Anthony Daly: Lynch doubts are a chink in Limerick's armour. But can Kilkenny exploit it?

I’ve said it here before that Limerick are a different team without Cian, and the news over the last few days of his ankle injury does alter the dynamic again.

A missing link: Limerick's Cian Lynch celebrates semi-final glory over Galway but questions about his fitness linger. Pic: INPHO/Evan Treacy

Wow. Where did that quarter of a century go? Actually, make that 27 years. It’s incredible the way the years just fly by. Back in the late 1990s, you were wondering what the year 2000 would be like. Mother of God, we’re nearly 25 years into that new Millennium now.

When you scan back over those intervening years from when we won our first All-Ireland with Clare in 1995, so much has changed, so much has happened.

Brian Lohan is the manager now. Davy Fitzgerald managed Clare to an All-Ireland in 2013. A load of other players got involved as selectors or coaches with various underage and senior teams. Even Mike McNamara and Tony Considine had stints as the senior manager in the 2000s, a decade on from when they were part of such a storied backroom with Ger Loughnane.

After never having even won a Munster U-21 title prior to 2009, Clare went on to four All-Ireland U-21 titles in six years, which included an incredible three-in-a-row under Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor. Yet even with all that has happened, those 27 years have still gone by in a flash.

As we will wave to the crowd tomorrow as the GAA’s Jubilee team from 1997 (with the 1995 side, and the Wexford team of 1996 also honoured after missing out with Covid over the last two years), the most satisfying aspect is that – thank God – we’re all still around.

Apart from the late Pa Casey, everyone else who was involved in our set-up, even the chairperson, secretary and treasurer from that time, plus the fundraising committee, are still alive. We are so lucky in that regard when you look at other All-Ireland winning teams which lost some of their great men, many of whom went to their eternal rest a lot younger than we are now.

I’m so looking forward to catching up with everyone over the weekend. I was on the organising committee but I’ve been so busy with the pub, media duties and with the Clarecastle senior management that Seánie McMahon, Eamonn Taaffe and Stephen McNamara have done most of the heavy lifting on the seven-man committee as we prepare to mark the anniversary.

We’re staying in the Castleknock hotel tonight and tomorrow night. We’ll be hosted in Croke Park tomorrow for lunch before finally getting our chance to wave to the masses.

I’m with RTÉ. Jamesie O’Connor is on duty with Sky Sports, but we’ll both make our way down onto the field that holds so many golden memories for us all from those halcyon and glorious days from the mid 1990s.

We were all so desperately hoping that we’d be walking out onto the field to be greeted by a thunderous Clare roar – minus our great full-back - but it just wasn’t to be. Still, I don’t think the Limerick or Kilkenny people will have too much against us. For those that do remember us, I hope they’ll recall how our breakthrough was also a turning point for the modern game, and how it gave so much hope for new teams to break through and live their dreams.

The mid-1990s was always considered a heart-breaking period for the Limerick hurlers when they lost two All-Irelands in three years but they surely never envisaged two and a half decades on that they’d be ruling the hurling world like they are now.

It’s a different time but it’s a different game now too. I remember in the mid 1980s when I was still a third year in St Flannan’s, and asking Tommy Hegarty, our former Clarecastle goalkeeper, if he could make a couple of dumbells for me. Tommy worked in a factory in Shannon that dealt in metal so he was my first port of call for my entry into the S&C world.

I was only 16 when I would do 100 dumbell arm lifts, followed by 100 over my shoulder, before I went to bed every night. They were these big heavy, awkward yokes, that I would just fire over my shoulders whatever way I could.

I used to often think of those days when I was Head of the Limerick Academy and I’d be showing 13 and 14 year olds the importance of technique before they’d even lift weights. Back in our time, there was no guidance. Just sweat.

Mike Mac savaged us with press-ups and sit-up and body weight exercises. We were strong but there was no real science like there this now. Even when we started to get serious about gym work, there would be lads half the size of Brian Lohan trying to lift weights heavier than what Lohan or Ollie Baker would even attempt.

Baker was the giant on our team but he’d nearly be dwarfed by this current Limerick team of man-mountains. I’ve said it here in these pages before that I’m often taken aback by the absolute ferocity of the hits when I’m up close to the action on the sideline. Lohan and Baker might survive but a lad like myself would be mown down.

That power frames a huge part of Limerick’s game but it is also a massive part of Kilkenny’s because it is so heavily ingrained in their DNA. When Limerick were last beaten in the championship, it was Kilkenny who savaged them in the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final.

Limerick will be more ready for that onslaught now, especially in an All-Ireland final, but they also have the memory of that defeat, and how Kilkenny physically dominated them in the first half.

And still, Limerick know that the storm is coming again because Kilkenny have players all over the field that will play with manic aggression and intensity for as long as Limerick keep coming at them.

As I was driving home on the Sunday night of the Galway-Limerick semi-final, and I was thinking back over both matches of the weekend, I felt that Kilkenny would win. Apart from being so impressive against Clare, I thought Limerick looked tired and leggy, and that they were lucky to get over a Galway side which had 19 wides.

Working in the pub over the following few days, that was my dominant feeling as I chatted to some of the customers about this final. Yet when I sat down to watch both games three days later one evening after work, my thought process changed completely.

Clare had a huge volume of possession, an unusual amount of ball, the level you almost wouldn’t expect to have in an All-Ireland semi-final. Clare got off a crazy amount of shots. They just couldn’t convert them.

Kilkenny may have produced a really slick performance but the challenge was at a totally different level from what Galway threw at Limerick the following day. The All-Ireland champions didn’t play well. But they still got the job done.

When you go through that match, Limerick were always able to step on the gas when they needed to get away. They got the margin out to four at half-time and, even though Galway had wiped that margin out a couple of minutes into the half, Limerick never let Galway get more than one point ahead of them even when Galway had real momentum in the match. It was still tight coming down the home straight but, instead of trying to hang on, Limerick were driving on, winning by three.

Their bench was impressive, as it has been throughout the summer. David Reidy was outstanding when scoring three points and being fouled for a free but what other team could bring on Cian Lynch and Peter Casey?

I’ve said it here before that Limerick are a different team without Cian, certainly less threatening than they were last year. Cian only came on against Galway, having missed the four previous matches, and the news over the last few days of his ankle injury does alter the dynamic again.

Cian may only have had minimal impact against Galway but I expected the two weeks in the meantime to have sharpened him up big time, especially when he is such a clutch player.

His loss would be massive, as much for the psychology of the match than what Cian would bring to the pitch because he is is such a totemic figure and emblem of excellence for this side.

Despite Limerick’s experience, that whole psychology piece is even more important again in the context of who they are playing.

I heard Tommy Walsh on Newstalk during the week speaking about Kilkenny’s winning culture in All-Ireland finals and the confidence the players will take from that source. Tommy also spoke about how that background may spook Limerick if they can’t shake off these Kilkenny boys coming down the home straight. That might sound far-fetched considering Limerick’s experience but all bets are off with Kilkenny when it comes to All-Ireland finals.

For all the talk about the strength of Limerick’s bench, Kilkenny have All-Ireland winners to come in too, guys who have done it on the big day before. That’s just another insight into the weaponry Kilkenny bring into this match.

Some people who I was speaking to in the pub in the days after the match may think I’m a liar now when the hot fancy I had for them in the immediate aftermath cooled over the following days. Yet the Lynch factor has microwaved that feeling again in the last 48 hours.

This will be tight. Still, I still think Limerick might just have enough to secure the three-in-a-row.