Treaty have finally won me over
IHAVE a glass half-full friend who I fear is never going to talk to me again after this.
He is Limerick to the bone, just as I am, but where we differ is that he can only see the hurling world through green and white tinted lenses.
He has been reddening my ear for the past few months, “ah come on, Tom, will you give us a bit of credit?’ he keeps pleading.
When they won promotion to Division 1, I acknowledged that it represented significant progress but qualified it by claiming that they hadn’t beaten a relation of a serious hurling team.
I include Galway in that and anyone that has caught an eyeful of them over the last month will know they are a far different team now, in mind and body, to the one which coasted fecklessly through the spring.
When Limerick beat Tipperary in the opening game of the summer, I pointed out they could not be judged on that result because they had beaten opponents who might as well have come out of a lucky bag than a dressing room.
Tipperary’s selection was so utterly bizarre, you wondered if it was a team picked on the basis of the first 15 who got into the team bus that morning.
And when they came back against Cork while playing with 14 men, I pointed out that it is a careless thing for a team to give up a half-time winning position once, but it takes a flawed team to do it twice — as the Rebels had done.
Anyhow last week, my friend took a new approach: ‘Do you know something, don’t bother giving us any praise because the less credit you give us the better we do.’
Well, here is the bad news for my friend — this week I bow to the mounting evidence suggesting Limerick have a team to be reckoned with.
I am not going heap praise on them, but I accept the force is with Limerick at the moment.
And they will need all of it tomorrow as they head into the cauldron that is Cusack Park when it is bursting at the gates.
I have my reservations about this new format, specifically with regard to the lack of intensity in some games which I wrote about last week.
However, Cusack Park — which was sold out for tomorrow’s game by the end of last week — is to hurling passion what Viagra is to those consumed by bullock’s notions.
In other words, it gets you going.
The crowd is right down on top of the pitch, the atmosphere crackles and so most likely will this Clare team, who will be on some high after last Sunday’s win over Tipperary.
And there is a Munster final place for grabs — it has to be a long, long time since Ennis last hosted a provincial semi-final.
So, all things considered, this really does represent a significant stress-test for this Limerick team. And, I think they will pass it, for a number of reasons.
Momentum is one of the best friends you can have in a dressing room and this team has now reached the stage where they don’t have to convince themselves they can win, they believe they can.
And because they have won so few big games, there is little danger of that confidence morphing into complacency.
Limerick have also been, with the exception of Galway, the most consistent team this summer.
The four others who have qualified for the All-Ireland series — Wexford, Kilkenny, Cork and Clare — have hardly put together two good halves of hurling in the one game.
Clare stayed true to that disturbing trend last Sunday, when they were well off the pace in the first half and thundered into the match in the second.
Limerick have not really struggled to start, or fallen away at the finish, in any of their matches, which suggests this is a focused, motivated team.
Most importantly of all, it is a settled one.
The obvious benefit of the new format is that it allows you to learn as you go along, to bolster where you are weak and to develop options even where you are strong.
Michael Casey’s assumption of full-back duties has had a transformative impact on a defence which is looking every solid.
The return of Shane Dowling to such good effect last weekend serves as a reminder of the Na Piarsaigh man’s quality and there is a possibility that Aaron Gillane, who is a fine talent, may have to settle for a place on the bench.
That suggests Limerick are in the process of developing the kind of match-changing bench which, again with the exception of Galway, is in short supply elsewhere this summer.
To be fair, Clare also possess that, to a degree, as Podge Collins showed last Sunday when he was instrumental in their dramatic second-half resurgence.
While Collins is a rare talent, he is similar in style and stature to Clare’s other principle strike forwards Conor McGrath and Shane O’Donnell, who are small, fast, highly-skilled players.
Their issue is getting on the ball and the irony is that, while it may well be their home pitch, Cusack Park may not necessarily be suited to their strengths.
It is a tight pitch and that plays right into the hands of Limerick, who, for all their youth, are a physically powerful team.
Again, they are not unlike Galway in that, if you pop the ball up into the air, you are quite literally playing it into their hands — given their aerial strength in the half-back line.
With the exception of their number one warrior, John Conlon, the Banner do not come equipped to win a blood and thunder game.
They have got to hit precise, low, diagonal balls in front of their inside but that is lot easier executed in Croke Park than it is in Cusack Park.
So, yeah, by this stage my optimistic friend has taken to the bed and has the curtains closed. ‘Don’t do it,’ he is begging me. But I will because this is a team worth showing a bit of faith in.
Limerick to win.