*Limerick GAA news/discussion thread*

paddy no 11

Double feck. Tobin's done his job so far, not sure what happens next. David breen is prob the natural CF, though reidy could also get a look in.

ReacherCreature

Rightwing wrote: »

I don't really rate him. Not sure though if I'm being harsh.

He contributes. Doesn't really set the world on fire and from what I see drifts in and out. Works best in open space. In eleven games he's scored 3-16 from play which isn't to be looked down at and scored 1-1 in that big win over Tipperary in the Munster semi-final.

Fireball07

Tobin's a good player... mightn't be as brilliant as someone like Mulcahy or Hannon on top form, but he is consistent and is a natural goalscorer, if he gets a chance, he will get goals. He's also well capable of getting out in front of his man, and setting up chances... his performance against Tipp was top class, scored 1-1 but set up about 0-3 with brilliant passes.


Losing both of them would be a huge blow, as Downes is probably the natural replacement for Tobin. If they were both to miss out, I wouldn't be surprised if they went with a 2-man full-forward line of Mulcahy and either Hannon/Dowling, with the other moving out the field. But either way, it would limit our options from the bench a lot.

Rightwing

Seems like Dowling and a few others have picked up injuries too.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/hurling/triple-injury-blow-casts-shadow-over-treaty-29450151.html

Colemania

I can confirm, from my own eyes, that yes Seanie Tobin is in a brace/boot. Just saw him walking around town on my lunch break all suited and booted (excuse the pun). The epitome of style

Hitchens

Dressingroom thief receives jail term

26 July 2013




A thief that broke into a Limerick GAA dressingroom has been handed a 13-month prison sentence.

Judge Eugene O'Kelly handed down the sentence after Ger Whelan, Hyde Park, Limerick city pleaded guilty to the theft of personal belongings costing thousands of euros from Murroe-Boher GAA players.

Among the items stolen were wedding rings, watches, iPhone's, laptop and cash. The court was told that Whelan had 88 previous convictions.

GAA players have been the victims of a number of such thefts in recent times, as players from a London club were targeted last month and thousands of pounds worth of items were stolen on that occasion also.

________________________________________

Well done to the Gardai, the number of previous convictions is incredible though!

Fireball07

Imagine a Clare-Limerick semi-final in Croke Park?? Would be pretty incredible imo.


A double header of Limerick-Galway would be good too, after Galway won the minor against Laois.

Fireball07

Fireball07 wrote: »

Imagine a Clare-Limerick semi-final in Croke Park?? Would be pretty incredible imo.


A double header of Limerick-Galway would be good too, after Galway won the minor against Laois.

The 18th could be a great day for atmosphere. And hopefully a Limerick win.

Rightwing

We're marginal favourites for both the minor and senior all irelands!

Outright
Limerick
9/4

Dublin
5/2

Cork
5/2

Clare
10/3

Dub - Cork Evs
Limk 8/11 to beat Clare

ReacherCreature

Going to be a serious battle!

Mountainlad

Rightwing wrote: »

We're marginal favourites for both the minor and senior all irelands!

Outright
Limerick
9/4

Dublin
5/2

Cork
5/2

Clare
10/3

Dub - Cork Evs
Limk 8/11 to beat Clare

Yer f**ked so

slegs

John Allen will have the heads right for this. He has had 5 weeks to prepare. Being Clare wont make any difference there.

It will be one hell of a battle though

Thinkstoomuch

What a championship,fairy tale stuff.

And four games left,with 3 munster teams.

Fireball07

And Richie McCarthy is joint favourite for Hurler of the Year on paddypower alongside Pat Horgan at 7/1.

While Hannon is odds-on favourite for Young Hurler of the Year. I personally think Hannon has been a long way from his best, but seems to be getting a lot of media praise all the same. But I honestly think someone like Tony Kelly has had a better season to date, or Podge Collins (who isn't listed for some reason).....and can Harnedy qualify as he's in his first season?



