Limerick have the ideal midfield combination
Winning the midfield battle will provide a solid platform for victory tomorrow. Picking up breaking ball and making quality passes from the central section will be crucial in deciding the outcome.
And Limerick have the advantage here.
With Kilkenny’s top midfielder, Michael Fennelly, battling injury, their is a chink in the Cats’ armour. Richie Hogan and Conor Fogarty operated in this sector in their last two games but tomorrow is a huge step up in class. Mobility and support play is now the stock in trade of good midfielders. Fogarty has adopted a defensive role, protecting his backs whereas Hogan has licence to roam forward. Hogan gets on a lot of ball, gets some phenomenal scores but his long deliveries are not always to his forwards’ advantage. Putting his half-forwards in direct possession with short accurate passes rather than hitting long 50/50 ball to his inside line might be the better option.
But Limerick have the ideal midfield combination. James Ryan and Paul Browne bring pace, stamina as well as skill and intelligence to this area.
Both are comfortable on the ball, they pounce on the breaks and look for the correct option when in possession. Browne and Ryan move seamlessly from 45 to 45, receiving ball from their defence, carrying it forward and delivering possession to their attack. This pair ran the show against Wexford and a similar performance will turn the tide firmly in favour of the Treaty side.
Both sets of forwards will have to funnel back quickly to help out in this area, harrying their opponents and denying them the time to pick out passes to forward colleagues. Whoever does it best will win.
Limerick’s Seamus Hickey has been immense at corner-back this summer. He missed the league through injury and his freshness, enthusiasm and determination has shone through in their three Championship outings.
He shut down Noel McGrath, Patrick Horgan and Liam Óg McGovern in successive games, adopting a tight man-marking role on all three. He is Limerick’s leader at the back and essential to their cause.
Dangerous Kilkenny corner-forward Colin Fennelly could be his man tomorrow. Shutting Fennelly down would take a lot of the impetus from the Kilkenny attack and be a huge psychological boost for Limerick.
If I was Brian Cody I would plan to minimise Hickey’s influence as much as possible, given his importance to the entire Limerick cause. If the ball was being moved up the right wing the forward would make dummy runs across to the left away from the play. Taking Hickey out of the play would be his only purpose. If Limerick switched him it would fall on Eoin Larkin, Richie Power or Aidan Fogarty to run a similar tactic.
If it was successful it would deny Limerick the superb man-marking and covering ability of Hickey in front of goal, handing an advantage to Kilkenny.
Limerick will plan to supply full-forward Shane Dowling at every opportunity. The performance of their half-forward line under puckouts is crucial to the execution of this strategy. Goalkeeper Nicky Quaid launches most puckouts long onto their opponent’s half-back line. David Breen, Declan Hannon and Donal O’Grady are good under the ball and they will seek to exploit the relevant inexperience of Kilkenny wing-backs Joey Holden and Cillian Buckley. Long straight ball to the edge of the square will be grist to the JJ Delaney mill as he is a master in denying full-forwards possession on this type. Quick angled ball from the side to a dangerous full-forward line makes all the difference and if Breen and Donal O’Grady win puckouts and deliver quality aerial or ground ball to the inside line it will give Limerick a huge advantage.
If Kilkenny can stop the ball from passing their half-back line it will allow them play as a unit in defence, always the required option while creating space up front for themselves.
Limerick’s midfield push forward for their puckouts, looking to snap up the breaking ball.This leaves space in front of their half back line which could be exploited by Kilkenny half forwards. Space is like ‘oxygen’ to attackers and Padraig Walsh and TJ Reid know how to exploit it. Kilkenny’s game plan should revolve around supplying Reid as often as possible. Their defence can be careless at times with deliveries and a quick look up is vital at this level. Supplying the half-forward line with quality ball should be the final component of Kilkenny’s plan. But stopping the ball from going through the half back line must be the foundation.
