PM O'Sullivan: Munster triumphalism travels as poorly across the Shannon as across the Nore
SHAKE ON IT: Former colleagues now touchline rivals, Henry Shefflin and Derek Lyng after Sunday's game at Nowlan Park.
A prominent opinion got taken for a walk by Clare and pushed over the Cliffs of Moher (aka TUS Gaelic Grounds).
There was this idea abroad about the game’s main question: whether 2024 would see Limerick win five Senior titles in a row. This perspective, not a niche one, shrugged at the coming weeks of 2023. We would see a Sahara of inevitabilities as the Limerick caravan laid waste to all comers.
Perhaps the current champions, come July, will take a 12th Senior title. Perhaps they will. But there is no going back. This weekend saw hurling’s present story swallow some of its tellers. That desert found a measure of fog.
The manner in which exuberance fostered by Waterford’s 2022 NHL Final success shrivelled in championship heat simply got forgotten. A fortnight ago, Ballybrown’s Tom Ryan, former Limerick player and manager, went full bite. He chewed up all but one prospect: “I am not writing that to brag as a son of this county on the contrary, it depresses me.
It’s not that I don’t want them to win but the outcome of the Championship should never be reduced to an inevitability. Not only is this the greatest team to ever emerge from our county, they are the greatest team to come out of any county.”
We shall see. But the prize of equalling or surpassing 21 unbeaten championship games, Kilkenny’s record, fell into the sea. James Skehill, former Galway goalkeeper turned pundit, disguised not his delight in tweeting this reality. Munster triumphalism travels as poorly across the Shannon as across the Nore.
Consider further. If Limerick retain, next season’s motivation gleams. What could be more invigorating than thoughts of becoming the first five in a row team?
Another scenario might also apply. Yes, in one sense, not a lot would change. Even if Limerick do not retain, the county still possesses a powerful pool of talent. Face value says they stay there or thereabouts into the late 2020s.
Think further. Limerick, in this context, are not going to win four in a row between 2024 and 2027. That dream would die. If 2023 does not result in retention, would John Kiely and Paul Kinnerk remain in place?
This facet seems overlooked. Most everything, in another sense, could change. Coaching, management and talent are always in a triangular relationship. Lose one part of the equation and you no longer have the beautiful triangle.
Which or whether, Saturday evening’s tumultuous victory italicized Sunday afternoon’s action. If Limerick falter, the new champion will come from a Venn diagram that adds to Clare the names of Cork, Galway, Kilkenny and Tipperary. The first three of that quartet continued their campaign, with Cork burnishing credentials via a nine-point win over Waterford.
Note this margin was seven points better than Limerick’s margin over the same opposition the previous weekend. That factor could count heavily if you have, at round robin’s end, a three-way tie on four points and scoring difference is the determinant for progress.
Kilkenny and Galway finished even in UPMC Nowlan Park. Easy summary? This meeting was shadowboxing for a Leinster final encounter in six weeks’ time. These two counties look a fair bit ahead of Dublin and Wexford.
Such a summary might be a touch blasé. Sunday afternoon, Kilkenny blew a winning position. Adrian Mullen established a five-point lead in the 56th minute, 0-26 to 1-18. As matters transpired, there were over 20 minutes to run, given the seven-plus minutes of added time. Kilkenny raised but two more white flags. No championship knife should ever go untwisted.
Henry Shefflin will be delighted that Liam Collins and Declan McLoughlin got blooded in productive fashion. The nagging difficulty is that both of these tyros are more akin to Evan Niland than to Conor Whelan. Their opponents ran up a six-point lead in the game’s third quarter mainly because the Kilkenny defence, harried little, was allowed ping score-making balls to their attack.
Derek Lyng will frown at losing control of a winning position. But he can be pleased with the tempo of his side’s hurling during that third quarter. He also made positive alterations. Darragh Corcoran went well when moved to wing back from midfield (I would have tried the same man at centre back during the league, with Richie Reid at wing back).
Adrian Mullen switched to midfield, which might be his best position at the moment (especially in Paddy Deegan’s injury-dictated absence). Conor Fogarty, honest and diligent, is admirable out. But he remains uncertain when the ball is on the ground and quite often fumbles a key possession, as when TJ Reid played him in on goal in 2020’s All Ireland semi-final against Waterford.
Fogarty fluffed that pick. He also botched a goal chance on Sunday when played in, just before halftime, by John Donnelly. Spurning those opportunities is a no-no.
