Anthony Daly: Limerick still hold the aces — but will there be a joker in the pack?

Cork’s Luke Meade and Niall Cashman can’t stop Limerick’s Diarmaid Byrnes from winning possession in Saturday’s Allianz HL Division 1 Group A game at the LIT Gaelic Grounds. Picture: Inpho/James Crombie

Once the game begins and you’re dealt a hand in Texas Hold’em poker, there are important thought processes in that whole undertaking that is defined by smart brinksmanship.

You certainly don’t want to play every hand the dealer gives you. But knowing instantly what way to play each poker hand can give you the edge over others at the table from the get-go.

Do I hold? Do I fold? Sure, every hand could be a winner. But every hand can be a loser too.

There is more of a skill in trying to maximise your good hand, which is exactly what John Kiely did on Saturday evening. Did Kieran Kingston play the right cards? I don’t think so.

Cork have a lot of injuries, but Kieran and his management tried to hold something back for the big showdown in four weeks’ time. I’m not sure how many of his main men he’d still available for Saturday but, if I was Kieran, I’d have gone for it and taken the foot off the pedal against Galway on Sunday.

Limerick are the All-Ireland champions. Galway aren’t, or haven’t been for four years. Galway may be going really well. They may have beaten Limerick three weeks ago, but they’re still not Limerick.

Limerick are the yardstick so that’s who I’d be trying to measure myself against, especially when you’re coming up against them in the mother and father of all battles next month.

Saturday evening’s match will have already been forgotten about by both teams, but John Kiely certainly holds all the aces now ahead of July 3. Limerick wiped the floor with Cork in so many areas and still have some of their main men to return — Kyle Hayes, Gearóid Hegarty, Nickie Quaid, Seamie Flanagan.

Cork had answered a lot of old questions in the lead up to Saturday night, but Limerick provide a whole different set of questions to any other test.

Limerick were right at it from the word go. Cork know that they weren’t but I think Cork have been left with a few uncomfortable questions to answer now ahead of their championship clash.

What do Cork do with Mark Coleman if he’s faced with Cian Lynch again? Do Cork play a holding player on Lynch and let Coleman sit? Does Coleman push up on Lynch? What might Coleman do if Kiely decides to pull a joker out of the pack and lump Kyle back in on top of Coleman at number 11? After the way Colin Coughlan played on Saturday at number 7, it’s certainly worth thinking about.

What will exercise Cork minds most though, is how they were annihilated on their own puckout, especially their short puckout.

Cork had been very efficient at working the ball out in their three previous games, but Limerick were like a pack of ravenous animals anytime Patrick Collins went short early on.

And once they got a sniff of blood in their nostrils, they went for the kill, with every turnover ripping more flesh off Cork’s frame.

As soon as the teams were released at the end of last week, I couldn’t see any result other than Limerick securing the two points.

Limerick desperately needed a win, but they also needed a performance. More importantly, there was absolutely no way Limerick could lose to a shadow Cork team, especially when Limerick’s last league game at the weekend is against Westmeath.

Limerick didn’t score a goal, but they probably should have had 40 points. Limerick have done the maths and come up with a very basic solution; the more shooting they do, the greater the chance they have of registering over 30 points.

Cork will be a different team in July, but will they be able to sustain what they need to do for nearly 80 minutes to take Limerick down? They’ll need goals, but they showed again on Saturday that they’re capable of getting them.

Cork only raised two green flags, but they could have had six.

In four weeks, they might need four, but Cork will hunt for them. Just as importantly from Limerick’s perspective, they’ll be fully aware of that threat, and how they need to deal with it.

Prior to this weekend, one of the biggest criticisms of Galway was their failure to score goals against Limerick and Tipperary but they eased those concerns in Salthill yesterday.

When Galway had 3-25 on the board by the 55th minute, and were ahead by eight points, you were asking yourself where could this scoreline end up? Within seconds, Austin Gleeson was mugged in possession by Conor Whelan, Joe Canning brilliantly flicked the ball into Brian Concannon, who smashed it to the net.

Galway didn’t score again for 10 minutes but the job was done by that stage. Hitting 4-28 summed up the quality of this performance but it also reaffirmed how much guys like Whelan and Concannon are taking ownership of this team.

Whelan and Concannon nailed 2-8 from play between them while Evan Niland also hit 0-4 from play. Cathal Mannion’s form has been so brilliant during this league that he has become a key orchestrator but the master, Joe Canning, is still hitting the sweetest notes.

Whelan gave Gleeson his fill of it, which will exercise Liam Cahill’s mind. Waterford won’t have been happy to ship such a huge score, but they also racked up a big total. They had nine different players scoring from play, while some of their inter-play up front was top class in the first half.

Saturday's impressive win for Clare against Dublin was understandably dominated by Tony Kelly’s 20-point haul but, more importantly, Clare got some of their big guns back, and significant game-time into them; Colm and Ian Galvin, David McInerney. You’d still be concerned about the make-up of the full-back line, but Clare are getting closer to their right mix.

Limerick, Galway, and Tipperary were all supremely efficient but probably the most impressive performance of the weekend was Antrim’s draw against Wexford. Antrim got some brilliant scores but the quality of their hurling was a sign of a well-coached team surfing the waves of confidence and momentum they have generated in this campaign.

Laois will take a lot of positives from their game against Kilkenny but, again, they conceded far too much. So did Westmeath. It was always going to be difficult for Westmeath to build on last year’s positive showing in Division 1A but, the more hidings they take in this league, the more it risks destabilising their confidence heading into the Joe McDonagh Cup. The weather and the pristine pitches were a factor but the high scoring totals throughout the weekend underlined how teams are getting closer to championship pace and form.

Cork has been the only team scoring goals but Galway, Waterford, and Tipperary filled their boots with green flags. Five of the teams hit 28 points or more, which is unusual over one weekend.

I don’t know if that’s a case of the hurling being too loose and the intensity being down from what we’ll see in the championship, but the scoring rates which have been incrementally rising over the last three seasons look set to increase again this summer.

A handful of sides clearly weren’t at full strength, but the majority of teams also clearly used the two-week break prior to this weekend’s fixtures to get a good bank of work done in that time. That probably contributed to the fiesta of scoring.

Will the scores be flowing as freely when the championship kicks off in three weeks? In their first championship fixture last October, Limerick hit 0-36. On Saturday, Limerick hit 0-33 and 20 wides.

Cork know the hand they’ll be dealt on July 3. But maybe on this day four weeks, I’ll be writing in this column that Kieran Kingston played the smartest hand of all on that first Saturday in June, by holding his aces back for the first Saturday in July.

Whatever happens, this summer promises to be some game of Texas Hold’em.