Anthony Daly: Limerick's mentality - There's a rising Cork tide that needs to to beaten back

The Rebel tide is rising. It’s threatening to flood everywhere else. But Limerick know too well that now is the time to beat back those waves

Thu, 19 Aug, 2021 - 22:00

Anthony Daly

The morning after Cork beat Clare in the 1998 league semi-final, Ger Loughnane rang the house for a chat. Cork had trimmed us. We were struggling for form, but I had no interest in getting into the minutiae of the performance.

“Ger,” I said, “get me a few quid and a bus because we’re going back to west Clare for a few drinks.”

“What the…..”.

Loughnane thought I was mad but I convinced him that I wasn’t. Loughnane agreed once I outlined my intention. It was the Bank Holiday Monday in May and we took off back to Liscannor before ending up in Doolin. Late in the evening, we got everyone around a table and I took to the floor.

‘Lads, we make a vow here and now that not a drop of alcohol passes our lips until we beat those boys again in seven weeks,” I said. “We’ll show them who the real bosses are in June.”

We felt aggrieved. We had a point to prove. Cork had to play Limerick in the quarter-final, but we knew we’d be meeting Cork. We trained like savages in the lead-up to that game. At one stage we did 20 nights out of 22.

When we met Cork again in the championship, we were like wild animals. As I was leading the lads out the tunnel, I nearly mowed down Jimmy Barry-Murphy and Dr Con Murphy.

“Get out of my f***ing way,” I roared at them.

As soon as we passed, Jimmy turned to Con. “We’re in trouble here, boy.”

Jimmy knew by our body language that we were intent on devouring all before us. That was apparent before we even reached the field. Cork stayed with us but when we ramped up the heat in the last quarter, we ate them alive.

We were the top dogs in the country at the time, having won two All-Irelands in the three previous years. We were fully convinced we had it in our capacity to make it three in four but we were also desperate to put Cork back in their box. Because we knew that if, and when, Cork arrived that they’d be the greatest threat to our authority.

It’s a different time now, a whole different culture. There haven’t been any busloads of lads heading off to west Clare to go drinking and bonding over the last 18 months. But I’m sure that mindset has been similar within the Limerick squad over the last few weeks — that a rising Cork tide has to beaten back.

Cork haven’t beaten Limerick like Cork had clipped us —albeit in only a league semi-final — 23 years ago, but you can still imagine Limerick’s thought process over the last two weeks; they know Cork are coming, they know that they have the weapons to sack their ruling castle. And they also appreciate that if Cork can ascend to their throne, that it may be a lot more difficult to unseat them in the future.

The real beauty of this Cork team is that their journey has been different from the route Cork normally take when they reach, or get close to, the top. Cork’s senior success in the past was invariably built on the back of incredible underage teams. The bedrock of the last Cork senior team to win an All-Ireland in 2005 was hewn from the 1995 minor and 1997 and 1998 U21 sides which won All-Irelands.

Most of the current team have known nothing only heartache at all levels. A sizeable number of them should have won an All-Ireland U21 title in 2018 when they were turned over by Tipperary just six weeks after crushing Tipp in the Munster final.

Heads were clearly not fully tuned in and Cork paid a heavy price for that loss over the following few years at senior level. I’m not saying that winning that U21 All-Ireland would have been a silver bullet to all the other ills, but the confidence those players would have taken from that win was suddenly substituted by the doubts which stemmed from the manner of such a devastating defeat.

Those players may have been thinking, ‘If we can’t win from this position, where can we win from?’ Despite all the harrowing losses at all levels, I’m sure if you asked most of those lads to describe the lowest moment, that 2018 U21 final defeat would surely be it. You’d have to give Liam Cahill and his management huge credit but if that final was played 10 times, Cork would have won it on nine occasions.

The psyche in Cork is that you probably need to be bringing home some underage silverware every few years. It’s often no harm not to be winning at underage because it gives players that edge that can often be blunted from too much success.

When Tipp won three All-Ireland U21 titles in-a-row between 1979-81, it came at a time when Tipp were at their lowest ebb at senior level in decades. Limerick won three All-Ireland U21s between 2000-’02 and got very little out of those teams. A lot of the Clare players which won three All-Ireland U21s between 2012-’14 were part of the team which won the senior All-Ireland in 2013. But there is still a real sense of disappointment in Clare that such a golden generation didn’t win more at senior level.

Counties not used to success can often find it hard to deal with, especially at senior level. Cork may not have those same issues, mostly because success is expected, but the Cork psychology is still probably a little different in that they seem to feel more comfortable when they have that underage success behind them.

The tide is rising now because the boats are being lifted at all levels. The U20s have secured two All-Irelands in five weeks. Cork are expected to win a first All-Ireland minor in 20 years on Saturday.

It’s certainly no surprise to me because I saw that potential first hand when I was with the Limerick Academy between 2015-’17. I remember one year coming home from the inter-county underage tournaments played over one Saturday in September. Joe McKenna, who has had a lot to with Limerick’s current success, rang.

“Who won the U14, Dalo,” he asked.

“Cork,” I said.

“Who won the U15?”

“Cork.”

“Who won the….”

“Look Joe, Cork won f***ing everything!”

“Everything?”

“Yeah, everything.”

I remember having that conversation with Joe for about two years running. You knew that Cork were coming, and while they clearly are at underage, the whole thing could go to a totally different level now if they can win on Sunday.

It could turn into a tsunami, but you still can’t take it for granted that it will arrive — even if that isn’t this year — sooner than everyone expects it to. You can have all the talented minors in the world but it’s no good — as Galway have consistently proven — unless you can drive on that talent to another level at senior.

The real benefit is that Cork have good management teams in place at every level. Kieran Kingston has done a brilliant job with the seniors. Pat Ryan has done incredible work with the U20s. The minor manager, Noel Furlong, has been with that group since they were U15 and has moulded them into a brilliant squad.

The Rebel tide is rising. It’s threatening to flood everywhere else. But Limerick know too well that now is the time to beat back those waves. Because if they don’t, they know that their ship could be engulfed in the coming years.