I wouldn't be worried about the heads being right, I would be worried about the potential injuries though. Losing both Downes and Tobin would weaken us a lot. Certainly won't be an easy game, Clare at their best look like a very fluid outfit....who is going to mark Collins and Kelly, how well can we limit their influence?

And will we be able to counteract that blanket defence they seem to implement at times, will be very hard to get goals I'd say. Need to be able to take our points from distance which Galway weren't.

slegs

Fireball07 wrote: »

And Richie McCarthy is joint favourite for Hurler of the Year on paddypower alongside Pat Horgan at 7/1.

While Hannon is odds-on favourite for Young Hurler of the Year. I personally think Hannon has been a long way from his best, but seems to be getting a lot of media praise all the same. But I honestly think someone like Tony Kelly has had a better season to date, or Podge Collins (who isn't listed for some reason).....and can Harnedy qualify as he's in his first season?



I wouldn't be worried about the heads being right, I would be worried about the potential injuries though. Losing both Downes and Tobin would weaken us a lot. Certainly won't be an easy game, Clare at their best look like a very fluid outfit....who is going to mark Collins and Kelly, how well can we limit their influence?

And will we be able to counteract that blanket defence they seem to implement at times, will be very hard to get goals I'd say. Need to be able to take our points from distance which Galway weren't.

We are also a strong defensive outfit who play an extra man back so I dont think Clare will play the exact same tactics against us

Fireball07

slegs wrote: »

We are also a strong defensive outfit who play an extra man back so I dont think Clare will play the exact same tactics against us

Might be true.....against Waterford and Cork their inside line wasn't very efficient (bar Honan against Cork), while they've certainly grown into games since.

Another thing is Clare have been very wasteful so far, today they seemed a bit more clinical for whatever reason. We'll need to limit their chances...if we hound them in their own defence, they can make sloppy mistakes, they've given away a couple of goals this year from poor passes out of defence. And when Galway pressured them high, they hit some very poor balls to the forwards.

Mountainlad

Fireball07 wrote: »

And Richie McCarthy is joint favourite for Hurler of the Year on paddypower alongside Pat Horgan at 7/1.

While Hannon is odds-on favourite for Young Hurler of the Year. I personally think Hannon has been a long way from his best, but seems to be getting a lot of media praise all the same. But I honestly think someone like Tony Kelly has had a better season to date, or Podge Collins (who isn't listed for some reason).....and can Harnedy qualify as he's in his first season?

Agree with you on Hannon, ye're more of a team than a team of individuals so it's hard to find the standouts. He takes the frees, so naturally scores the most so gets the plaudits. Would be very harsh to me at this stage on current form though of Podge Collins didn't get it, 5 points against Cork, superb against Wexford and another 4 yesterday I think. Incredible performances. Much better than Tony Kelly in my book too. Harnedy doesn't qualify because he's not under 21.

Also, in fairness to Richie McCarthy he's deserving of being favourite for hurler of the year, though ultimately who ever wins the all-ireland will have hurler of the year (as is the norm I guess, but especially this year it being so tight).

Fireball07

Mountainlad wrote: »

Agree with you on Hannon, ye're more of a team than a team of individuals so it's hard to find the standouts. He takes the frees, so naturally scores the most so gets the plaudits. Would be very harsh to me at this stage on current form though of Podge Collins didn't get it, 5 points against Cork, superb against Wexford and another 4 yesterday I think. Incredible performances. Much better than Tony Kelly in my book too. Harnedy doesn't qualify because he's not under 21.

Also, in fairness to Richie McCarthy he's deserving of being favourite for hurler of the year, though ultimately who ever wins the all-ireland will have hurler of the year (as is the norm I guess, but especially this year it being so tight).

It's a slight pity that arguably our most talented players (Hannon & Mulcahy) haven't been at their absolute best, while Downes & Dowling have been on the bench.


