Tigers confront their own Demons in bid to end cup hoodoo
But the cup is totally different and they face the biggest assignment of their season against Mardyke UCC Demons in today’s semi-final at the ESB Arena.
The bookies are reluctant to install the defending SuperLeague champions as favourites as the big showdown looms, and even those closest to the Tigers camp are reluctant to call it.
“I agree that if league form was the guideline we would be favourites, but the cup is so different,” Tigers press officer Timmy Sheehan admitted
“Demons have the advantage of playing and winning twice in the arena and are going for three in a row.”
Before the season began Tigers were projected as the ones to spring a possible double this season, but the cup has always proved their elusive dream.
They lost the 1995 final to North Mon, the 1989 semi-final to Corinthians, and in both 1992 and 2002 Limerick beat them en-route to the title.
Player-coach Chris Craig does not carry any baggage from those disappointments.
“Things are looking pretty good in the camp right now. We’ve been training really well, we are where we want to be and we are going to give it our best shot,” he said.
“But we know what we can expect. Pat (Price) is a hell of a coach and he has done a great job turning his team around after a poor start to the season.”
John Teahan captained the team to its 1995 loss to North Mon and is looking forward to this weekend: “Right now we are playing well as a unit and that’s what it is going to take - a team performance - to win the cup.”
Price looks on the cup as part of a natural progression within the club. People talk about the three in a row but few remember that only he and Shane Coughlan are survivors from four years ago, when he paid his first visit to cup final weekend.
“In the four finals the line-ups have changed dramatically,” he insisted.
“This year we have four new starters - Patrick Pope, Glen Worley, Damien Matacz and Niall O’Reilly who came off the bench last year.”
Coach Price, however, admits that Damian Matacz, an Irish-Australian, is the rock on which the team is built.
“He has been a real find for us,” he said. “Himself and Patrick Pope are similar. They go about their business no matter the score and no matter the situation.
“Niall O’Reilly is having his best year in the SuperLeague. He is not always in the scoring department but he is a great team-mate. His contribution is not measured in statistics. He just has a great basketball IQ.”
The intelligence factor will be important when they take on Tralee.
But when the chips are down the Irish players are the ones who will make the big decisions.
Shane Coughlan did it two years ago when he popped the free throw that won the cup and last year, for the second successive year, he came away with the MVP.
Brian Clernon and O’Reilly are the epitome of consistency. That’s what they will need if they are to play out the expected thriller with Tigers with Chris Craig, a prolific three-point shooter, leading by example.
Micheál Quirke, a member of Kerry’s All-Ireland football panel, is outstanding at both ends, while Roy Smallwood, who played alongside Craig in Texas El Paso, is one of the most influential players in the SuperLeague at the moment.
Roscoe Patterson and John Teahan add huge experience to the side but on a close call, this game could go to Demons.
