KILLINAN END - Limerick benefitting from challengers flaws
Hurling’s year was made significant by the nature of Limerick’s achievement. A third All-Ireland in a row in a very competitive environment where so much was asked of them was a very considerable feat. Limerick, coming with a powerful team, might have benefitted slightly during the pandemic in that the old format of pure knockout at provincial level meant that they were not required to go to the well week after week. That is not to say for a moment that they were not deserving champions in those years – more to acknowledge that, perversely, maybe the whole weariness of the pandemic maintained a certain freshness in the team.
Still, sixteen championship games undefeated is fair going. By the time Kilkenny reached that figure in 2009 they had won four-in-a-row. Limerick, should they reach that landmark, will likely have played 23 games even with the truncated campaigns of 2020 and 2021. You would have to think that if they fall short, it will be as much to do with attrition and sheer wear and tear than any shortcomings. They got a sense of what can go wrong when Cian Lynch got injured this year and while this is a great team, not all are in it are equal. You would be concerned about the loss of Carey, Hayes, Hegarty or Gillane to name just a few.
If all stay fit and healthy it is hard to see them being taken down. Much was made of their semi-final and final last year against Galway and Kilkenny respectively but there is little evidence that either have the consistency to match Limerick. Galway failed again in a Leinster Final they should have been capable of winning. Kilkenny lost in Salthill and also in Nowlan Park to Wexford. When Kilkenny got level with Limerick, the champions rattled off the next four points, and that was as close as the Leinster team was going to get. And this was a Limerick team without Cian Lynch pulling the strings.
Clare emerged from the championship with the most question marks. With Galway you know you will get hot and cold. They’ll win much of the time but lose when it matters. Kilkenny will have enough dog in them to not slip up against Westmeath, Laois or Dublin and enough quality to take advantage of Galway’s flakiness. But which category describes Clare? They beat Cork, Tipperary, and Waterford, and took Limerick to the brink twice. Yet, the performance in Croke Park in the All-Ireland semi-final was a shocker. Which is the real Clare? Are they guaranteed to beat maybe a rejuvenated Tipperary team in Ennis? Or Waterford down in Walsh Park? Will Cork ever have sleepless nights about travelling to Ennis? Defeat is everyone’s lot in the end, but rarely in the great back-catalogue of Clare’s ‘depths of despair’ moments can there have been the same frustration as after the All-Ireland semi-final. Not being good enough is the easy bit - it brings a certain clarity. It’s the promise that is the killer. All the summer progress seemed to crumble away in an hour of self-doubt and tactical brain-freeze on Jones’ Road. It might not be easy to get that momentum back.
To an extent, a similar challenge awaits another Clare man when Davy Fitzgerald heads back to one of his old haunts. The apparent potential of Waterford can be spectacular and for all the weeping and gnashing of teeth in the end, Liam Cahill certainly threatened to get that out of them. Austin Gleeson pointed out that Waterford have played twelve games in the Munster round-robin and won only once. It does not seem to suit them he suggested. It’s one view of the world but you would have to say the Liam Cahill view after their last game in Ennis trumped it. He said that if you want to be among the top teams in the country you have to find a way. It is hard to imagine that the way will be found by the Sixmilebridge man whose hallmark is intensity and rigidity. Making a team hard to beat is not the same as creating a winning side.
Managerial changes also came in Tipperary and Cork. Both will have their work cut out but certainly in the case of the Blue and Gold there is capacity for improvement. Cork are in the limbo position of being relatively good – too good for drastic changes – but vulnerable against almost any opposition. Tipp can hardly be as off the pace again but that guarantees little.
Tipp can claim some satisfaction from the 2022 season in the form of Darren Gleeson as Antrim manager and Darragh Egan’s efforts with Wexford. The latter were inconsistent but when they were good, they glistened. In the year that was in it, however, special mention must be given to the Tipp minor hurling team which showed that there are still stirrings in the county. Hopefully the year ahead will see more indicators of that.
Happy Christmas to all!