A game Limerick and Keane can't afford to lose

BR>Diarmuid O’Flynn

Just think of the travel tribulations being endured by their supporters. Trying and testing, as outlined by manager Dave Keane.

“Thursday night is an unusual date for a senior championship game all right, but I don’t think it makes too much difference to the players. It’s a rough period for the Limerick supporters though.

“They were in Cork last Wednesday evening at the hurling U21s (beaten for the first time in four years in that championship, Keane having managed them to an historic Munster and All-Ireland three-in-a-row).

“They were in Killarney last weekend for the Munster senior football final and that was a nightmare to get in and out of.

“Now Thurles and that won’t be easy either, then Roscommon this coming weekend again with the footballers. That’s a huge drain on any set of supporters.”

With several of his players involved, those games last Wednesday and Sunday were disruptive also for the first-year senior hurling boss and not ideal preparation for a game that could signal the end of the season.

“Of course not, but we’re as ready as we can be, managed to get in a few quality sessions in between, around those games.

“We seem to be motoring well enough.”

It’s been a rough introduction to senior hurling management for Dave Keane. Prior to his appointment, the Adare-based, Cork-born engineer was the manager with the Midas touch, that out-of-nowhere All-Ireland U21 hat-trick under his belt.

His first year in charge of the top team however has been mired in controversy, dissent first appearing during a terrible league run when talismanic team captain Mark Foley (ironically from Keane’s club in Limerick) was rumoured to have walked away, followed lately by the retirement of another recent Limerick hurling icon, Ciaran Carey, swiftly joined by two others, Barry Foley and Michael O’Brien.

All of this disharmony and dissent is bound to have affected the genial Keane, whose manner is far from dictatorial.

The fact that the worst competitive result under his management was to tonight’s opposition, in a must-win league game in Kilmallock, adds another bit of pressure.

For a variety of reasons then, this is a game Limerick and Dave Keane simply can’t afford to lose.

“Going into the Kerry game, we probably didn’t feel we could lose that one. This is a game of more substance, Offaly will put it up to us. They beat us in the league, and this is a much stronger team they have out now. In the games we’ve played this year, we have yet to produce the kind of cohesion you need in the championship but this is our biggest test of the year. We just have to beat Offaly, it’s as simple as that.”