Munster Senior Hurling Championship 2023 (Part 1)

Is Conor Cleary out yeah? If so, I predict Gillane to go to absolute town. I may be wrong but I think he’s in for a big one.

If he gets sufficient ball, that is.

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Theres a decent chance he will line out.

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You’ve exploded on top of yourself there lad. Get a few tissues and clean yourself up

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He did, but it went to another level when Liz Howard published an article in the programme for a Munster U21 championship game saying that Daly’s use of the term ‘whipping boys’ (in his speech) was disgusting and offensive. Which seems mental now as it’s one of the very few lines from a Munster final speeches that anyone actually remembers.

Loughnane in characteristic fashion went nuclear with his response, an open letter that told Howard to shut her hole and for Tipp to take their beating. The Clare-Tipp animosity took off from there.

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He was buried two and half weeks ago so I doubt it somehow. Limerick by 10+

When they haven’t considered it for the past 3 games it’s hard to see them starting now.

Limerick will stick with what they know and will rightfully see it as enough to come out on top. The reality is Clare to date haven’t played as well as they did in the round robin last year. Loads of basic handling errors, poor shooting, and horrible goals conceded. Either that means that the run is timed better this year, or they peaked and can’t get back to that level.

I’d be surprised if Clare are anything less than what they were in the first Limerick game but we won’t win unless the execution goes up a notch or two. And even then, if Cleary’s out or only half-fit we’ll need to take 100% of our goal chances to have a chance. Against Limerick we barely create one good chance a game and normally we don’t take it.

If Cleary’s healthy I think we might grind it out. Limerick are killers but I don’t think they’re ready to die for a Munster medal, and at this point Clare are.

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Limerick won’t man mark Kelly all over the pitch because they don’t think that’s their best way to win the match.

I think it’s fair to say that Clare have probably built their team over the past few years to combat Limerick’s strengths. And obviously that has paid off, they matched Limerick for long periods last year and beat them this year. I don’t think it’s a massive surprise that Clare’s best performances have been against Limerick. Now, I know they comfortably beat the other teams last year and haven’t this year, but tbf, Cork & Tipp are both massively improved on 2022 imo.

So I’d be shocked if Clare don’t deliver another big performance at the weekend. They have the physicality to match Limerick in the middle third and disrupt the ball, they have to pace to really hurt Limerick from deep, their best forward is smart enough to find the pockets of space and continually rack up huge scores.

They really disrupted Limerick last time, Limerick were definitely off-par too and I would also expect a big improvement from Limerick. I would think that Clare still aren’t getting enough out of their full-forward line. I know Duggan scored a goal against Limerick but I’d love to see him start at 14. Galvin is hit-and-miss. Rodgers is lively but hasn’t racked up big scores since the Tipp game. And while Kelly could do serious damage inside, that’s giving him a man marker when he knows he’s going to get acres of space back the field. So, despite Finn being out, we still don’t cough up many clearcut goal chances.

And then Limerick did not feed their inside line at all against Clare the first day. Partly because Clare stopped our half-back line from playing at all. If Limerick have any sort of improvement at half-back (which I would expect), I would expect Gillane & Flanagan to see a lot more dangerous ball.

Which then asks a new question of Conlon, which he didn’t have to answer the last day. He was able to sit on Lynch, who was ineffective and the ball didn’t go into the acres of space in front of our full-forwards enough. I would expect that to change.

So I probably think that Limerick have more scope for improvement from the first day but, honestly, despite it only being a one-point defeat on the scoreboard, Clare were a good bit better on the day and it never looked like we would win. So that improvement is necessary. Are Limerick better equipped to deal with the pace of Fitzgerald, Taylor, Kelly? Perhaps, if we work harder and that is one of the key points. The Gillane vs Cleary battle (if Cleary plays) could be key too. If Cleary isn’t right, Gillane is in serious form. If Cleary (or someone else) can limit Gillane’s influence or if Limerick don’t get enough ball in, probably advantage Clare.

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Limerick starved the inside line for the first three days and there was a noticable shift the last day. They are going to feed Gillane and Flanagan regardless of whether Clearly is there or not. The game will be won and lost in that battle. Limericks FF line vs Clares FB line.
Limerick were found wanting for work rate the first day and hit a hape of wides and were still only a point off.
I expect them to win by 4+ and I expect one of the Limerick FF line to get MOTM. Most likely Gillane

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I wouldn’t be so sure about that

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After being beaten by Clare in 2017 and 2018, Kiely’s only comfortable wins against Clare came when we were a mess in 2019 and in the winter blitz.

Other than that they not been able to separate themselves from Clare and are not going to suddenly discover some magical way to do so. Limerick will only clearly beat Clare when their key men compete better against their direct opponents than they have managed to so far.

It sounds simple but that’s why Clare have been hard for Limerick to shake off. Clare are not looking to out-tactic Limerick, somehow evading direct contact with them. Instead they have been built by Lohan to take on opponents man-to-man with no expectation of help.

No whiteboards needed to figure out the vulnerability. It’s very obvious.

Big screen in Ennis at the weekend. I understand at least one Clare school has released a song.

I hope the hype doesn’t get to them.

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Just aswell this group of players and management have the mere four Munster titles and four All-Ireland’s in the bag in recent years considering how they apparently struggle so badly against this Clare team.

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Wait & see Gillane is going to give a performance for the ages on Sunday.:boom::boom::boom:

WOD gave a performance for the ages in last year’s Munster final. An absolute monster. In the end of normal time, after Hannon’s wonder score, he ran nearly from Lar Corbett’s to hook I think Conlon to give Limerick a line ball. Some unreal good Will hunting. It would have gone down in Limerick folklore had TK not produced his own piece of magic.

Then at the end of normal time, after racking up an insane amount of KMs and tackles, he bags the insurance score from the sideline. He can do it all. It’s a wonder he was out on his feet after a star studded year against Ballygunner and their boys who were increasing the workload nicely after a break since June.

WOD is one of the fan favourites and for great reason. David Fitz for Clare looks like someone who thinks he’s WOD but with 40% less work rate and 50% more whinging.

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Only the 11 finals played under Kiely, with zero losses.

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She is one dumb bitch, even the shit she spouts on social media proves it. Tipp gaa love getting in dumb fuckers onto their council, they really do.

I think they consider the Munster final last year a draw, what happened in extra time doesn’t really count.

I’m not so sure on this. If they hold Kelly they’ll win. It’s possible they win regardless but when you see Clare’s recent defeats the common theme is Tony Kelly has been man marked. I don’t expect one person will be detailed but it wouldn’t shock me if he’s much closely attended to than the previous games anyway.

Any chance they’ll change their approach on this? It hasn’t worked very well for them

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You stung him there @Watch_The_Break