Limerick just don’t like coming out to our field
We buried the great John ‘Danno’ Moloney on Monday. He was a legendary character in Clarecastle, a link between the older and more modern times in the village, but loved by both generations.
Walking down from Clarehill afterwards I got talking to some of the Ennis lads, Seán Heeney, Tony Quinn and Ciarán Browne, who we join with for our coursing club.
Ciarán’s pub, which is almost in the shadow of Cusack Park, will be like Mardi Gras tomorrow, and the talk inevitably drifted towards the match.
Seán was mostly complimentary about my columns in this paper, which I really appreciated. The feedback was interesting, so much so that it felt like a TV review.
“Some weeks, it’s like reading about an episode of Game of Thrones,” said Seán. “Blood and guts and glory.”
I didn’t think I was that extreme.
Maybe memories of the old days sometimes bring out the beast in me but when I was thinking about this column, I was saying to myself, ‘Seán, if I was to tell the real story of the Clare-Limerick rivalry in our time, I could make Game of Thrones look like an episode of Glenroe’.
The last time Limerick came to Cusack Park for a Munster Championship match, in 1993, we were ready for an all-out battle. We felt we had to make a stand.
We had been relegated in the league that spring. Limerick had beaten us in the championship in 1990 and 1991. They had been league champions in 1992, and had contested that year’s Munster final.
And they came to Ennis that day in 1993 to bury us.
Jim McInerney, David’s father, gave a great speech on the Friday night, focusing on the importance of not losing to them again in front of our own people again and of how we were going ‘to bate them back to the bridge in Limerick’.
I was even more hyped up. John Hanly, my former school principal in Clarecastle, once told me about words old Tom McNamara from Crusheen often used to deliver before matches.
Cut the heads of a couple of chickens lads, and get the taste of the blood in yere mouths.
I re-invoked a similar type of message and left nobody in any doubt we were going to operate like a kamikaze unit.
John ‘Roosky’ Russell and I had it planned beforehand that we were going to level one of the Limerick lads before the game started. Just after we broke from the parade, I decked Mike Reale with a sneaky shoulder into the chest. I kept going but Russell got down over Reale and wouldn’t let him up off the ground.
I’ve often met Mike since. He’s a lovely fella, a neighbour of my sister in Bruff, and he was completely taken aback that day. So were Limerick, who weren’t ready for that level of aggression.
It was our first championship win in five years but the message we transmitted was louder than the result; Ger Loughnane said to me afterwards that it was the first time in years that he saw something stirring in Clare.
It was also the first time in a while that we showed we were going to stand up to Limerick.
Ciarán Carey was playing that day. I’m a brand ambassador for Renault and I was at an event in Dennehy’s garage in Limerick last week when I was asked about the Ennis factor.
“Limerick just don’t like coming out to our field,” I said. Ciarán just looked back at me and threw me the eyes.
He knew exactly what I was talking about because Limerick’s track record in the Park is not great.
They hammered us there on my debut in 1990 but when there has been expectation surrounding Limerick, they’ve invariably fallen on Clare’s sword on our land; 1972, 1986, 1993, 2006.
None of that stuff really matters to this group of Limerick players anymore. Limerick beat Clare in the 2015 Munster U-21 final in Ennis.
Their U21s leathered Clare there in May. It’s not an issue for most of these guys but from my three years working with the Limerick Academy, I still always got that sense they were spooked a little by coming to the Park.
I was coaching the Limerick minors last year when Clare beat us in the Munster semi-final in Ennis. On the line that night, you could sense the advantage the Park was giving the Clare lads.
Once the game got tight, the atmosphere was electric and the crowd really helped push Clare over the line.
From what I can gather, the crowd tomorrow will be 50-50. Most of the Limerick supporters had these tickets snapped up on Ticketmaster or bought in Supervalu because they expected Limerick to be still in the hunt after defeating Tipperary in the first round.
Clare supporters were probably slower on the take-up after the lads lost to Cork the same afternoon but the scramble around the county has been unmerciful this week.
A stand ticket now is almost as valuable as one of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets.
That extra Limerick support may dilute the ‘Banner Roar’ but none of that stuff will matter to Limerick tomorrow because they have such faith now in the process under John Kiely and his management.
The Limerick public have this tendency to lose the run of themselves when they smell success. That often affected the players in the past but this group seem immune to all that stuff.
They are steadily building something potentially special but there is a realisation now that if they don’t get success this year, it will come in time if they continue to adhere to the process.
I know Twitter is a minefield but I saw a few fellas on it this week complaining that all the talk was about Clare and Kilkenny, and little or no mention of Limerick. I was thinking, ‘Be careful what ye wish for’.
It’s almost as if the Limerick public want that security blanket, without realising the smothering effect it can have on the squad.
John Kiely has kept a real lid on the hype but I’d say there is part of him that probably wants to text every singer/songwriter in the county to tell them to keep any songs under wraps.
The way Limerick are playing reflects the composure and steadiness of the management. Shane Dowling didn’t get a look in after returning from Na Piarsaigh duty but he got his chance last weekend when Aaron Gillane was suspended.
You couldn’t write away for that luxury as a manager, where you could replace your first-choice free-taker, with a proven and experienced dead-ball specialist, and it leaves Kiely in an ideal position now.
I don’t know who is going to start tomorrow but the message is there for Gillane if Dowling gets the nod: ‘Hi Aaron, you messed up, not me. I did defend you at the time but it was caught on camera. And the answer to any niggling is to put the next ball over the bar, not to lash out.’
There is a message there for every Limerick player but Limerick have handled everything superbly this summer. Waterford were on their last legs last Sunday but Limerick clearly honed in on the start.
They didn’t want Waterford to get the momentum they created against Tipperary and Limerick ruthlessly extinguished that possibility early on.
Clare’s performance was impressive too but, to be completely forensic, the overall display could really be distilled into the heart and bravery Clare showed late on.
They were terrible for most of the first half so are we any more aware of where Clare are really at now? If Jake Morris’ shot had hit the net, we could be having a completely different conversation now about another lost year.
But it certainly isn’t now and I just hope last week is the turning point that the group, and all of Clare, have been craving.
The turning point in 2013 was a lucky extra-time win against Wexford in a qualifier then once they caught Galway cold in the quarter-final the confidence went to a whole new level. And I really hope it can again now.
If this game was on in the Gaelic Grounds, I’d fancy Limerick, but the Park really levels the playing field, and turns it even more in Clare’s favour. Clare have a fantastic record there. They will need to play really well.
They also need to feed their full-forward line more, and dispense with some of the ‘lotto shots’, because there are scores to be got in there. And if Clare can hit a high level of performance, they can eke out the win.
This championship has been a treasure but it was inevitable that there could be a couple of dead-rubbers in the last round and that’s certainly the case in Thurles tomorrow.
On the other hand, Cork still need a draw or a win to guarantee their place in the Munster final and that should focus their minds.
There is a lot of emotion attached to this game for Waterford. It could be Derek McGrath’s last match as manager.
It is probably Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh’s last game. This could be the end for Kevin Moran too.
All of those factors will motivate Waterford but when it was all on the line last weekend, they couldn’t summon the energy they desperately needed to stay alive. So it’s difficult to see them being able to find that drive and edge again tomorrow.
Cork have had their week off now too and they should win this with something to spare.
If this is Derek and ‘Brick’ and Kevin’s last game involved, it will be a sad way for them to depart.
The glory they desperately wanted, and deserved, will be absent but what those three men have given to Waterford has been glorious in so many different forms.
They have been an absolute credit to Waterford. And to hurling.
