Kilkenny always want to win the League. Always. That was always Brian Cody’s attitude, so there was no reason for Derek Lyng to change that approach when he took over from Cody at the end of last year. Getting to the final this year though, had an added incentive for Kilkenny.
When they arrived in Cork on the second Sunday in April, they did so with a mind to show everyone else and to prove to themselves, that they had closed the gap on Limerick since last year’s All-Ireland final. Yet by the end of the afternoon, Kilkenny looked further away from Limerick than ever.
Was it really that simple? It was only the League. Kilkenny could have brought on TJ Reid for his first minutes of the campaign if they really wanted to after the game. So did they just let the game off?
Maybe but it was still hard to ignore the evidence at hand. Limerick were without Declan Hannon, Kyle Hayes and Will O’Donoghue. Tom Morrissey only came on at half-time. Apart from Reid, Kilkenny had their strongest team out. Thirteen of the side which started the All-Ireland semi-final two weeks ago started that game. And Limerick still won pulling up.
An 11-point margin could have been far greater if Limerick hadn’t hit 15 wides. Limerick still had one eye on the Championship against Waterford two weeks later, whereas Kilkenny had more of a licence to go all out for the match considering they were playing Westmeath in Nowlan Park in their opening championship match the same weekend.
Were Limerick really that good? They didn’t even go all out for the League. They were just better than everyone else. On the Tuesday night before the League semi-final against Tipperary four days later, Limerick didn’t deviate from their training programme and did one of their hardest sessions of the year. And they still blew Tipp away in the second half of that semi-final.
It’s never easy to read too much into a League final. Yet the form Limerick had back then, and which they rediscovered when it mattered most during the summer, underlined how, when they want and need to, Limerick can just find a way.
Throughout this Championship, they have needed to find new ways to maintain their remarkable run. Some of their key players lost form in the early part of the championship. They’ve lost key players to injury – Seán Finn, Declan Hannon and Cian Lynch.
Read more:
- John Kiely: Limerick players would have achieved all this without me
- Christy O'Connor: Limerick hurlers find themselves on the cusp of another All-Ireland
They were beaten and drew in rounds two and three of the round robin. They’re not getting off anywhere the same amount of shots they were last year. When Clare had eight more shots against them in the Munster final, that was the first time Limerick had such a shooting deficit against a top team since Clare dismantled them in the 2018 round robin.
Limerick’s turnover numbers in their own half have sky-rocketed because teams have gone after them higher up the pitch. Diarmaid Byrnes’s free-taking isn’t bumping up their numbers like it did last year.
After 25 minutes of the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway, they finally looked to have hit the wall. Limerick were gasping for oxygen. Galway were outbattling them in the key areas. Their big men couldn’t get on the ball. A miraculous block from Mike Casey prevented Limerick from going eight points behind. And then, Limerick clicked into gear and blew Galway to smithereens.
In many ways, that semi-final encapsulated Limerick’s season; they have struggled and looked vulnerable and there for the taking at multiple stages – but they are still finding ways to get the job done.
They don’t have their foot pressed to the accelerator like they had last year but they are effectively winning games in the third quarter. They set up differently during that period after half-time, play more defensively and on the counter-attack. And teams have struggled to deal with it. Once Limerick get ahead heading into the fourth quarter, they are experts at seeing it out and winning tight games.
Can Kilkenny throw something different at Kilkenny in that third quarter? Can they come up with something different – full stop – to take Limerick down now?
Limerick are a better team but Kilkenny did learn a great deal from that League final beating, especially around the structure and positioning of their team. The experiments of playing Huw Lawlor at centre-back, Tommy Walsh at full-back, Padraig Walsh at corner-back and Billy Ryan at midfield were all abandoned. Paddy Deegan had been an assists machine at wing-forward during the league but there was also some revision around that role.
As the championship developed, so did Kilkenny’s style. They still favour the long ball but the performance against Clare two weeks ago showcased how smarter Kilkenny now are in possession, especially considering how loose they were with it against Limerick last July.
The biggest issue Kilkenny had in that game though, was on puckouts, especially the Limerick puckout. Limerick won an incredible amount of possession from their restarts so Kilkenny will look to get far more bodies back under the break, and be smarter around how they look to shut down Limerick’s short puckout.
Can Kilkenny survive? Eoin Cody is in incredible form. TJ Reid is TJ. Martin Keoghan is a strong player well able to win his own ball. The big test for the Kilkenny attack though, is to be able to survive the physical attrition when Limerick dial up the heat in the middle third.
At the other end, Aaron Gillane has largely held a mirror to Limerick’s season. Ropey in Limerick’s first two games, Gillane has been Limerick’s most influential player in three of their last four games. Since the Cork match, he has effectively been their match-winner.
Limerick have been reliant on Gillane but Tom Morrissey has been in brilliant form and Gearóid Hegarty normally produces his biggest display of the year on this stage.
So do Limerick. In the last three finals, the team has peaked. Can they do so again? They will need to, but if Limerick can reach those heights again, they will win the four-in-a-row.
