TJ Ryan: Sunday is the deep-thinking man's final
COACHED: Limerick manager John Kiely arrives before the semi-final. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
The thinking man’s final. The deep-thinking man’s final.
A past fortnight of plans, counterplans, and curveballs. Kiely and Kinnerk. Micheál and Franny. Every scenario studied and teased out to the last.
Sunday’s role reversal of the 2018 decider stretches way beyond a young and emerging side attempting to topple the establishment.
Eight years ago, Limerick brought a new, possession-based game where they worked back in numbers and minded the ball so intelligently. But is it now Galway who are moving hurling’s tactical dial?
The tweak in the Galway system that their management has come with this year has worked really well for them. Their scoring average is up at 33 points per game, so to describe it as a defensive system would be incorrect. 4-29 and 2-26 in two visits to Croker is really strong shooting.
Galway’s first-half finish halted Cork’s momentum. Galway’s third quarter finished Cork altogether. Limerick’s final quarter the following day rescued a phenomenally difficult situation.
Semi-finals turned and transformed in the second, third, and fourth quarters. And so, you’re going to think me right funny when I state that Sunday’s opening quarter might be the most important of the lot.
Tactically, it’s going to be fascinating in that opening quarter to see who can hold and who will give.
This Limerick team, historically, will always hold their six backs, mind the house, and not get upset by how the opposition have arranged themselves.
But if Galway start to win the breaking ball between their own 45 and the middle of the field through the sheer volume of bodies they’ll flood into that area, they’re now excellent at both minding and running the ball, such as they did in the second half of the League fixture between the counties back in March.
In that scenario, Limerick may need to tweak.
The flip side to that is if Limerick kick their game into place, execute a full press, and Galway are unable to win a puck-out because Darach Fahy is being routinely forced long, down on top of Limerick’s half-back line, then do Galway need to change?
Galway’s slide, as we saw in the final few minutes of the first-half and again after half-time in the win over Cork, was to push Cathal Mannion up the field, to go more forward-foot, and present Patrick Collins with no other alternative but to send his puck-outs long.
For Limerick, they have used Gearóid Hegarty as their ace. Against Waterford and Cork in Munster, they pushed him into the full-forward line where he caused havoc, having been earlier man-marked and maybe struggling for impact.
Staying in that area of the pitch, if Galway are winning the breaking ball that is coming in long, do Limerick attempt to work possession short and through the mire?
That’s the thinking piece for just the first quarter alone, hence the importance I’m attaching to those first 15, 20 minutes, and who’s on top, what’s working, and what’s not.
And whatever twists or nuances the struggling side implements in response, there’s a good chance they’ll have been influenced by the March 21 video which will have been revisited plenty this week.
It’s most unusual for a League game to carry such relevance ahead of an All-Ireland final. March meetings are typically deemed too far gone and too experimental to lean on for any bit of insight. Not so here. 13 of the Limerick team that started that night will march behind the band, 12 for Galway.
What Limerick did during the first half that Saturday night in the Gaelic Grounds was so effective. They interrogated Galway’s short puck-out and interrupted their running game. The 1-16 to 0-9 interval scoreline reflected such.
But what Galway came back with in the second half was just as impressive because they nearly won the game, scoring 0-31 by the finish.
What you have on Sunday is two experienced managers, two deep-thinking managerial set-ups. Video analysis of the opposition will have been incredibly extensive. They tweak and twist to make sure they give every advantage to their own team.
I write this a little tongue-in-cheek, but a Kilkenny or Cork would say, ‘No, we are playing our game and that’s it’, whereas here, we have two guys who look at every single facet. Every inch they can get, they will look and explore that road.
We all know Cathal Mannion can score from virtually anywhere, but the system of pushing Cathal forward causes a problem for Will O’Donoghue. Going back to the League clash, Galway got six, seven, eight points from play in the pocket between midfield and the advanced centre-back position.
Darragh Neary came on the same night and clipped over 0-3. He was massively influential by going back on the puck-out and then getting up quick, which caused Diarmaid Byrnes a problem.
Galway will be asking, can we replicate those second 35 minutes. Similarly, Limerick will be asking, if they are again successful in dragging our No.5, 6, and 7 out, what’s our counter-act? Are we sitting two midfielders back? Are we kind of pulling everybody out?
Is there a possibility on Sunday that we could see a one-on-one up front on either side and practically everybody else in a condensed space?
Galway have really kind of brought that to a nice new level. The way they punch and break is seriously impressive.
There is a big difference in the way both teams play, but I'm going to love to see what happens when the two of them come together.
My heart and my head will always say Limerick. The resilience this team has shown, both over the years and in the tight corners they found themselves in this season, has been excellent.
They won a good League. They won a good Munster Championship. There's a part of me which says the best performance of 2026 is coming. And it will need to come.
It'll be a high scoring final. Limerick only scored 1-21 in their last two games, but that was more to do with how the game was set up. Sunday will be more open.
Limerick, just.
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