GALWAY’S GUILE TO CARRY THE DAY
Romantics may want a Limerick fairytale but Tribe look too strong
‘I’VE HEARD LIMERICK ARE RELAXED AND READY. I’M NOT SO SURE’
WATCHING ‘The Game’ on Monday night on RTÉ got me thinking about the sense of history attached to hurling and today’s All-Ireland final. I was born in 1968 when the hurling landscape was so different to now.
Wexford won the All-Ireland that year – nobody imagined that it would be 28 years before they would do so again. I certainly never imagined that they would be still chasing that breakthrough when I started playing against them.
It was 1971 when the All-Star scheme started up. Offaly’s Damien Martin was named between the posts in that first team.
Again, I never envisaged that I would line out in a county final alongside him in 1986, as well as Pádraig Horan, who captained Offaly to that landmark first Leinster title in 1980, and then the All-Ireland in 1981.
Between 1968 and 1998, I watched my county win seven All-Irelands, taking in hurling and football. Played my own part in that story.
When John Troy won an All-Star at centre-forward in 1999, Offaly had an award in every position in hurling and football. A remarkable statistic.
Never did we think we’d see that level of success – or that it would fade out of sight so fast.
Which brings me to Limerick. When they won in 1973, who would have guessed that it would be 45 years and counting since the Liam MacCarthy Cup was secured? One of the figureheads of that team, Eamonn Cregan, managed us in 1994, and I admired people like Pat Hartigan and Joe McKenna greatly as a young lad.
By the time I was 10 years of age, I was very aware of their status in the game. Pat Hartigan was full-back on the first five All-Stars’ teams – at a time when Limerick only won one All-Ireland. What a record. An eye injury cut short his county days but it didn’t stop him having a distinguished athletics career where he represented Ireland.
Joe McKenna was the other. He actually hailed from Shinrone in Offaly before relocating to Limerick and going on to win six All-Stars at full-forward.
Cregan’s name cropped up everywhere when it came to Limerick hurling, whether as a brilliant forward or centre-back on that 1973 team.
The ending of the 1994 All-Ireland provided one of the most bizarre twists when the Offaly team he managed defeated his own Limerick, the dramatic manner of it leaving him shell-shocked.
I suppose we thought the revolution years of the 1990s would continue forever. Limerick and Waterford were the two top-tier counties who didn’t make it to the summit, whose long wait continues. Last year’s final was always going to be emotional. For Galway, because of the tragic death of Tony Keady, and for a Waterford team looking to bridge a gap to 1959.
Galway ended their own famine in 1980 and after the famous double of 1987-88, had to wait 29 years until David Burke climbed the steps to make a speech last September.
This year, the emotion and the fairytale ending is Limerick winning the All-Ireland. Galway have their own history to write in terms of emulating those double-winning heroes and, together, their stories add hugely to the whole occasion.
This match is framed by the people who have gone before, the communities in which the players are rooted. I was a substitute in 1994 and felt like I had never really scratched the itch. that I had to win one in 1998 to feel the emotion that I’m talking about. I’ll never forget waking up the morning after the night before and looking up to see the Liam MacCarthy Cup at the end of bed in Jury’s Hotel.
I don’t think people realise that all of that is going on inside players’ heads. The emotion and the build-up. Parking it for 75 minutes isn’t easy. I’ve heard plenty of talk about Limerick about being relaxed and ready. I’m not so sure. Nothing prepares you for final day.
Galway started like a steam train 12 months ago. Got the fast start that Waterford couldn’t make up ultimately.
It was the same against Kilkenny in the Leinster final replay this year and they threatened to go out of sight twice against Clare. If Galway go six, seven, eight, or nine up, that will really load the pressure on Limerick. Do they then follow Clare’s lead and throw a sweeper back? Kyle Hayes naturally drops deep but that’s be a big tactical shift.
Galway’s two midfielders, David Burke and Johnny Coen, sit deep and break and the half-forwards too tend to drift back.
You can’t play that game with small inside forwards but they have Johnny Glynn and the likes of Conor Cooney playing off him.
Limerick will try to isolate Aaron Gillane inside like they did against Cork but I don’t expect Daithí Burke to be caught going too far out the field.
Limerick’s game plan is about working it through the lines, then switching the play with a diagonal ball. Unlike Galway, they can’t just bombard high ball into the full-forward line. When it comes to handling Glynn, the Limerick full-back line can either try to get the ball to ground or nearly think about conceding possession and just stopping him playing others in around. Limerick will be thinking of using Declan Hannon to sit deep from centreback but that creates the problem of Joe Canning dropping off and pinging over points. A hugely historic final in its own right it definitely is, although it mightn’t be a classic in keeping with a thrilling summer. I was really taken with the Clare angle on The Game. Ger Loughnane and Anthony Daly exhibited such genuine passion, you saw what it meant to get up the steps. My father is a Galway man. I went to school in Ballinasloe. But a part of me hopes Limerick win it for all the people who have waited for this for nearly 50 years. They deserve to experience that special moment. I guess that’s me being a bit of a romantic at heart. If they get the cup, they’ll have done it on merit. I just think their opponents, as champions, know the prize that’s waiting at the end and will be ruthless.