Limerick have the Keane edge

TOMORROW will be a little strange for David Keane.

Munster championship Sunday's were traditionally about following the fortunes of his native Cork, or assessing their likely opponents.

But after guiding Limerick to a remarkable treble of All-Ireland U21 titles, his sporting life has changed dramatically. His passion for Cork hurling remains, albeit nudged to one side for those hours when he wears the cap of senior manager to the Shannonsiders.

Ironically, that Rebel bond will be stronger still when he makes his senior debut at Semple Stadium tomorrow as his Waterford opponents are under the tutelage of a former clubmate, Justin McCarthy. Keane though is not fazed by the prospect. Anything but. With sixteen of the 30-strong panel products of the U21 teams, it's understandable that Keane along with co-selectors David Punch and John Meskell should have developed a special almost fatherly bond.

"You'd have to have sympathy for all of the 15 who didn't make it in the first place, but there would be a certain number and they would know themselves who would have expected to be on it," he said.

"It shows the strength of the panel and I'd be happy to sit down and put another five fellows on that team without concern that it would weaken it." That paternal feeling is evident when he expresses concern for the welfare of youthful corner-forwards Andrew O'Shaughnessy (who sits for his Leaving Certificate next Wednesday) and Donncha Sheehan. "They are quite young and quite small and I would hope that the referee and his officials would protect them, because in the heat of championship it can get rough. I think that the spotlight that the media, and the television in particular, has on games might safeguard them to a certain extent."

When it was put to him, Keane said he merely intended this as a general reference, and that he wasn't pointing the finger at any defender in particular.

More interestingly, he indicated that he had no worries about naming colleges star O'Shaughnessy in the team, describing him as a very focused individual who is capable of dealing with the pressure and trauma of a championship debut in such a cauldron. "He is quite academic and going for very high points in his Leaving Certificate, but he is focused on that when he is studying. And, when he is hurling, he is focused on hurling. He doesn't mix the two of them. I think he is quite capable of switching on and switching off."

At a personal level, while recognising that he is now operating at a higher level, he says he is not conscious of being under any extra pressure. His approach will be no different, in that he will be doing his best to be calm and collected on the day in question and give the players the service demanded of him as manager.

Nevertheless, he admits that he found it difficult to cope with the early season defeats in the League, which were a rather painful blow to their ego. "We had Cork first and Tipperary second and they were obviously going to be big challenges for us. We expected coming in that we were going to beat everybody and that games were going to come handy. We got a rude awakening.

"I don't take defeat easily anyway and my head went down. And, you can transfer that to the players as well. Obviously we got over it and we had some very good results and very big victories. It may not have been on the side of the League that we would have preferred, but we needed those victories to get our confidence back and to safeguard us from relegation." One of those big wins was against Waterford in Kilmallock, by a margin of 16 points not that it counts for anything now, Keane is quick to stress.

"People talk about the senior championship as summer hurling and it's far from summer at the moment. That would be a worry I would have in that if the weather wasn't good it could give an imbalance to the game which it did that day we played Waterford. We played with the wind in the first half and the game was over by half-time. That wasn't a true reflection. They were down so far at half-time that they probably didn't bother competing in the second half. They were also short six or seven of their starting fifteen. I wouldn't read anything into it. You can't compare league and championship performances.

"The first thing we had to do in the League was avoid relegation. With no disrespect to Derry, but once they were beaten we were safe. We needed just to get a few victories, which we did. There was one game that Donncha Sheehan scored four goals. That doesn't normally happen in League performances, but the lads had the killer instinct on the day. They knew we were at a low ebb and that it wasn't just the win that would suffice. We had to get a good margin."

Keane reflects on the year and admits that he and his selectors weren't overly conscious of getting a good blend between the stars of the past and the young guns of the underage success. But they tried a number of things, such as moving TJ Ryan into the attack.

While they have since brought him back to full-back, Keane still considers it to have been a good exercise. "He's fitter now than he has ever been as a result of having to play up in the forwards," he commented. "There is good experience in the team, with the like of TJ, Mark Foley, Ciaran Carey, Brian Begley and Brian Geary. All these lads have been around for a number of years. The man I'd feel quite disappointed for would be Steve McDonagh in that he is the heart and character of us in the dressingroom and on the field. But, I have no doubt that he will make an enormous contribution tomorrow."

Admitting that he is not knowledgeable about the tradition of the counties, he says that they don't fear Waterford. And, conversely, he realises that Waterford feel the same way about his team. "They are Munster champions. They didn't earn that easily and they're not going to give it up easily. But we're not going to stand by and give it to them easy. They have to have a confidence because they are champions.

"But they are there to be knocked and I just hope we can do it."