, rumour and loose chat is firewalled so strongly by the group’s culture and defence mechanisms that the system is consistently prevented from being infected by any glitch or bug.
And yet, how can you contain everything, keep out everything, in an amateur game? These players don’t live behind high-walled mansions. They can’t escape to their weekend retreat house, or jet off to a private villa for a few days. They have jobs. They go to college.
A certain amount of noise has to get in. If it does, how does it affect you on a week like this when your season is on the line?
It’s strange too where and how that noise can insidiously infiltrate a group. When I was coming out of Semple Stadium last week, I was taken aback by the tone and nature of some of the discussion I had with a few Limerick supporters.
The general gist of it was that ‘these lads owe us nothing, we’ve had such a brilliant run with them’. Limerick just drew the game. They were still very much alive in the championship, with a home game against Cork to set up their season. Some key players finally seemed to be motoring. And the general reaction seemed to be gratitude for what those great men had given the supporters, as if the show was about to wind itself up. What?
The Limerick bubble will have insulated itself from all that chatter this week but I’m still not sure if some of that general attitude is reflective of the squad’s mindset. Of course the Limerick players and management won’t be thinking that way, but it’s funny how your defence mechanisms can be weakened and exposed to glitches once mental fatigue has set in.
Who would I prefer to be, John Kiely or Pat Ryan, in this scenario? The obvious answer is John but, being totally honest, I’d much prefer to be Pat.
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The easy thing is to say that there is less pressure on the Cork manager but of course that isn’t true. There’s always pressure in a championship match but those stress levels are driven through the roof in an old-school knockout championship match.
It’s different again with Cork, and their deep longing for success, especially All-Ireland success. Nobody in Cork wants to lose to Limerick – again. Nobody wants to be gone out of the championship early – again. All that stuff brings a huge strain on any manager. But I’d still take being in Pat Ryan’s shoes than Kiely’s.
Pat is in his first season. The players and public are delighted with the direction in which he’s going with this team. He is building but Cork have been highly competitive all season. They have to go into the lion’s den now but what an opportunity that is for Cork? Can you imagine the springboard a win here would be for this group?
When John said a few weeks back that their Munster campaign could go to the wire on the last day, nobody believed him. John probably didn’t believe it himself but now that it has, this brings a whole different level of pressure. No team is more equipped to deal with that strain than Limerick. This is a knockout game like an All-Ireland semi-final or final but the task is all the greater again when a team, and a county, like Limerick have their season on the line this early in the season.
The Limerick public haven’t been used to that experience since 2017. This is the last place the players and public expected to be.
They have only lost one game by one point but Limerick still look shaky. On the other hand, are they finding form now at just the right time? Kyle Hayes, Barry Nash, Declan Hannon, Diarmaid Byrnes, Tom Morrissey and Will O’Donoghue were really good last week. But not enough of their key performers are playing well up front. And that could be a big problem now.
Can Limerick rediscover that form? I’m not sure they will. I can’t see them producing a complete performance now because I don’t think it’s there at the minute. But how much will do in this game? Will 80% be enough? Possibly.
Cork haven’t exactly been tearing up trees either with their displays. They still have huge question marks to answer. Do they start some of their impact players? Some of those seem to be happy now to carry that status, which would worry me as a manager.
Damien Cahalane has been playing well, which is an ease considering the damage Aaron Gillane and Seamie Flanagan has done to this Cork defence in the past. But I’d start Ger Millerick in this game.
Brian Roche has done well at midfield. Declan Dalton wasn’t great last week but he’s trying hard. Patrick Horgan and Seamie Harnedy will get you a raft of scores, but they have to do it now against this Limerick full-back line, which, being honest, has been shaky enough, especially Mike Casey last week.
I think Cork are in a great position but I’m not sure if they can take advantage of a Limerick side still not operating at maximum capacity. Limerick should still be able to do enough to get the job done. Just.
Talking about managers and being in their position, how must Davy Fitzgerald have felt in recent weeks? How do you train and motivate a team that has nothing to play for? Deep down, some of those guys’ heads are already probably out in Boston or Chicago for the summer.
It must have been very hard but I think the one thing Fitzy and the players have in their advantage is the Liam Cahill factor. We all saw the finger-wagging between Liam and Davy at the end of the league game in March. It didn’t end well for Cahill in Waterford so those players will be keen to send out a message to him here – or at least they should be. It might even have been to Tipp’s advantage if Liam’s suspension had stuck and kept him away from the line on Sunday.
Davy may be already planning for next year, which you may see on Sunday. Waterford may be fired up early but if that wind soon blows itself out, you’d fear for them when Tipp need to win to be sure of a Munster final spot. Tipp won’t want to mess up here so you’d definitely expect them to win.
In Leinster on Sunday, I’m still trying to get my head around Wexford’s collapse to Westmeath last weekend. How could you let a 17-point lead slip? They haven’t been convincing all summer but when it goes wrong, it just seems to play on Wexford minds more than any other team. And now they have found themselves in doomsday scenario territory.
Confidence seems to be on the floor. Mentally, Wexford have to be extremely brittle. And yet, I have a feeling that they may get a kick here. Wexford desperately have to win. Kilkenny don’t. But could you trust Kilkenny here to do Wexford a favour? Definitely not. Yet I still think Wexford may be able to summon something to get even a draw, which would be enough to save their season.
Wexford won’t have to win if Westmeath beat Antrim but that’s far from a fait accompli either. If you’d asked me at the start of the championship who I’d have fancied in this match, I’d definitely have said Antrim.
I just thought they were a better team. They looked to be early on in this championship when drawing with Dublin and rattling Wexford. But the wheels have come off in recent weeks and their confidence has to be low with the amount of scores they’ve been conceding.
Westmeath, on the other hand, are coming into this match on an absolute high after last week’s incredible result. You’d expect Westmeath to put up a decent score. Will that be enough? It might be.
After drawing with Antrim on the opening day, nobody would have expected Dublin to be in this position where a win against Galway would see them into a Leinster final. Micheál Donoghue must be delighted with the progress, especially having secured that third spot with a game to play.
I liked a lot of what I saw against Kilkenny last week. Dublin were strong and tenacious in the tackle. They had a good structure. They worked the ball well to engineer some classy scores. I think they are improving with every game but, crucially, that goal threat is still not there.
Galway have been ruthless when they have needed to be. They hit 5-29 last week against Antrim and looked relentless in their pursuit of more scores all afternoon.
A Leinster title is a baseline requirement for Henry Shefflin and Galway this year. And they won’t want to slip up here en route to that target.
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The 1 new thing I noticed at this years Munster Championship was the bottles of prime they are everywhere, the cunts charging a tenner.
You’re a bigger fucking ape if you give it to them
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I don’t understand what all the fuss is about them, but are they likely to be the real thing being sold on a foldable table on the side of the road?
Lovely to hear Limerick are letting Clare train in the Gaelic grounds.
Cameras up everywhere
Can’t imagine Lohan will take up the offer but this is mighty stuff.
It would give you hope the Russians and Ukrainians can find a way to peace
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Nobody knows what’s around the corner
Advantage Clare. They won the boardroom battle. Wouldnt let us drag them to cork
Huh?