Questions from last weekend can only be answered in heat of Championship
THE League can make fools of us in hindsight, so it’s best not to rush to judgement on last weekend.
If you were to take the games at face value, you’d say Limerick are finished and Tipperary are going nowhere and maybe that will prove to be the case come Championship.
But while John Kiely and Liam Cahill will have been cranky all week about their teams’ displays, they certainly won’t be panicking just yet.
And Brian Lohan won’t be getting carried away either. However, right now, there is no doubt that Clare are the most in-form team in the country.
I’ve been saying it for some time now, but they have been really consistent over the past couple of years and have put it up to Limerick more than any other team. They have been in the last two All-ireland semifinals, something Clare hadn’t achieved since 2006.
They haven’t got everything right and have made a few wrong decisions along the way, particularly against Kilkenny in those
two semi-final defeats but, by and large, you know what you are going to get when go out against them.
In sport, you don’t always get what you deserve but given the level Clare have played at for the last couple of years, they are certainly worthy of silverware.
They’ve got another opportunity now against Kilkenny, and it’ll be a big ask, but you can be fairly confident that they will turn up and perform.
Most encouragingly, they have found a number of new players and still have plenty of quality to come back into the team.
They were awesome at times against Tipperary. If the Hurler of the Year was polled right now, David Fitzgerald would come out on top; his performances over the last two years have been of the highest quality.
Brendan Bugler has been added to the management team and I have no doubt that his coaching is adding something.
They play a nice and simple brand of hurling and for lengthy periods against Tipp, they were totally dominant. Although they wouldn’t say it publicly, Limerick must be a huge motivational factor for them.
Seeing their neighbours win so much while they have been left empty-handed must grate and at some point they have to say enough is enough.
But while Limerick’s sole focus over the next four weeks is Clare in Ennis, the Banner have to worry about Kilkenny first.
Then it’s a twoweek lead-in to the Limerick game, so there is a danger of being sidetracked somewhat ahead of what could be a season-defining game.
Because, despite the fact that they need silverware, there’s no doubt that the Limerick game is the more important of the two.
But, as is always the case, history will be written by the winners.
Beat Limerick and the League run was the making of them.
Lose, and the
League final was a distraction.