KILLINAN END - A final hurling demanded
It is the All-Ireland hurling final that the sport needed and comes along just at the right time.
Limerick on the threshold of a remarkable feat, and standing before them, Kilkenny, the last team to lower their colours in the championship. The Leinster champions are to a fair extent existing on reputation rather than substance at this stage. Yet, for Limerick they must be the ideal opposition, the one team that has remained a fly in the ointment, a blot on an otherwise pristine copybook. Kilkenny’s survival instinct sees them still with their head above water but now facing the ultimate challenge where they are most unlikely to face a team which majors in self-sabotage like Galway and Clare.
It is a rivalry with a long history and was never more vibrant than in the 1930s. The All-Ireland finals of 1933, ’35, ’36, and again in 1940 were contested by the counties with equal success. In an era too when every weekend seemed to have a tournament game these teams crossed camáns in venues as far apart as London and Newport. The former was at the long-defunct Woolwich Stadium, the latter one of a series of tournament games played in Newport to raise funds for the no doubt considerable expense of a new church. Clare had come to Newport a week earlier to meet Limerick. It must have been heady days by the Mulcaire as all three counties were enjoying the sort of ascendancy that they had this year with the 1932 All-Ireland final between Kilkenny and Clare, while a year later it was Limerick’s turn to meet Kilkenny. The counties had relatively slim pickings in the 1940s and ‘50s though Limerick’s 1947 League triumph was at Kilkenny’s expense. It was significant enough in that it was won when Kilkenny were All-Ireland champions for the only time in an 18-year period between 1939 and 1957.
The 1970s was golden for Kilkenny but Limerick too had their moments, most memorably of all in 1973. A year later they had a bad day against the Black and Amber when Matt Ruth played for Limerick against his native county. The less said about their 2007 final the better when Limerick were first sorted out physically and comfortably beaten. That year Limerick has played some seven championship games and won only three of them. It is hardly unfair to say that they were somewhere off the finished article when it came to potential All-Ireland winners. No such problems these days.
There are those who maintain that Limerick have slipped somewhat and drifted back to the chasing pack. It seems that evidence for this is scant enough. Yes, you could draw a straight line through Clare, Kilkenny, and Limerick, and reach the fantastic conclusion that Kilkenny are world-beaters with Limerick about to walk into a threshing machine. Only problem there is that the same type of logic would struggle to explain why Kilkenny’s conquerors, Wexford, were beaten by Clare. The case for Limerick points to a full Munster campaign of five matches and a tilt at Galway without defeat. They stand on the edge of a third All-Ireland championship win in just 22 months which in peace-time is remarkable, but despite the close calls with Clare and even with Galway in the semi-final they have rarely looked as if they don’t have the answers. Bear in mind too that they have come through the championship so far with Cian Lynch unavailable most of the time. Would Dublin not now be in the football final if Con O’Callaghan had been available to them?
Limerick, as with many a successful team, might well get their full complement back at the right time. It could be argued that the semi-final was an ideal game in that any potential vulnerabilities were tested. Can the same be said of Kilkenny? The Black and Amber lost to Galway in Salthill and Wexford in Nowlan Park. That has to mean something. Have the underlying causes of defeat really been eliminated? Much has been made of their great conversion to the modern style of play which moved the ball staccato style through the lines, but you wonder how this will hold up under stress. The old German adage that ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy’ must be an over-arching concern to the more discerning thinkers on Nore-side. Clare reserved their most inept tepid performance for the day it most mattered. It is unlikely Kilkenny’s plans will be facilitated by such a formidable and experienced team as they face on Sunday. If Kilkenny are forced to revert to type of pump high ball towards the Limerick defence, while Reid and Walsh might win the odd one, the long-term prospects are not great.
Let’s forget plans and strategy – what Kilkenny will bring more than anything else will be pure intensity. They will attempt to suffocate Limerick in the middle of the park and pressurise their forwards like never before. It is a plan which might well work. But it won’t work for long. They could rely on Clare with their long high balls into the Kilkenny full-back line to keep Tony Kelly and Shane O’Donnell out of the game. Keeping Limerick’s forwards under the thumb is an entirely different prospect with the number of options they have. Kilkenny have done well to get here. They have ridden their luck no doubt and escaped their own shortcomings. For that there is credit due.
But this is Limerick’s time, and they are a far different proposition to the team Kilkenny harassed into defeat three years ago. Try that now and the same questions will elicit different answers. To these eyes, it will be a mild surprise if the Shannonsiders do not win this with a bit to spare.