All-Ireland final preview: Resourceful Limerick can escape to victory

We’re not expecting this to be a classic. Both teams' low concession rates suggest the scoring could be below average.

The Liam MacCarthy Cup is pictured at Croke Park in Dublin alongside an official match sliotar. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Galway v Limerick, Croke Park, 3.30pm (C. Lyons, Cork) Live RTÉ, BBC 

An old sociology lecturer came to mind this week. Professor Fr Liam Ryan was the youngest-ever winning captain of a Munster senior hurling championship when he led Limerick to the title in 1955. His brother Seamus was also one of “Mackey’s Greyhounds”.

Ryan was a soft-spoken gent of an educator who wore his intellect lightly. Legend has it that if you carried a hurley into his office to collect a thesis, your mark would be immediately changed and upgraded. Sadly, the Cappamore man passed away in 2015 before experiencing the Limerick epoch but he is remembered fondly in the university and beyond.

In the late 1970s, as part of a Rag Week tradition, he was kidnapped by students. The idea was the college would pay a ransom for his release. The captors drove Ryan’s maroon-coloured car to a pub in Kilkenny but foolishly allowed Ryan to go to the toilet. Through a window he escaped and with a spare pair of keys gleefully drove back to Maynooth, leaving his abductors stranded.

Ryan’s beloved Limerick may need that sort of ingenuity to foil Galway. It would normally be an insult to refer to additions Cian Lynch and Mike Casey as a spare pair of keys but they are exactly that here. There are few better men in suffocating exchanges than Lynch, while Casey has never shirked a physical battle like the one he faces with Jason Rabbitte.

“Selfless” was a word used to describe Lynch earlier this week. Galway have their own altruistic players. For the greater good, high-quality hurlers like Cathal Mannion and Conor Whelan have turned themselves from the piano players to piano movers. What an inspiration that must be for their team-mates.

We’re not expecting this to be a classic. Both teams' low concession rates suggest that while it should be intense the scoring could be below average, which obviously suits Galway.

They have Limerick’s respect for a whole host of reasons and Limerick aren’t going to allow Casey be isolated on Rabbitte. Nickie Quaid and William O’Donoghue’s voices as much as their hurling will be important in ensuring they keep their shape to avoid being sucked up the field. Tom Monaghan’s long-range shooting must also be a consideration and cutting out the supply to him as an outlet is almost as important as stopping Mannion’s playmaking from deep.

This Galway team are made of sterner stuff. On the way onto the field against Cork, Ronan Glennon badly skinned his leg on the hard surface that runs around the perimeter of the Croke Park pitch, trying to avoid a cameraman. A couple of days later, his leg still looked worse for wear, but he had put in a marvellous performance only second to Rabbitte’s.

Tipperary have a lot to answer for – or maybe it’s Cork – but a lot of hope has been given to a host of counties. Has Micheál Donoghue truly made Galway believers? Before a ball had been pucked this year, keen observers in the county would have expected 2027 to be the year they competed for the highest honour. Donoghue himself has admitted to being a mite surprised they have advanced as quickly as they have. He is probably saying something entirely different in camp. There is no time like the present.

Limerick do have fallow periods and if Galway extend a purple patch like they did against Dublin and Cork they will be in clover. But Limerick know how to curb damage. Their second half shut-outs have been extraordinary and we can’t stress enough how much that examination Clare gave them will fuel them for this final.

Ryan would have been proud of how Limerick escaped to victory last Sunday week. They may need to again to elude this audacious, believing Galway side. 

Verdict: Limerick.