And yeah I agree about the AI winner getting Hurler of the Year (although Dan Shanahan and Tony Browne are both exceptions in recent times). If we win, McCarthy or whoever stands out in the 2 remaining games (DOG and Condon probably have a chance too) might get it. If Dublin win, Rushe/Keaney/Dotsy will be favourites...Cork- Horgan/O'Neill/Harnedy....Clare- Collins/Kelly

Dampintheattic

Fireball07 wrote: »

And Richie McCarthy is joint favourite for Hurler of the Year on paddypower alongside Pat Horgan at 7/1.

While Hannon is odds-on favourite for Young Hurler of the Year. I personally think Hannon has been a long way from his best, but seems to be getting a lot of media praise all the same. But I honestly think someone like Tony Kelly has had a better season to date, or Podge Collins (who isn't listed for some reason).....and can Harnedy qualify as he's in his first season?



I wouldn't be worried about the heads being right, I would be worried about the potential injuries though. Losing both Downes and Tobin would weaken us a lot. Certainly won't be an easy game, Clare at their best look like a very fluid outfit....who is going to mark Collins and Kelly, how well can we limit their influence?

And will we be able to counteract that blanket defence they seem to implement at times, will be very hard to get goals I'd say. Need to be able to take our points from distance which Galway weren't.

Bring back Joe McKenna:cool:

shockframe

If we didnt know beforehand there can be no doubt that we are in for a serious battle against Clare on August 18th.

A number of people were quick to point out how poor clare played before yesterday but these lads have won in croke park at minor and many have under 21 all ireland titles so they were always going to pose a threat when they got it right.

That winning mentality could be hard to break now.

A few things would concern me going into this.

1) The break in matches. I'm not worried about the 5 week gap as such because every all ireland winner in history has had to put up with it.but trying to come back down from the high of the munster final and the emotion that went with it is going to be difficult.

2) if clare's forwards get a run on a team they will be hard to stop. Cork missed good chances against us.Clare are less likely to do so.

3) clare caught waterford cold in 2002 after waterford won munster 5/6 weeks earlier having been written off most of that season.

4)Complacency against clare has been our undoing before. I'll never forget the disappointment of the 1995 munter final we thought we would win handy.

5) I wrote this the day after the tipp win 7 weeks ago:

"We still have a munster final to play yet and we will have a big fight on our hands to win that.if its cork they will have runners which could unsettle us.if its clare they'll have a serious weapon against us-Paul Kinnerk.This man has played with/against several of todays team in football (Walsh,James Ryan, Seamus Hickey former county team mates) so he'll have an idea on how to unsettle lads."

The first sentence no longer appplies of course but Im as fearful now as I was then of what clares sideline could have planned for us.Kinnerk appears to be a serious trainer and has walked the walk with clare underage and most of them are on the seniors now so they seem to be responding to him. Being involved with Limerick football gives him some insight into the workings of some of our players and he is also well acquainted with david breen. They have another Limerick man as physio so we are against a sideline who wont lack knowledge on us.

6) Davy will take up most of the pre-match talk which will keep his squad in the background.

This is the biggest banana skin that Limerick have faced in decades so we better be aware of this.We are good enough to win I still believe but we could be caught napping.

ReacherCreature

Fireball07 wrote: »

And Richie McCarthy is joint favourite for Hurler of the Year on paddypower alongside Pat Horgan at 7/1.

If McCarthy doesn't win HOTY, he'll surely get the Munster player of the year which is respectable too.

I wouldn't be worried about the heads being right, I would be worried about the potential injuries though. Losing both Downes and Tobin would weaken us a lot. Certainly won't be an easy game, Clare at their best look like a very fluid outfit....who is going to mark Collins and Kelly, how well can we limit their influence?

Collins is a live wire and tends to play all over the park. He scored points ranging from midfield to down near corner forward and opposite sides too. Someone will have to follow him all over the park.

Kelly doesn't probe as deep from what I've seen and tends to loiter around the half forward line. He usually starts at #10 or 11. Maybe Gavin McNamara.

