Pleased as Punch with Limerick’s progress

FOR manager Dave Keane, co-selector John Meskall and many of the players, facing into Sunday’s first-round Guinness Munster hurling game in Thurles against holders Waterford will be unknown territory.

It’s not that they don’t have experience of the big occasion but it will be their first time sampling the championship at senior level.

Dave Punch, though, the third member of the management team, has seen it all before. He was one of Limerick’s outstanding hurlers of the late 1970s and early 80s, being a member of the team which lost in the 1980 All-Ireland final to Galway - a team which had current manager Conor Hayes at full-back. And, he was a selector with Eamonn Cregan up to 2000, after which he devoted all his energies to the U21 team. When the selectors came together in January to pick their panel, they were clearly influenced in their selection by the success they had enjoyed at U21 level. But there was a realisation there could be pitfalls ahead.

“Like any new management, you just don’t know what’s going to happen in the League,’’ Punch said. “Our first game was against Cork, which we felt was a very good performance and were probably unlucky not to get a draw on the day. Then we met Tipp and were well beaten. In general we had a poor enough campaign.”

They used the early rounds to experiment in a few positions, such as trying out TJ Ryan in attack, where he had begun his career under Cregan. However, the main challenge was to achieve a blend between the seasoned and the newer members of the panel.

“Looking at the way the actual matches came, two of the toughest we could possibly have faced within the new set-up at the start were Cork and Tipp away. It would have been different if we had maybe Derry and Laois in the opening rounds. Thankfully things came right at the right stage for us, towards the end of the League and especially in the second phase. We ended up winning four rounds back-to-back. It was better to be winning at that stage rather than losing.’’

Punch takes little notice that Waterford, too, had an unsettling league campaign, adding: “I’ve always felt the championship is a different animal. Waterford have a lot of experience and they are also going in as defending Munster champions.

With Ciaran Carey, Damien Reale and Donncha Sheehan fit again, the major doubt is Ollie Moran’s broken finger. “We’ll give Ollie every chance, every day is a day in his favour,’’ Punch said, before adding: “We’re going to have a lot of guys who’ll be playing their first major championship game but a lot of them have been involved in two and three of the All-Ireland successes, which have been big occasions for them. We wouldn’t have any worries about our players on Sunday.’’