Hello and welcome to our big hurling championship preview.
We're going to keep it short: Limerick will win it again. Thanks for reading.
Ah, you’re still here. Fair enough, we’ll elaborate a bit so.
They won’t mind one bit but after years of famine, Limerick have become so dominant as to earn rave write-ups across the Atlantic and dull the neutral’s appetite a little.
The Treaty are hot favourites to become just the third team to win the Liam MacCarthy Cup four times in a row, and follow in the footsteps of Cork (1941-44) and Kilkenny (2006-09).
A fifth All-Ireland title in six years would match the record of that Cork side, who Christy Ring also captained to glory in 1946. Limerick would have to win the next two to surpass Brian Cody’s greatest collection of Cats.
It would be no surprise if they did.
Heading into the 2022 championship, there were tenuous reasons to suspect Limerick were slightly more vulnerable: an underwhelming league campaign, few new players breaking through, a tendency to test referees' leniency.
They won it anyway, even though two-time Hurler of the Year Cian Lynch was absent for almost all the campaign.
Their strength, skill and tenacity remained remarkable but it was the composure in possession and shot selection that kept them ahead of the pack.
Gearóid Hegarty was their only player dismissed and likely would have won an appeal for his red card against Clare if it hadn’t been because a second yellow, which meant no suspension.
Admittedly, the triumph was far less comprehensive than it had been in 2020 or 2021. Though still unbeaten since the 2019 semi-final, Clare twice forced draws (losing the Munster final in extra-time), Galway were level after 70 minutes in the semis and Kilkenny finished just two points adrift in the All-Ireland final. But Declan Hannon still lifted the cup.
Limerick apparently resumed training earlier this season, following the introduction of the split calendar, and powered to the league title while giving more game time to younger talent like Colin Coughlan, Donnacha O Dalaigh, Adam English and Shane O’Brien, though the latter duo played with the U20s instead this week.
They won the league without All-Stars Hannon, Kyle Hayes and Will O’Donoghue, who was suspended due to an off-the-ball incident, as was Hayes earlier in the campaign. But it was noticeable that discipline was tight in the final win over Kilkenny and hurling refs have a tendency to forget the rules once it comes to championship anyway.
John Kiely openly admits that his team aiming to become the first to win every game in the Munster round-robin.
So what solace can their opponents take?
Well, everybody’s got to lose sometime. Just ask the six-in-a-row Dublin footballers. Talk of splitting the Dubs in two has eased considerably over the last couple of years. Kilkenny were denied five in the final of 2010.
Also, if Waterford found last year that winning the league was a curse then maybe it will be for Limerick too. Maybe they’ll tire faster than their rivals? If maybes were fifty euro notes...
The Déise are first in line to test the champions’ resolve They were the surprise team to miss out in Munster last year. Clare and Cork will be favoured by many to progress again with Limerick but this snake pit of a province always throws up a surprise package.
New Waterford manager Davy Fitzgerald (pictured above left) will be without Iarlaith Daly (hamstring) and Shane McNulty (broken foot) on Sunday but has named Conor Prunty to start and Austin Gleeson (both also hamstring) on the bench. Depending how much you can trust a team named on Thursday, a day earlier even than the new GAA panel disclosure deadline that has aggravated Kiely. Interestingly, only Tipperary have opted to release a panel rather than 'starting’ XV.
Waterford will play their home games at Semple Stadium while Walsh Park is redeveloped and though the loss of home advantage tips the scale further in the Green Machine’s favour, the experimentation shown by hurling’s great innovator in the league suggests he will have something special up his sleeve for the champions. A man-marker for corner-back/corner-forward Barry Nash perhaps? Though Einstein, Edison and Elon Musk (before he bought Twitter) combined might not be able to solve a problem like Limerick.
Clare were Limerick’s closest challengers in Brian Lohan’s third year in charge before falling completely flat in the semi-final defeat to Kilkenny, which makes Sunday an interesting test of their title credentials. Anything other than a win at home to Tipperary would ring alarm bells.
Midfielder David Fitzgerald is suspended but his fellow All-Star Shane O’Donnell starts after sitting out the league. David Reidy (hamstring) is a loss after scoring 4-06 in February and March but Aidan McCarthy has been in fine form since missing all of last year’s championship and has also taken over the frees from talisman Tony Kelly.
Tipp, beaten in every round-robin game in 2022, looked rejuvenated in the league and were unbeaten until they ran into a green wall in the semi-final. Manager Liam Cahill insisted last week that he hasn’t changed the foot-to-the-floor approach that didn’t seem to work out for Waterford, observing that "the end of the Munster Championship will prove whether we got it badly wrong last year or not".
