CLARE & PRESENT DANGER
Bonnar fears Treaty defeat to Bannermen will have them fired for Carlow
CARLOW boss Colm Bonnar says he fears a Limerick backlash this weekend after their fadeout against Clare.
Fresh from winning the inaugural Joe Mcdonagh Cup as a result of a fivepoint win over Westmeath at Croke Park last Sunday, Bonnar’s side welcome the Shannonsiders to Netwatch Cullen Park for an All-ireland preliminary quarter-final on Saturday evening.
Limerick were very much one of the form sides in this year’s Munster Championship but became the latest team to suffer from playing three weeks or more in succession as Clare scored an 11point win in Ennis last month to reach the provincial final at their expense.
Bonnar admitted: “We’re probably going to get the backlash from that defeat they got against Clare.
“I think they only scored 0-15 and for a Limerick team that would be disappointing because they set the world on fire, they beat Tipp first of all and destroyed Waterford by 13 points and they looked to be the form team.
“At the start of the year I would have had Limerick down as reaching an All-ireland final and that hasn’t changed.
“I’d say they’re hugely disappointed that they didn’t make that Munster final.
“They looked like the form team after the first two or three games and lost their way then against
Clare and paid a heavy price.
“They’ve had three weeks to get their act together
and get the recovery in and this really is their goal, this is their competition and what they’ve trained for.
“Our eye was on the Joe Mcdonagh. Once that started that was a huge, huge prize for us. Being in Croke Park was a huge achievement and to win it was just massive for us.
“This a bigger competition where the likes of your Limericks and Tipperarys and Galways focus in on from the word go, this is where they earn their stripes. “We’re getting the game and I’m delighted, it’ll give us an opportunity to test where we are and use it as an indication of what we need to do in our preparations going up to 1B and obviously the senior hurling Championship because that’s going to be incredible for the lads.”
Playing this game less than a week after the high of lifting a trophy at Croke Park brings its own difficulties but Bonnar insisted that the players behaved responsibly after their victory with this weekend’s game in mind. He added: “They’re all family men or they’re working men and they all had to get up for work on Monday.
“It’s a case that we enjoyed ourselves on Sunday and get the recovery in on Monday. “They’re all mature players and they’ve put their life on hold for a good part of the season in terms of getting to where they have been and we’re foolish enough to throw it away through a lack of preparation so we’re going to give this our best shot.
“We want to test ourselves, we want to see where we are.” hurling championship due to health and safety issues with Walsh Park.
He added: “Let nobody have any doubt in their mind, I would have delivered that for Waterford.
“I could deliver around the country, there is no question in my mind that if the GAA came into my door and said, ‘Martin, we want to go with this project, what can we do to make it happen?’ then I’d have made that happen.”