Anthony Daly: Waterford won’t back down but Limerick’s physicality and firepower will win the day
NO QUARTER GIVEN: Waterford’s Jamie Barron competes with Limerick’s Dan Morrissey and Declan Hannon in last year’s Division 1 final at Croke Park. Another huge battle awaits tomorrow. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
On Wednesday afternoon, I went for a walk in the Vandeleur Gardens near Kilrush, close to where I live.
Even on a dark and desperately wet November day the place, which is set amongst sprawling native woodland in the heart of Kilrush wood, is a beautiful botanical tribute to west Clare’s rich natural history.
I was about two kilometres into the walk when the rain came down in torrents. I had no choice but to keep going. Most of the trees had been stripped of any cover, their large brown roof-tile leaves strewn beneath my feet in an autumn hue of messy squelch.
I was absolutely saturated when I got back to the car. I turned on the heat before switching on the radio because I knew I’d catch the 4pm sports news. Towards the end of the bulletin, there was an update given on Thursday’s race meeting fixed for Clonmel, which was — by that stage, after localised flooding — subject to an 8am inspection. ‘God,’ I thought to myself, ‘Clonmel isn’t that far from Thurles.’
I had already walked around in a monsoon but, that notification of an inspection jolted my senses and reminded me how much of a part the pitches could play in the outcome of the matches this weekend.
We are in November. There’s nothing we can do about the weather. For all the talk about the Biblical downpour during the Limerick-Tipperary match two weeks ago, some of the Limerick players played in worse conditions in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny.
That match was in August, which underlines the wildly oscillating nature of the weather in this country. But the big difference between those two matches mentioned above was where they were staged — Croke Park and the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
The Cork venue has had its issues with the pitch in the past but they’ve been so emphatically sorted out now that the sod is like a mirror-image of Croke Park. We all saw that in the Limerick-Tipp game when, despite the deluge, the ball was zipping off the turf like a golf-ball would hop off a manicured Augusta National in April.
No matter what the weather is like today, it will be the same for the Leinster final in Croke Park this evening. Yet can we be absolutely certain that the pitches in Limerick and Portlaoise, and in Thurles tomorrow, won’t be ploughed to ribbons from the incessant rain and the thoroughbred bodies galloping around them? No.
Could that make a difference to the outcomes today and tomorrow? Absolutely.
That risk isn’t there this evening in Leinster so I don’t understand the logic here. With Leinster staging all of their games in Croke Park, why couldn’t all the Munster games, outside of when Cork were involved, be fixed for Páirc Uí Chaoimh? Even if Cork were involved, it’s not as if they’re used to the place — because Cork don’t train in the Páirc.
Cork have only played there twice since the pitch was redeveloped. When they met Tipperary in early February, I was down pitchside beforehand with John Mullane for a TV interview. I have carpet at home that isn’t in better shape than it was that evening — in February remember. The field was so pristine that I could have brought my slippers. So I wasn’t surprised to see the ball ricocheting off the surface in the middle of a monsoon two weeks ago.
The pitch does make some difference to how you play, to how you want to play. When I was coaching the Limerick minors in 2016, I insisted we trained on the Astroturf pitch in UL in the weeks leading up to the All-Ireland final. Pat Donnelly, the manager, was wondering if I’d lost my marbles, but training on a lightning surface was the only way to get ready for Croke Park. It was also the only way for us to prepare for the class and pace of a Tipperary team which had wiped us out in the Munster final, in the Gaelic Grounds.
I’m not in any way degrading Thurles, and the ground-staff there, but if this rain keeps falling — as it has all week — there’s only so much water a natural sod can take.
I don’t know the details of why the game was fixed for Thurles — it obviously was down to the counties, or one county, and their preference — but I think the decision should have been taken out of their hands. The match should have been fixed for Cork.
I also think that the scheduling has handed a bit of an advantage to the Leinster teams. I don’t know where the All-Ireland quarter-finals will be played but the Leinster winners will have played all their games in Croke Park, and may be meeting a team in an All-Ireland semi-final playing on that surface for the first time in 2020. Will that make a difference? In a game of inches, that kind of stuff can give you metres of an advantage.
The qualifiers are a different realm again, where it’s harder to fix venues, but I can’t imagine the Gaelic Grounds and Portlaoise being in great shape for this afternoon’s two games.
The ball certainly won’t be hopping into fellas’ hands like it will be above in Croker later on this evening.
So will we see different games? You’d have to think so.
