We should beat cork a point a man without Joyce.
I’ve been trying to talk up cork a bit to make the week pass.
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Time will tell. I think its ideally setup for Cork if they have anything about themselves at all to throw caution to the wind and go for it tomorrow evening. 42k for a round robin. It is knockout for them. Thats massive.
Limerick arent firing on all cylinders yet by any stretch of the imagination. In the back of their minds, they’ll know they have Waterford to come too to HQ. Its completely different for Cork. Pat Ryans job is at stake. Players careers are on the line.
Maybe we will hammer them but I don’t see it. I think it’ll be an awful lot closer than people reckon. Which is also dangerous.
Impossible to see Limerick winning this when they’re still in 2nd gear and no Casey x 2 or DOD. And away from home
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Refreshing honesty pal
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I would expect to win based on the sides named but there are a couple of factors why I’m not getting carried away:
It’s knockout for Cork but it’s not really for Limerick. Now obviously we’re not guaranteed anything yet so hopefully the mentality is right but Limerick have underperformed in matches like this before (Tipp 2022, Clare 2018).
The form of a couple of Limerick players still a concern. Tipp was a big improvement on Clare but the opposition was considerably poorer. Even a couple of players underperforming can make us look laboured.
And the fact that Cork can rack up big scores even when not playing that well. Honestly, I thought Limerick were much better than Cork last year but we only won by 1. We weren’t quite at our best, maybe, but we were decent enough and couldn’t kill Cork off. If we do underperform, Cork are the type of team that can hang in there. And there are some question marks over our bench too.
But obviously I do expect to win. If I was a Cork fan, I would be slightly underwhelmed by the team picked. The fact that Cork cough up such big tallies (despite scoring a fair bit themselves) has to be a good thing for Limerick who have huge scoring threat. That’s the main reason I expect to win, I just don’t see Cork doing enough to stop us creating loads of chances.
But, as always, if we’re off it, we could be caught.
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I think it should be very good but quality of picture etc isn’t poor. The fact it’s over zoom kinda annoys me. Something in studio would be good.
Any more info on DOD?
Even if he had a chance of making it back for semi final stage in 8 weeks time it would be huge
Cork have to throw everything at this. Be interesting to see who limerick play on Connolly - I’d get Finn to stick to him, he found Adam Hogan much tougher than Cleary two weeks ago.
Semi at best im hearing, you can see how much of a loss he was against clare in particular
It’s interesting. My guess is Hoggy will play out around the D again with Connolly and Hayes inside. Probably forces Nash to take Hoggy there with Finn taking Connolly.
The other end is a bit more up in the air. Limerick will only play two inside the 45 so who picks up who will be tricky. Downey looks set to be tasked with Gillane I suspect with SOD taking Flanagan.
The funny thing about DB is that he is, technically, a poor hurler. Hurl caught wrong, scant use of his left side.
Of course, DB has been a really good to brilliant hurler for six seasons, well worth his HOTY and four All Stars in a row.
Wasn’t Gary Kirby the same? Awkward out
His left side is poor but his striking off his right is unbelievably good. He can hit a pass 100m into the hand, it’s such a difficult thing to do. He can keep the trajectory of his strike even to make it so favourable for the forwards.
He does have his flaws but he opens up so many opportunities for Limerick through that ability alone. If he was not available, Limerick would have to tweak the gameplan and would become a little more predictable I think.
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GK was actually a gripchanger, same as his uncle Richie Bennis.
None of the 3 Patrickswell lads seem to have a bad side. Gillane has improved his the most but is still agricultural off it.
Completely agree with you. Rules and exceptions…
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Gillane is good at the little wristy short strike off his right. He did score an unbelievable point off his right in the AI final last year from further out the field but, yeah, he seriously favours his left.
Tbf to him, none of them seem to get turned over because of their weaker side the way that has happened to Mul or Reidy at times (Byrnes might have against Clare). They’ll generally use it if they have to.
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Be interesting if SOD is left with Gillane tomorrow. Be a huge ask for young Downey if he’s left on him. He’s not particularly quick and has yet to fill out. Given the way the cork half backs defend he will be left exposed.
It’s a huge ask on the Cork defence in general tomorrow, if they push up and go man to man, they risk leaving a huge amount of space for Gillane and Flanagan to run into. Sit back and use a sweeper and Limerick will pick them off.
Stick or twist?
In fairness, SOD has marked Gillane a good few times now and has been okay sometimes. Obviously got him sent off in 2018. Went for the Cleary method last year which backfired in the end.
Downey is probably the better match-up in theory, probably stronger aerially but doesn’t have the same experience.
It’ll be an interesting call.
Younger Downey ain’t shy . He’s a dirty fucker really… But he’ll be barking up the wrong tree with Gillane
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