National Hurling League Division One quarter-final: Laois v Limerick (tonight, O’Moore Park, 7pm, live on TG4)
LAOIS may be like lambs to the slaughter against Limerick tonight, but they will be happy lambs already at peace regardless of how their League campaign pans out.
There may not have been relegation from Division 1A this season but there certainly was from Division 1B and after four rounds it looked like the O’Moore county would be in a relegation play-off this weekend.
Carlow dropped the ball in the final round though as they lost to an Offaly side in disarray and Laois’s place in the quarter-final was confirmed.
Despite that slip-up, the Barrowsiders may actually provide some inspiration for Laois at O’Moore Park this evening.
Earlier in the season, they pulled off a huge upset to earn a draw with Galway and Laois will need to reach a similar standard to even be competitive tonight.
The more likely scenario though is a comfortable win for the All-Ireland champions.
Limerick manager John Kiely has signaled his intent and has said that that his side would be going all out to claim the Treaty county’s first League title since 1997.
He’ll also be keen for the side to get back to winning ways after they dropped three points in their last two Division 1A games.
They had flown out of the traps prior to that though ensuring that they are guaranteed to finish top of the table even though four teams have a game yet to play following postponements last week.
Wexford, Tipperary and Kilkenny were all dispatched, the latter two with relative ease, and a message was driven home that last year’s Championship heroics haven’t resulted in a hangover.
It’s not a coincidence that their one loss, against Cork, came when Aaron Gillane, one of the country’s form players, was absent due to university commitments. He was the player who nabbed a point for Limerick in last weekend’s game with Clare as he hit the last two scores from play.
Still, for all Kiely’s talk about going all out for the League he has decided to make wholesale changes for this encounter.
He has made nine changes in all from the side that drew with Clare and only six of the starting team from the All-Ireland final are included - Dan Morrissey, Diarmaid Byrnes, Declan Hannon, Darragh O'Donovan, Gearoid Hegarty and Seamus Flanagan.
The fact that there is no Gillane or the likes of Shane Dowling may open the door a crack for the hosts.
Eddie Brennan’s side have produced some good showings to date and the former Kilkenny star will be happy with what they have produced.
Inaccuracy prevented it from being an even better League though as they hit 16 wides in the draw against Carlow while Stephen Maher, Cha Dwyer and Mark Kavanagh all missed excellent goal chances in last weekend’s two-point loss to Dublin.
It goes without saying but they can’t afford to give up chances like that if they are to remain in the game tonight against weakened opposition.
That seems very improbable though. The visitors have been mostly excellent this season and even though Kiely is resting players, this should be a routine win.
Laois: TBA
Limerick: B Hennessy; T Condon, D Morrissey, W O’Meara; D Byrnes, D Hannon, B Nash; D O’Donovan, R Hanley; G Hegarty, D Dempsey, C Boylan; P Casey, S Flanagan, B Murphy
