Black becomes white in April, but semis are painted in shades of grey
A week after Dublin defeated Limerick in the Division 1B final in 2013 (under the old system where the top two played a ‘winner take all’ decider), we took off to Bere Island for a training camp.
The army boys down there tortured our lads with punishment runs and a commando regime that the US Navy Seals would struggle to get through. That hardening of lads’ minds and bodies was another staging post en route to the Dubs winning a first Leinster title in 52 years later that summer. Yet when Tipperary annihilated us in the league semi-final a week after that camp, most critics were lining up to tell me I was mad.
I was accused of showing no respect to a league semi-final, that we had tarnished the double-header with our abject performance. We hadn’t even thought about a league semi-final before we booked the camp but when the game was fixed a week later, we felt we had to make use of it. The Dublin club championship was ramping into gear at the end of that month, and was going to cut into early May. That condensed our window of preparation before heading to Wexford Park in early June, which certainly left no room for commando style torture.
The match against Limerick, and the sheer physical and mental toll from the camp in Bere Island all added up and we were completely flat.
Tipp were awful fresh on the day and they ran a drag with us.
Kilkenny, Waterford, and Cork certainly didn’t go on any training camps the week before their quarter-finals two weeks ago but you don’t need green berets berating you to trigger a lull in performance; the pressure of the final round matches the previous week probably exerted a similar level of mental and physical strain.
Waterford made a raft of changes to try and freshen things up after such a tough battle with Clare in Ennis seven days earlier. I was in Páirc Uí Rinn and Cork produced nowhere near the level of performance that took Tipp down at the same venue a week beforehand. Limerick only won by a couple of points but they should have won by a lot more. Wexford were excellent in Nowlan Park but Kilkenny were about 25% down on the intensity they reached against Tipp in Thurles in March.
Most teams want to win the league but the mindset is radically different between the quarter-final and semi-final. Teams have had a two-week break now. They all know they are just two matches away from a national title. Limerick and Wexford would take your hand off for that prize but Galway and Tipp wouldn’t cock their noses up to it either. Galway haven’t won a league since 2010. Tipp have lost three finals since their last title back in 2008.
Every team will want to win but whoever wants — really wants it — the most, will advance to the final tomorrow. I saw that desire from Limerick in Páirc Uí Rinn, especially from their younger players. When Cork applied the real heat late on, I was very impressed with how Limerick finished the game.
It’s gas how one good performance changes everything. On Sunday Sport that night, people were raving about how well Limerick were doing, and about the progress John Kiely was making. Yet it was the first game of any consequence Limerick had won all season.
Everything changes so quickly with one result but black can suddenly become white in April. I was listening to the excellent Bernard Flynn’s comments about the Dublin footballers on Tuesday, when he was posing the dilemma Jim Gavin now faces with his older players, Are they starters or impact subs? Last Saturday, Dublin were supposedly bulging with more strength in depth than any team in GAA history. No grey there.
But a shade of grey applies to tomorrow’s games because nobody would have predicted these two pairings at the outset of the league, especially with three Division 1B teams in the last four. That alone may have put the 1A teams on higher alert heading into the championship but make no mistake, all those 1A teams will use this weekend as a useful scouting mission ahead of the summer; Kilkenny will have a closer look at Wexford; Clare will have their notepad out for Limerick; the Dubs will be closely assessing how Galway are setting up; Cork will be looking for any possible chinks, or areas where they might get at Tipp in five weeks’ time.
With such forensic levels of analysis going on now, every team will be searching for something; puckout signals, different systems, certain styles of play. That may sound space-age to many people but in a game of such fine margins, the detail of tomorrow could crack the code in the summer. And there won’t be any shadow boxing from any team tomorrow because they can’t afford to do anything less than go for it.
Wexford have already been the story of the season. A lot of people wonder what Davy Fitz brings but the one thing he guarantees is an awful belief in himself. He has this huge conviction that he can achieve anything and that rubs off on his players. It certainly is impacting on Wexford. I saw an interview with Diarmuid O’Keeffe during the week where he said there was no magic formula, that Davy was just getting everything possible out of the players.
A lot of the Wexford lads are fairly well seasoned now but I think it’s the same principle with Kiely and Paul Kinnerk in how they are getting the maximum out of a younger squad in Limerick. And a league title, even a final appearance, would do so much more for the confidence of an emerging group in year one.
There is bound to be a different view in Galway and Tipperary because an All-Ireland is deemed a baseline target for both. I don’t think the Galway public would be too happy to win a league and not an All-Ireland. Same with Tipp. Mick Ryan already sent out a loud signal this week by trimming the squad, letting six players go. None of those guys are marquee names but the timing is everything in terms of delivering a message to everyone else in the panel.
The Tipp supporters won’t expect anything less than a five or six-point win against Wexford but the Kilkenny supporters would have made the same demands on their own team before the quarter-final. And that game was at home.
What’s more, Wexford looked comfortable in Nowlan Park two weeks ago. They will be even more comfortable in those surroundings tomorrow.
There is everything to play for now but you’ll probably be able to tell from the warm-ups in Nowlan Park and the Gaelic Grounds who is up for this the most tomorrow. In the context of the team wanting it the most advancing, I seriously fancy Limerick and Wexford to have a real go. They could both turn over Galway and Tipp if their attitude isn’t bang-on.
Still, I expect Micheál Donoghue and Michael Ryan to have their men tuned in. The smart money dictates everything. And the smart money suggests a Galway-Tipp final next weekend.
