Premier showdown is our All-Ireland final, insists Limerick trainer Moriarty

SUNDAY’S Munster SHC semi-final with Tipperary is a date that’s been etched in the minds of the Limerick senior hurlers for many moons, according to team trainer Dave Moriarty.

“From day one, when this draw was made, from the time we met in October with the panel of players that Richie (Bennis, Limerick manager) and the lads picked, we targeted this match.

“For us this is the All-Ireland final. Everything else is a bonus. It’s about progression, and if we can win this match, make a Munster final, that’s progress for Limerick hurling. You’re automatically in the All-Ireland quarter-final at that stage.

‘‘It’s all very well to say you have to peak in August. But if we don’t make the All-Ireland quarter-final, peaking in August is no good to us. We have had to peak for this match. Limerick haven’t had a win in the Munster championship since 2001 and haven’t beaten Tipperary since 1996 So, this is the one.”

Much of that responsibility for making sure that Limerick are in fact at their peak, falls on the trainer. In that regard Limerick are lucky, because few are more qualified than Dave Moriarty. Now based in the Garda Training College in Templemore, he had his formal education in Waterford, qualified in Sports Management and has done numerous courses since then with Liam Hennessey, the hugely respected IRFU conditioning guru.

For four years Dave worked with the Limerick footballers under Liam Kearns, a period when Limerick were recognised as being one of the most physically powerful teams in the country. Now, he turns his attention to the hurlers.

“The big difference I found was in the upper body strength — their power wasn’t what it should be. We worked on that a lot in Limerick University during October, November and December. The lads were put on individualised weight-training programmes, they did an awful lot of work up to the end of March, then we tapered it back a bit. Their overall fitness, however, was quite good, especially those who were involved last year. It’s not just on the running side, it’s on strength, technique, technique in agility — evasion as I call it, being able to break away from your marker.”

A few years ago there would have been general resistance to such a scientific approach to hurling training, the weight-training especially. Not any longer.

“I would have had a few apprehensions about getting involved with the hurlers but in fairness to Richie and the lads, they gave me a clean slate to work on. I decided when we’d go to the gym, I decided when we’d go to the field. Actually we did an awful lot of work with the ball in January and February, but we did it on the Astroturf. That was of great benefit to the boys as they were doing the fitness work with the ball and their first touch improved immensely.

“That work is paying dividends in the last couple of weeks, with the dry weather; I had been saying to them all along that the surface in the Astroturf was very similar to what the ground would be like in the summer, and that’s what happened.”

One of the many benefits of having a scientific training programme, properly drawn up and supervised, is the reduction of muscular-type injuries – witness the success of Munster and Ireland.

With his rugby background (“I played senior with Terenure in Dublin, when I was based up there, came back to my old club, Young Munster and won a Munster junior Cup with them in 1999 — my second-row partner was a skinny youngster called Paul O’Connell!), Dave is fully aware of those benefits, and of the problems.

“We did a good bit of core work early on, worked on their stability, the main muscles. It was only in the last few weeks, when they went back to their clubs, that they started getting injured. I put that down to over-use, over-training. We had to nip it on the bud. Fellas were training twice a week with us, playing a game at the weekend, then going back and training with their clubs and playing another game. That’s five intense sessions a week which is too much. It would be different if you were doing all your own personalised stuff but that wasn’t the case. Lads were breaking down, getting injuries.”

The net result of all Dave’s good work, however, is that on Sunday, Limerick will be at full strength. “Everyone has been given a clean bill of health. We were worried about Seanie O’Connor up to about ten days ago but he’s made a very good recovery. Niall Moran broke a thumb playing with UCC in the Cork club championship, but that was over three weeks ago. He trained for the last couple of weeks without any problem whatsoever.”