Limerick irritated by analysis... and they have a point

IT DID little to dampen their celebratory mood last Sunday but a few Limerick supporters of Square Ball’s acquaintance were mildly irritated by the analysis of their win over Tipperary. On The Sunday Game, Ger Loughnane (below) and the panel went heavy on words such as passion, fighting quality and spirit and talked of how TJ Ryan harked back to the traditional values of Limerick hurling.

But the most impressive feature of the win was surely the way Limerick responded to Graeme Mulcahy’s disallowed goal and hit Tipperary for 1-2 without reply in the final three minutes.

And there was little about the composure of Shane Dowling in taking his late goal or the poise of substitute Tom Ryan to nail a last-minute point. As one supporter pointed out, even this idea of physicality doesn’t stack up as Limerick’s three biggest hurlers – Dowling, Declan Hannon and Kevin Downes – also happen to be their most skilful. Still, that’s not in keeping with the traditional values of Limerick hurling, is it?

AT WHAT point does the GAA’s cruciate curse become a full-blown crisis? Within 24 hours this past week, it was revealed that two inter-county stars, Tyrone defender Conor Clarke and Kilkenny midfielder Micheal Rice, were the latest to be struck down by a cruciate ligament injury.

By our count, that makes 10 county players that have ruptured their cruciate ligament this season alon. Alongside Clarke and Rice on the sideline are Kerry’s Colm Cooper, the Dublin pair of Ciaran Kilkenny and Kevin O’Brien, Meath’s Eamonn Wallace, Mayo’s Cathal Carolan, Armagh’s Aidan Forker, Galway’s Niall Healy and Waterford’s Tony Grey.

Alarm bells must be ringing in Croke Park as to why this problem continues to grow.