WALSH IMPRESSED BY CHAMPIONS
ahead of the final, with the talisman hobbling off early on. Lar Corbett (left) swept Tipp to the title with a hat-trick. Kilkenny regrouped and won the next two All-irelands. AS John Kiely spoke to the media after Limerick’s defeat of Kilkenny on Sunday, Gala’s ‘Freed From Desire’ blared from the winning dressing room.
The song, famously given a fresh twist by Northern Ireland fans feting journeyman striker Will Grigg at Euro 2016, stood at number five in the Irish singles chart the last time Limerick beat Kilkenny in Nowlan Park. It was August 1997, the first season that the National Hurling League was played in a single calendar year and for that year only it was run alongside the Championship which meant that, oddly enough, Kilkenny played Limerick in the semi-final at Nowlan Park having been beaten in the Allireland semifinal by Clare just a week earlier. A number of the youthful current Limerick hurling team weren’t even born at the time, Kyle Hayes among them.
“No, it was the year later I was born,” he smiled. Sunday’s win was also Limerick’s first in the League over Kilkenny since 2006, Kiely’s side having already bridged a 45-year gap in JACKIE TYRRELL may think All-ireland champions Limerick are not a top three side, but Walter Walsh
(right) strongly disagrees.
In the lead up to Sunday’s League meeting between Kilkenny and Limerick, ninetime All-ireland winner Tyrrell predicted the downfall of the Treaty men, but the manner of their 2-18 to 0-15 win at Nowlan Park suggests the champions getting over them in last year’s All-ireland quarterfinal.
“We knew it was going to be a big test coming up to play Kilkenny in their back garden,” said Hayes.
“Even anywhere, to play them in Limerick would be a big test. We’re just trying to take it game by game and the target was to win this game and to hopefully put in a good performance and thankfully we did that.
“We didn’t at the start of the League say, ‘Jeez, we have to come up to Nowlan Park and play Kilkenny and win at that ground’. We never really look at any game like that.
“We’re looking forward to Cork now next weekend. As I said, we’re just going to take every game as it is and try to keep improving.”
While it’s been acknowledged by Kiely (below) that it’s still early days in 2019, the manner in which Limerick have started the year with three wins from three in the League has been especially impressive and unusual for a team coming off the back of ending a lengthy Allireland drought.
They’ve brushed aside Tipperary and Kilkenny in their last two games, counties that won every Allireland bar one from 2006-16, and when Hayes says the winter of celebrations didn’t take much out of them, you’re inclined to believe him.
“Getting a break is obviously a massive part of have maintained the standards which took them all the way last year.
Walsh made his comeback in that game and the
27-year old was impressed.
“Looking at yesterday’s performance Limerick are definitely right up there,” said Walsh, who is a teacher at Good Counsel College in New Ross. “It is February rejuvenating for the next season. We did that and once we got back training, we’re always very hard trainers, so we weren’t long getting back into our fitness and getting our ball and touch-work back.
“The first few weeks [of pre-season] are obviously very hard, but as soon as you get used to it… it’s probably just getting back into the routine, that’s the hardest bit of it.”
The fact they are virtually assured of a spot in the quarter-finals with two games to spare may offer Limerick an opportunity to ease off with the bigger picture in mind but Hayes insisted:“winning is a habit and that’s what you want to keep doing. Just keep on this path and on an upward trajectory performance wise.
“Thankfully we have a massive squad there and any person that comes in is putting everyone’s place under pressure.” For now at least, there’s no sense of Limerick dining out on 2018.
Hayes added: “Some teams might have done that but everyone on that bus there now, and everyone at home, we’re not happy with just one [All-ireland], like, we wanted to get back into hurling as soon as we could and just drive on with it.”
Signs are on it. now, but they are playing a great brand of hurling. They are extremely organised and they will be there or thereabouts. “There is nearly a top eight or nine teams. It’s seriously competitive.
“Maybe ten or 15 years ago there was more All-ireland teams coming back after enjoying the celebrations. But it’s gone so competitive now.”
Limerick Wexford Tipperary Kilkenny Cork Clare
P 3 3 3 3 3 3
W 3 2 1 1 1 1
D L 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 2 02 0 2
+/- 19 2 0 -2 -8 -10
Pts 6 4 2 2 2 2