SPECULATION IS MOUNTING that Limerick manager TJ Ryan could include as many as seven full championship debutants in his team for Sunday’s Munster SHC semi-final against holders Tipperary at Semple Stadium.
And Ryan admitted last night that the prospect of pitching some exciting young prospects into the white heat of championship battle is “very tempting.”
John Fitzgibbon and Dan Morrissey have made previous substitute appearances for the Shannonsiders but have yet to start a senior championship game.
But Morrissey has been earmarked to potentially fill the full-back position ahead of experienced Richie McCarthy – a move that would see the Ahane player matching up to Tipperary danger-man Seamus Callanan, who caused Limerick so much trouble at the Gaelic Grounds last year.
Morrissey could also be joined in the full-back line by Richie English, who is tipped to fill one of the corner back slots along with experienced Murroe-Boher man Seamus Hickey.
English was a member of last year’s All-Ireland U21 winning team and another, Diarmaid Byrnes, captained the county to Cross of Cashel glory.
Byrnes has been earmarked for the number 5 shift while up front, Gearóid Hegarty, Tom Morrissey (brother of Dan), Barry Nash and John Fitzgibbon are in contention to start.
Tom Morrissey, Nash and Hegarty also won All-Ireland U21 medals last year and Hegarty left the Limerick senior football squad earlier in the season to concentrate exclusively on hurling.
Fitzgibbon, meanwhile, scored the winning point when Limerick defeated Clare in last year’s Munster SHC quarter-final after coming off the bench.
With Shane Dowling and Kevin Downes under pressure for starting places in attack, and versatile Ronan Lynch looking like he might be edged out too, there is the live prospect of Limerick lining out from the start without a single representative from AIB All-Ireland senior club hurling champions Na Piarsaigh.
Competition for places is fierce within Ryan’s squad and the manager will name his starting line-up on Friday evening.
He revealed last night that for the first time this year, he’s working with a fully-fit squad of players and the revelation of Ryan’s weekend selection is keenly-anticipated.
He’s confident that his young guns are capable of stepping up to the mark in the Semple Stadium cauldron, however, and when asked how tempting it is to slot them in, Ryan replied: “Very tempting.”
He added: “Towards the end of the League we were getting to a stage where we were giving plenty of the U21s game time.
“Obviously the game is very fast, some of the guys have been around a long time and you can see from other counties’ experience that pace can be an issue.
“The younger guys have that in abundance, they’re confident, they’re putting the pressure on, which is exactly what we want.”
Ryan, however, acknowledged that he won’t know how any of his debutants react to a big championship Sunday until the game gets underway.
He said: “It’s a huge step up, no doubt about that, and we recognise that.
‘In the in-house games we get to see fellas, and you get a feel for a fella over a number of sessions.
“I know there are fellas out there who’ll be picking their teams – that fella should be on, or this fella – but we see these guys night in night out and my opinion is that when the team is announced, I don’t think there’ll be complaints. “It’ll be based on the last number of weeks and months, we’ve a lot of training done and the team will be picked on that basis.
“We have them all available. it’s always good to have a clean bill of health.
“There were three rounds of the senior championship played and four rounds of the premier intermediate, so they’ve been away with the clubs for those weeks. “They’ve had that time, and it’s been good, a nice break. We’ve had a three-week run-in to the game, we’re happy enough with that.”
And Ryan outlined the factors that will influence his thinking as he continues to agonise over his starting 15.
He said: “Club form, recent form, in-house games, those are all vital, they all feed into it.
“History, experience, last year’s U21s winning the All-Ireland, that’s all part of it.”
