John Fogarty: Green waves show Limerick is hurling country

The supporters' backing in the Treaty County contrasts with some of their Munster rivals this season

Limerick supporters celebrate a score during the Munster SHC Round 3 win over Tipperary at TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

The good times are back for the Munster Council. After three rounds of the senior hurling championship, yet-to-be-finalised attendances for the six games are hovering around the 140,000 mark, approximately 20,000 more than it was at this stage in the last pre-pandemic season of 2019.

Ultimately, it is unlikely to hit the 236,000 total for the entire round stages of three years ago because the smaller capacity venues of Cusack and Walsh Park host three of the final four matches and the meeting of Tipperary and Cork in Thurles could be a dead rubber. Nevertheless, the numbers have been good considering the Covid hesitancy that is out there, ticketing issues and the concurrent minor and U20 games on weekdays that are drawing more from people’s pockets.

While other province’s crowd figures are down notably in Ulster where an esteemed football championship doesn’t appear to have grabbed the imagination as it so often does, the strongest provincial competition continues to appeal.

Now, there is an argument to be made that it is too strong and the knock-on rewards for winning it aren’t what they should be – no team has yet to back up a round-robin Munster title with an All-Ireland – but that’s for another day.

What’s abundantly evident is the people of Limerick missed watching their team in the flesh these last two seasons. Yes, there was an opportunity to follow them towards the end of last year’s championship but it would have been out of bounds for many. To the GAA coffers, they are now the equivalent of what Mayo is to football: the goose that lays the golden egg.

If getting their mitts on Kilkenny is one motivating factor for the team this season, winning a second All-Ireland title in front of unrestricted capacity stadiums must be another. The lack of a homecoming these past two years is something both management and players have mentioned while John Kiely emphasised Limerick were keen to put in a performance against Waterford in TUS Gaelic Grounds last month after a couple of defeats there earlier in the year.

Their large numbers are putting so many others to shame. Waterford manager Liam Cahill made a point of the small Déise contingent in Limerick on April 23. “It didn’t sound like that now when we started coming at Limerick to be fair, and I’m really thrilled for the Waterford supporters that travelled today. But I suppose if I’m being really honest, I thought there’d be more of them there. When we came in on the bus, the colour just wasn’t there and we kind of had a feeling that the Waterford people didn’t travel...”

Even though the game was on Sky Sports, an evening throw-in combined with a four-hour return journey from both Dungarvan and Waterford city and the dreadful post-match traffic around the Ennis Road venue would have deterred fans.

On Sunday, Tipperary didn’t have the same excuse although every Tom, Dick and John was telling them their team were walking into propellers. Their small representation in the stands and terraces dismayed former star Pádraic Maher. “Very disappointing support for our boys in limerick today,” he posted on Twitter. “They deserve better. For 60 mins was there for us, ran outa (sic) steam after pouring everything into it. Proud”.

In his passionate defence of the team and management afterwards, Noel McGrath, whose defiant tone contrasted strikingly with that of his manager Colm Bonnar, noted the swell of Limerick support. “ There was a massive crowd here from Limerick and the roars were driving them on at the end.”

It can’t be stressed just how beneficial it is for Limerick to have such vocal support. Sunday may well be the last time they play in TUS Gaelic Grounds this year but they rivalled Cork for the majority in Páirc Uí Chaoimh last month and their supply of tickets for Ennis is outstripped by supply. They are receiving approximately 4,500 tickets and they have 3,500 season ticket holders to accommodate, their allocation at the start of the year selling out before the start of this year’s league.

It would be a stretch to say their presence has mattered in convincing referees to show yellow rather than red to players but for the second time in the space of three weeks they have surged coming down the stretch from the energy of their backing. As a good travelling Ryder Cup team, keeping them quiet for as long as they did was a credit to Tipperary but the pulsation in the Limerick team as they drew level was palpable just as it was when they scored a point after Waterford’s second goal.

On a weekend when just two Limerick men featured in the starting Munster team in their Champions Cup quarter-final and just one on their bench, when nobody from the county featured in the pack against Toulouse, the was another reminder that Limerick is hurling country.

Talent drain to AFLW about to hit full swing 

Given the growth of the AFLW these last couple of years, it was only a matter of time before ladies football was going to lose out to the game Down Under.

Accomplished in both games, Cora Staunton would have certainly pricked a few ears last week when she predicted there would be a lot more money on offer soon. “In a couple of years’ time, it is going to be fully professional and it’s going to be a very well-paid job, so it’s a very hard opportunity to turn down.”

Changing from a January to an August start, it is going to have a major knock-on effect on the sport here, particularly when stars such as 2021 footballer of the year Vikki Wall and starlet Erika O’Shea, both who are due to sign for North Melbourne, are unlikely to see out their respective seasons with Meath and Cork. 

Wall hasn’t confirmed she will not see out the championship but with an All-Ireland final taking place on July 31 and the AFLW season starting shortly afterwards it is difficult to see her doing both. Understandably, she recently stopped short of saying she was sticking around for Meath’s title defence this season. “I’m committed (to Meath), I’m here until ... to see how far Meath can go this year. So that is the only kind of update I have on it at the moment.”

Remaining on in Australia after another AFLW titleearlier this year, Adelaide Crows’ Ailish Considine won’t be part of Clare’s plans,while Orla O’Dwyer’s recent shoulder surgery in Brisbane rules her out of representing Tipperary and is aimed at being right for the start of the new AFLW season.

Just how long more Sinead Goldrick will be seen in Dublin colours this year is another question as her club Melbourne will want her refreshed for August.Compromises could yet be made but the start of the braindrain has truly begun.

Did Eugene Branagan have a point?

In anyone but Eugene Branagan’s language, his interview marking his AIB club footballer of the year award last week was incendiary. 

The Kilcoo man needed neither poking or prodding to deliver words, which would have been read dimly in his county if possibly celebrated in the club. It wasn’t the prettiest reflection of the club but it harks back to days when the animosity in club championships strangled counties like Wicklow. 

The ferocity of competition among clubs was such that it was impossible to turn bitter rivals into team-mates. Down would like to believe they haven’t sunk that low but if Branagan’s problem is an us-against-the-world attitude, then the county’s issue is arrogance. 

In 2015, county secretary Seán Óg McAteer wrote: “The Down way is how we ourselves pride ourselves as to how we do things, there has to be a Down way of playing football, a way that reflects our tradition of style and flair if we lose that, we lose our soul.”It’s a quote that reminds of Mrs Boyle’s response to her Johnny in Juno and the Paycock when he says he’d fight again for the freedom of Ireland: “You lost your best principle, me boy, when you lost your arm.”

Branagan’s words were excessive but when he highlights there is an absence of a winning mentality in the Down set-up, people should listen.

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