Enda McEvoy: Snookers now required to beat Limerick
Hammer blow? Cian Lynch of Limerick awaits medical attention during the Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 2 match between Limerick and Waterford at TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Kilkenny 1973. The original of this particular species.
They won the Leinster final in scintillating style against Wexford, after which the dominoes began to fall. They wound up taking the field at a sodden Croke Park in September minus the services of four of the XV from the provincial decider, among them Kieran Purcell and Eddie Keher. And then they weren’t All-Ireland champions any more.
Look, maybe - or probably - Limerick would have won anyway. Maybe, scenting a first MacCarthy Cup in 33 years, they had destiny as well as momentum on their side. Maybe, to state the obvious, they were merely the best team in the land.
No maybe about the next sentence, however. Injuries compromised Kilkenny’s chances.
Tipperary 1994. Another of the great might-have-beens.
Eight points to spare in the National League final against a Galway team who’d reached the All-Ireland showdown the previous September, upon which John Leahy did his ankle kicking football against Limerick. Pat Fox and Joe Hayes were already injured and Nicky English was carrying a knock. Back in Limerick three weeks after the demolition of Galway they capsized at the first fence against Clare.
Look, maybe Clare, burning for redemption after the Munster final debacle at the same venue the previous summer, would have won anyway. But 1994 was the first of a series of title races that featured five or six equally plausible contenders and that particular Tipp outfit would have been in with as valid a shout as any of the others. Injuries compromised their chances.
Kilkenny 2010. Henry Shefflin departed after 12 minutes of the All Ireland final, further weakening a team already depleted by the absence of Brian Hogan and - arguably the most significant loss of all - Richie Hogan. Maybe Tipperary would have won anyway for the simple reason they were brilliant (and had been brilliant for an hour in 2009). But you get the drift.
And so to Limerick 2022. The job they did on Cork was nothing that couldn’t have been anticipated. The job they did on Waterford, a far more substantial proposition than Cork, was something else altogether. No Hayes, no Flanagan, no Lynch for an hour, no Peter Casey, no problem.
Challenged by the horse in white and blue at the furlong pole they ran on strongly, with the jockey obliged to do nothing more strenuous than wave his whip. Three-length winners, hands and heels.
On the eve of the championship we were looking around for teams who might undo Limerick. Two rounds in we’ve been reduced to looking around for wisps of ways in which Limerick might be undone not by others but by themselves or by forces beyond their control. Acts of God, a plague of locusts descending on the Ennis Road. As of this moment the pack have been left looking for snookers.
Viewed in a certain light the champions’ injury list can even be regarded as a temporary plus, engendering creative tension and competition for places and a degree of positive doubt. Think of Galway in 2018, when none of the subs were capable of displacing a single outfielder from 2017. Think of the Cody mantra: “A settled spirit, yes. A settled team, no.” What’s the line again about the Chinese symbol for problems and opportunities being one and the same thing?
Should Cian Lynch, the sole actually talented carrot-topped troubadour to play Páirc Uí Chaoimh this year, et al return refreshed for the business end of proceedings all will be well. Should they return slightly off the pace, functioning at – say - 80 per cent rather than 95 per cent, the GDP of the collective will take a hit, with unknowable consequences.
Moreover the job Limerick did on Waterford is not, one hazards, the type of trick a team can gird themselves to pull every day. Not even a team as good as this one.
Their task on Sunday does not involve making a statement in the manner of the Cork and Waterford games. Instead it’s a matter of booking their place in the Munster final as quickly and efficiently as possible. No heroics, no leaving themselves needing a result next week in the Lohan’s den, above all no more injuries. Bonus points, mind, for making sure to maintain the recent formline between the counties and keeping their foot jammed on Tipperary’s larynx. Because they can. Because it’s what champions do.
The worst-case scenario for the underdogs does not require spelling out. A scarcely more satisfying outcome is a rerun of Walsh Park last month, with Tipp acquitting themselves admirably against superior opponents but falling a few points short.
If Hamlet reckoned he had a sea of troubles Colm Bonnar would be only too willing to disabuse him of his misapprehensions. Scroll back to Tipp’s misfortunes against Clare.
Two players departed injured by the 27th minute. The replacement full-back’s first deed the concession of an asinine penalty. Mark Kehoe divoting one wide from three metres. The defending for the Clare goals, unimaginable with Padraic Maher there to organise the half-back line and ensure bodies were funnelled back. Jason Forde, who was bound to suffer without the space created by Seamus Callanan's magnetic pull, 0-0 from play in two outings.
Twenty minutes from time Tipperary trailed the visitors by nine points. Bags of time with a wind worth five or six points behind them. You know what would have transpired in the same situation a couple of years back.
Noel McGrath Tom Brady-ing a series of 40-metre bombs to his receivers and tight ends; Callanan and Forde and Bubbles keeping the scoreboard ticking over without undue ostentatiousness; the gap down to four points with ten minutes left, after which anything might have happened and probably would.
A fortnight ago, absent Callanan and Bubbles, composure went out the window and judicious shot selection evaporated. It’s what happens to a bunch who’ve lost most of their staff officers at a stroke.
Nobody’s fault. Certainly not Bonnar’s fault. (The backline’s failure to protect their goalmouth is a different story.) Just the way things are for Tipperary right now. Stuck in a moment they can’t get out of and won’t be getting out of any time soon.
Now Forde and James Quigley are injured, John McGrath is gone for the season and Tommy Dunne’s 12-week suspension takes the tale of woe deep into Gubu territory. Did Bonnar run over a cat or neglect to assist an old lady cross a road or something?
As it stands they’ll face Cork in a fortnight for the glittering prize of a comb. It is no leap to surmise the fixture will set a new attendance low for a Cork/Tipp encounter, the bulk of the crowd comprising on the one hand masochists, on the other hand sinners for whom Lough Derg is too long a trek so they’ll do their penance here instead.
Injuries are unlikely to be much of an issue.