Cahill’s former U20 All-Ireland winners Gearóid O’Connor, Johnny Ryan and Eoghan Connolly have established themselves this spring – along with ex-footballer and Ireland U20 rugby player Alan Tynan - while the repositioning of Michael Breen to full-back has worked reasonably well so far.
They hit 14 goals before Limerick nullified that threat in the semi-final and will need to rediscover that knack to get off to a winning start, though the absence of four-time All-Star Seamus Callanan (knee) and Niall O’Meara (ankle) will be felt up front.
Never short of self-belief and All-Ireland champions only four years ago, a victory would kickstart the Cahill era.
Ever-unpredictable Cork, who were also unbeaten in the league until the semis, will have had five weeks off by the time they host Waterford next weekend. Eoin Downey will miss that game after having his red card following a melee in the loss to Kilkenny upheld.
The Rebels’ second match is also at home, to Tipp, offering a great opportunity to get four points in the bank before tricky trips to Clare and Limerick.
New boss Pat Ryan introduced Patrick Horgan off the bench four weeks ago, whereon he took over the frees from Shane Kingston. He will have to decide whether starting the veteran (35 next month) is a more effective use of his talents, even if he doesn’t see him playing 70 minutes.
In Leinster, it’s a more familiar tale of two plus two plus two.
Kilkenny and Galway contested their fifth provincial final in eight years last June and it would be a surprise if they are not back there again. Though maybe without the handshake drama.
The Cats were outgunned in the league decider but reaching it will have been a bonus in Derek Lyng’s first campaign filling the oversize shoes of Brian Cody, especially as they were missing TJ Reid for the whole thing and Adrian Mullen only returned for the final.
Mullen’s brother Paddy starts alongside Ballyhale Shamrocks’ clubmate Darragh Corcoran in all-debutant midfield against Westmeath today.
Billy Drennan took over the dead-ball duties in TJ's absence and racked up 2-70 on the way to being Division 1’s top-scorer but the Galmoy man, who scored 2-12 for the U20s just last week, unfortunately misses out on a championship debut due to a leg injury.
A young team that pushed Limerick to the very end of the All-Ireland final will have big ambitions this year and the Ballyhale boys can teach them how to feel written off after only being ranked third favourites.
For both the Lake County and Antrim, the decisive game is likely to be their meeting in Mullingar in the final round, though Westmeath drew with Wexford last year and ran Dublin reasonably close.
Antrim might fancy their chances at home to the Dubs today after losing in Parnell Park by just three points in February.
Dublin are still finding their feet under Micheál Donoghue, who has to do without the experience of Liam Rushe, Chris Crummey and Cian O'Callaghan, but they will expect to be challenging for third place and a preliminary quarter-final at least.
Donal Burke is still providing the bulk of their scores but Alex Considine and Cian Boland both reached double figures in the league and will be expected to contribute heavily.
Darragh Egan will be praying that early-season form really has become meaningless after a painful couple of months for Wexford that included a record league defeat – 6-25 to 1-18 – at the hands of Clare.
The injury list was lengthy that day in February, and with Liam Ryan, Matthew O’Hanlon and Lee Chin all now restored to the spine of the team, Wexford will still be challenging to get out of the group.
Though starting against Galway in Salthill is not ideal.
The Tribesmen have long been considered the perfect mix of size and skill to challenge Limerick and could have beaten them in last year's semi-final but for converting only 47% of their chances to the winners’ 61%.
Five-point league defeats to Cork and Limerick and missing out on the semi-finals won’t have worried Henry Shefflin too much and the reality is that Leinster offers more room for rest and rotation.
A win against Wexford and qualification could be all but secured after the games against Antrim and Westmeath, regardless of what happens in Nowlan Park in round two.
The return of Daithí Burke, Fintan Burke and Cathal Mannion to fitness (the latter duo are on the bench) is also a big boost following the loss of 2017 All-Ireland winning captain David Burke to a cruciate ligament.
Shefflin told Galway Bay FM this week that Limerick "definitely have the biggest and the best squad."
Hopefully, he and all the other managers will be telling their players something different in private, and we’ll have a highly competitive championship to remember. Even if the result turns out the same.
Watch Waterford v Limerick in the Munster Hurling Championship on Sunday from 1.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on the RTÉ News app or RTÉ.ie/Sport or listen to live commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
