AND SO, TO the provincial hurling finals, two siblings that occupy different rooms through the halls of hurling.
At the tail-end of the week, former Limerick player Ciaran Carey billed this as the second-biggest day in the GAA calendar. Given the way people have felt about the Munster hurling championship this year, you’d do well to dispute the point.
The rain forecast in Limerick by match time might take away a little bit of the anticipation broiling away in the heat of the week. Either way the rivalry between Clare and Limerick now has taken just 12 months to cement itself as the most compelling in the game.
It’s never a real rivalry though, unless both teams win. For Clare to beat Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds in Round 2 tees this up and sets it in context. It’s built on the foundation of the draw in Round 4 last year and the glorious Munster final when Tony Kelly’s incredible sideline cut took matters into extra-time.
What happens here? Does John Kiely break his own habits and send a terrier to nip at Kelly’s heels all day or does he let him go free again?
Altogether in his last four games against The Treaty, Kelly has amassed 50 points, 24 of them in open play. Though he wasn’t razor sharp the last day, nailing less than 50% of his opportunities in the Round 2 win, you can’t imagine him having another afternoon like that this time.
When all around them were talking about years of domination ahead for Kiely and Limerick, they scoffed at it. Kiely felt it dangerous talk. Diarmuid Byrnes dismissed sensible opinion as clickbait, designed to compile ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ online.
Well, they have kept their part of the bargain in lowering expectation. Waterford let them off the hook in Thurles with a messy display of shooting. Clare nipped them. Tipp held them to a draw and they just did enough to get over Cork by a single point.
It leads to this point. A final. Where the likes of Gearoid Hegarty and Cian Lynch – whatever role he plays – have to show up against a bouyant Clare who appear to be in the midst of that early exuberance when you put classy performances together and it all starts to click.
And for all the talent that Brian Lohan has at his disposal, you go with the champions. Right up to the point when they are beaten. Limerick, narrowly.
There’s a bang of Prince Harry in the way Leinster hurling might feel slightly less loved than Munster this year. Throw all of the games together this season and you’d do well to pick half a dozen semi-classics among them.
This year’s final may not carry the same whiff of danger about it after last year’s build-up was taken up with speculation around a potential handshake between Brian Cody and his former leader and now Galway manager, Henry Shefflin. The championship needed something like that.
With Cody gone after completing his 24 years’ service, many have been watching to see what changes Derek Lyng would bring as manager.
For a start, what they did on their own puckout was an obvious area of concern from last year’s All-Ireland final when Limerick dominated the physical contest Kilkenny made it into, and worked themselves into pockets of space for their own restarts.
It hasn’t quite transpired, because there has been a run of games with scant enough meaning until now. The Cats had found grabbing goals difficult enough while they were leaking too many for their own taste.
Galway have been setting records across the regulation games with some eye-watering tallies, but it’s a phony war. It’s extremely difficult to call as neither has shown themselves to be flawless.
Question marks will arise over the Kilkenny line-out. Mikey Carey makes his first start since the All-Ireland final last year – can he be ready? And with Adrian Mullen not able to start due to a thumb injury, will Richie Reid actually start? Would he have been better held back as a finisher, rather than a starter?
Henry Shefflin has shown an imagination so far. The switch of Daithí Burke to centre-back and Gearoid McInerney to full-back has largely paid off but it’s all up to what effect it can have on TJ Reid.
He’s been marked by Burke, Darren Morrissey and McInerney this season. At one stage, Joseph Cooney was sent back to quell the Ballyhale fire.
At the finish, what will determine the outcome more than any other factors, are two-fold. Who has the better goalkeeper, and who is the most reliable free-taker?
Kilkenny win on both counts.
