Lucey and Limerick reinvigorated by McCarthy magic

Limerick dual player Stephen Lucey says that Justin McCarthy has "brought Christmas to Limerick hurling" as they prepare for Sunday's All-Ireland SHC semi-final tussle with Tipperary.

"Justin has a big emphasis on hurling skills and ball work and so on, and everyone knows he is a great stick man," Lucey said of the Corkman.

"He is a true purist in hurling terms and all of his talk to us is about the ball, and he has brought that into us. We are thinking more about our own skills and touches and so on."

Sunday's Croke Park encounter is the first meeting of Limerick and Tipperary in an All-Ireland SHC semi-final, but the sides are well-acquainted with each other in the Munster Championship.

Memorably, it took three games before the teams could be separated in their Munster Championship clash back in 2007, with Limerick going on to contest the All-Ireland final with Kilkenny that year.

Pointing to Tipp's performances in both League and Championship action in recent seasons, key defender Lucey feels that Liam Sheedy's charges are deserving of the favourites' tag for this weekend's game.

"Tipperary are going to be favourites and rightly so. They have won two Munster Championships and a National League title in the last two years.

"They are showing great form and they are looking at Kilkenny as well.

"We just have to keep our powder dry and keep tipping away. Anything can happen on any given day I think."

The McCarthy-managed Limerick lost a Munster semi-final replay to Waterford in June, but recovered well to post wins over Wexford, Laois and Dublin.

Admitting that confidence is high on the back of that winning run, Croom clubman Lucey added: "We are getting better and better. It's still not top form, and we haven't even gone into fourth gear...let alone fifth.

"We have a lot of work to do and we know that. We are talking things over and we're trying to improve here and there.

"The team performance is important and we'll have to have our homework done on Tipperary and I'm sure we will. That's very important.

"We can't let Tipperary get a good start, like they have done in recent times. We've been letting teams get headstarts on us and we can't let that happen on Sunday."