Hurlers host All-Ireland under Stack Park lights
THE Kerry senior hurlers will begin their 2019 campaign on Thursday night against the All Ireland hurling champions Limerick in Austin Stack Park (throw-in 7.30pm).
In the increasingly condensed fixtures schedule pre-season competitions which normally would have taken place in January have been pushed back to December – the O’Bryne Cup in Leinster got underway earlier this month.
Given the timing of the match it’s hard to know precisely how competitive it will be or what sort of Limerick team will come to the Kingdom or even what sort of a team Kerry boss Fintan O’Connor will be able to field.
“We haven’t done too much hurling to be honest,” the Kerry boss told The Kerryman this week.
“January / February you kind of find out where you really are. It’s lovely to have, I suppose, two Under-21 Bs [All-Ireland titles] in the last two years, and you would be hoping that some of those fellows will come through, but having said that, a lot of those fellows were [already] nearly through, the likes of Shane Conway, Brandon [Barrett], those fellows are probably established from last year.”
“[It’s a] massive test and I suppose in fairness to them [Limerick], they have probably twenty-five lads playing Fitzgibbon hurling on their panel, so they have probably played hurling for the last ten or twelve weeks, they have played probably six to eight games so they will be sharp, flying and buzzing around so definitely it will be a massive test for us on Thursday night.”