Kerry will be on guard as Limerick bid to end long wait

IN a summer of novelty in the All-Ireland SFC, tomorrow represents the start of a two-week period where there are prospects of seismic results in all four provincial finals.

Limerick begin tomorrow by trying to scratch a 114-year itch in Munster, Louth contest their first Leinster final in half a century on Sunday week, Monaghan try to bridge a 21-year gap in Ulster on July 18 and out west both Sligo and Roscommon are still entertaining hopes of success.

A triumph for Limerick would supersede all other feats given the scale of the football famine they have endured. This present bunch of players have experienced plenty agony in their own careers, with a bunch of them coming up short in 2003 and 2004, and the entire squad suffering the dejection of defeat in Páirc Uí Chaoimh last year after controlling vast chunks of that battle with Cork. Those setbacks do not seem to have sapped the spirit of Mickey Ned O’Sullivan’s team and they enter this match in a terrific shape.