That's it for another league. In 20 years you can ask someone who won the league in 2023 and whatever the future version of Google is at that time will have to be used by many to find the answer.
So let’s reverse it, now no googling, who won the league in 2003? A lot of you won’t know without searching but ask who won Liam MacCarthy in 2003 and the majority will know it was Kilkenny who did back-to-back defeating Cork in the final.
The championship is where it’s at in terms of full tilt effort from teams, intensity, passion among the crowds and the memories it creates for years to come. We are in for a humdinger this year, I hope.
I said during the week that it has now become almost boring to watch Limerick dismantle teams. Teams are trying systems, styles of play against them, mainly in the form of extra defenders, but none of it seems to matter as this Limerick group will chew up whatever you throw at them and spit it back out at you in terms of intensity, work-rate and use of the ball.
Many have tried to break them down but few if any have succeeded. This is a team that has not lost a knockout championship game since August 2019. Since that day they have played 16 championship games, won 14 drew 2 (they won last year's Munster final after extra time) and six of those were knockout championship games, which they haven’t lost in almost four years when the need was most.
So teams are going to have to try something different again now to try and defeat this Green Machine, because the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result.
This is leftfield now but instead of playing so many back will some team play more forward? Keep the play-making and scoring threat of Barry Nash and Co as close to their own goal as possible, get more ball in there with bodies and see how that works.
Sometimes you just need to get the ball in there and not always hope for this 80/20 ball in favour of the forward
Right now players are looking up, seeing the perfect ball isn’t on and recycling it and that’s where the best teams are shutting you down and turning you over time and time again.
As someone once said to me, perfect is the enemy of good. Sometimes you just need to get the ball in there and not always hope for this 80/20 ball in favour of the forward, if you lose it at least it’s being lost deep inside the other half and not in midfield.
While a large number of wides are something the management will look back on afterwards as an area to work on, getting the ball dead from a shot is more beneficial than dropping it short or getting turned over as this will allow your side time to set up properly for the puckout.
Positives for Kilkenny for me were that Adrian Mullen had a brilliant first game back from injury, clipping three points from play before being taken off in the 54th minute in what was, I feel, an 'enough done for today' move.
Paddy Deegan got on a lot of ball and Huw Lawlor was very good at 6, particularly in the first half and TJ Reid watched on in the bib and jersey... he must have been freezing.
Billy Drennan will have learned so much from the experience also and maybe they’ll look back on it and see the bit of commotion the few long balls caused when they did send them in with bodies in there in the second half and think there might be something here. Sometimes the old ways are still the best.
My hope is this, that teams were holding something back against Limerick in the league and that there will be a tidal wave of intensity coming in the championship and if we learned anything from the first round of the Joe McDonagh championship it is just that.
But then again when did Limerick really step out of third gear or ever have their full hand on display yet this year? All will be revealed in the coming weeks and first up to challenge them is Davy Fitz and the Waterford lads.
I expect an extreme curveball to be thrown here from Davy, maybe in the form of an ultra-defensive system - even more than usual for Davy’s teams - but definitely something different from the one man who is willing to try whatever it takes to get his team over the line and, to be fair, has delivered several times by doing so. Should be interesting to say the least.
Anyway here’s who I felt were the top performers of the league and I really do hope these performances are taken into account in some form when All Stars are being handed out later in the year.
- Nickie Quaid
- Sean Finn
- Huw Lawlor
- Barry Nash
- Diarmuid Byrnes
- Ciarán Joyce
- Bryan O’Mara
- Paddy Deegan
- Cian Lynch
- Tom Morrissey
- Donal Burke
- Aidan McCarthy
- Billy Drennan
- Jason Forde
- Mossy Keoghan
My player of the league based on consistent performances was Tom Morrissey.
The newcomers who impressed most for me and will make a difference to how their counties fare in championship are:
Billy Drennan (Kilkenny)
Averaged 12 points a game, kept scoreless from play in league final but knocked over 5 frees. Dead ball specialist, be a great debate as to who will be hitting the frees in that camp this year.
Alan Tynan (Tipperary)
Worked ferociously hard in every game I saw him play and topped it off with a great performance against Limerick in the semi final scoring 4 points from play.
Patrick Fitzgerald (Waterford)
Didn’t see much off him but what I saw I really liked. I think this guy is being kept to be unleashed in the championship. Still only 19 too.
Shane O’Brien (Limerick)
Again we didn’t see a lot of him but he is able to mix it and is very comfortable on the ball at this level already – any other county and he’d probably be starting in the championship – right now he’ll be pushing hard every week to try and get on the field for a taste of championship action.
One final thing to further add fuel to that 'what are you on about' fire for some anyway and pick my top 5 teams right now:
- Limerick
- Tipperary
- Clare
- Kilkenny
- Galway ( I just know they’re going to come good)
Tune in next week to find out my predictions for who I believe will come out of Leinster and the pool of death that is Munster. We’re nearly there now people.
By the way, the winners of the league in 2003 were Kilkenny and it was a 10-goal thriller in Croke Park against Tipp. And you couldn’t even remember that game.
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