The pitch could be a factor too tomorrow but we’re still guaranteed a savage battle between two packs of dogs-of-war. Limerick enter this contest as the alphas but I came up against Liam Cahill teams plenty of times with the Limerick minors to know that a side managed by him will never back down.
Cahill’s teams always play with an edge. You could see that in the display of Tadgh de Burca against Cork. Tadgh was excellent but I never saw him as aggressive as he was that evening. Tadgh always let his hurling do his talking in the past but his body language screamed that evening: ‘Hi, get the hell out of my way here, or I’ll run right over you.’
There’s a story told about the aftermath of the 2018 Munster U21 final, when Cork ran a drag with Tipp. Before Tipp trained again, Cahill sent out a WhatsApp message to all the players telling them to bring their club gear only. The message was loud and clear — ye don’t deserve any Tipp training gear after the way ye let down that jersey against Cork.
Cahill wanted the players to earn that jersey and, after shaking up the team, they returned to defeat Cork in the All-Ireland final.
Cahill’s teams go around like they’ve a persistent chip on their shoulder. They look and play like they’re angry.
Waterford will fully play up to the underdog tag now tomorrow but their bite will have to match their bark against a crowd who will react like they’ve been cornered.
It may not look that way from the outside, especially after Limerick whipped Waterford in last year’s league final, as well as beating them well in the 2020 league. But the way in which Limerick were turned over by Kilkenny in the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final seems to have permanently placed them on high alert.
The fallout from that hurt is a wounded, dangerous animal.
Limerick have the class and the power but there’s a greater sting in their bite now too.
Not only are Limerick turning over teams at every opportunity, they’re feasting on those turnovers with devasting effect — because they’re almost instantly translating them into scores.
Apart from their Championship match against Cork in 2019, Limerick’s consistency since the 2018 All-Ireland final has been remarkable. They’ve won back-to-back leagues, and are now hunting for successive Munster titles, something Limerick haven’t managed since 1980-’81. They may have been caught by Kilkenny last year but they still went to war and lost an unmerciful battle by one point.
It was poor execution which ultimately killed them on the day but Limerick appear to have ironed out those kinks in the meantime, hitting 0-36 against Clare and 3-23 against Tipp.
Limerick are a slick, well-oiled machine now, which was fully evident in the monsoon against Tipp when the engine purred to near perfection. The men at the wheel were calm, ruthless and cold-blooded and, for a finish, Tipp’s challenge nearly became as irrelevant to Limerick as the spilling rain falling on top of them.
That’s the real beauty of Limerick now — they play the same way, the same system, no matter what’s thrown at them. They are predictable but they’re so good at it that they don’t care. What’s more, they have players operating at the absolute peak of their powers — Cian Lynch, Sean Finn, Aaron Gillane, Diarmuid Byrnes, Gearóid Hegarty, Tom Morrissey, Kyle Hayes.
In year one of his project, Liam Cahill has taken Waterford further than many probably thought he could in his maiden season at the helm. But it’s difficult to fast-track a young squad to a place Limerick already occupy. Funny things can happen in hurling matches, but I don’t see Waterford being able to match Limerick’s physicality and firepower tomorrow.
Limerick rarely, if ever, drop below a baseline standard. They’re consistently looking to reach that next level but, turning back to this afternoon’s qualifiers, can you really say that about any of the four teams involved?
After their display against Dublin, we’re all still wondering if this is the new Cork, or if they’re the same outfit that were beaten by Waterford. Did Tipp just not show up against Limerick or are they on the slide?
Wexford are entitled to be favourites against Clare but, if you’re to go on this year’s form, Clare have no reason to fear them. Clare beat them well in the league, in Wexford Park. Galway demolished them two weeks ago. In that sense, where are Wexford?
You have to ask the same hard questions of Clare after they shipped 3-53 in two matches. There’s no doubt they’ll be up for the challenge now but I expect Wexford to shade it.
I also fancy Tipperary, purely on the basis that, similar to Wexford, they’ve had two weeks to stew and get fired up for this do-or-die contest. Plus, I think a wet and soggy Gaelic Grounds may suit Tipp more than Cork.
This evening’s Leinster final is an intriguing clash because, while Galway are favourites, this looks set up for Kilkenny. Their second half fadeout against Dublin was almost like an abomination, and the complete antithesis of everything Brian Cody stands for. Kilkenny could be anything now, but I’d say they got such a going-over from Cody over the last two weeks that they could be primed for a backlash.
At least we’re guaranteed one thing for sure about the Leinster final — the pitch will be immaculate.