Clare love to take their points; main thing is to limit their space and stick to them. Galway didn't do any of this. Conor McGrath's last point on Sunday was evident of this. He had a huge amount of time.

Limerick will need a goal or two in their locker too as this match is incredibly close already. That will surely be a point that Allen will emphasise.

Fireball07

One thing about Clare though is that we know we are capable of beating them, we beat them last year, and while they might be improved, so will we. As I said before, I don't think complacency will be an issue with Allen in charge.


But against Galway, Kelly was inside in his own half-back line a lot of the time, while it was Collins who seemed to be floating around the half-forward line (although he did drop into midfield and deeper at times). Personally, I don't think we can afford to have Wayne Mac follow anyone...and I'd disagree with moving out a corner-back either, if our full-back line get isolated, then McGrath and Honan will take advantage.

So, I'd go for Hickey on Kelly and Browne on Collins.


As for goals, if Clare gift us opportunities, I think we'll take them. But if they play a crowded defence, we should just take our points from distance.

grenache

Rightwing wrote: »

I don't really rate him. Not sure though if I'm being harsh.

I think Tobin has been our most dangerous forward over the course of our two games in Munster. He definitely showed up Mulcahy in the semi and was almost as prominent in the final.

Do we know which toe Downes actually broke? If its one of the smaller ones he could be back in time for the 18th. But if he's done his big toe then he has no chance as that's a two month layoff.

Rightwing

grenache wrote: »

I think Tobin has been our most dangerous forward over the course of our two games in Munster. He definitely showed up Mulcahy in the semi and was almost as prominent in the final.

Do we know which toe Downes actually broke? If its one of the smaller ones he could be back in time for the 18th. But if he's done his big toe then he has no chance as that's a two month layoff.

Downes will be back, I agree about Mulcahy, he needs to up it now big time.

As for complacency, no way. Simply no.

We are a division below clare so should be underdogs. It's a 50-50 game at best for us. But 1 we can certainly win if things go our way.

paddy no 11

The injuries are a huge concern, if one more forward gets hurt this weekend its over. Our wins have been based on impact from the bench, if we dont have that......... Richie Mc has to come through as well.

Rightwing

Interesting read, we could have done with Collins staying!

Clare’s physical trainer is former Limerick footballer Paul Kinnerk and captain Pat Donnellan lives in the city.

There’ll be plenty of blurred lines come August 18 and Podge Collins’ story is in keeping with it.

“I’m actually from Limerick,” he smiles. “I lived there for eight years and actually played with Na Piarsaigh.

“Playing in Croke Park against Limerick will be a brilliant atmosphere. I was eight when I moved out and was at that age group so I think I played around the time of (Kevin) Downes, (Shane) Dowling and them. They were a step ahead of me at that age and maybe they still are! But we’ll get to play them now. There’ll be a good buzz in Croke Park for it.”

Insect Overlord

Rightwing wrote: »

There’ll be plenty of blurred lines come August 18 and Podge Collins’ story is in keeping with it.

“I’m actually from Limerick,” he smiles. “I lived there for eight years and actually played with Na Piarsaigh.

“Playing in Croke Park against Limerick will be a brilliant atmosphere. I was eight when I moved out and was at that age group so I think I played around the time of (Kevin) Downes, (Shane) Dowling and them. They were a step ahead of me at that age and maybe they still are! But we’ll get to play them now. There’ll be a good buzz in Croke Park for it.”

Did Podge's brother Seán play for Clare a few years ago? I think my brother was friends with them before they moved away from Limerick.

Rightwing

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Did Podge's brother Seán play for Clare a few years ago? I think my brother was friends with them before they moved away from Limerick.

Fairly sure he did.

Hidalgo

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Did Podge's brother Seán play for Clare a few years ago? I think my brother was friends with them before they moved away from Limerick.

Ya Sean is still on the panel. Started the league game last year under lights in Limerick. Hasn't seen much gametime this year. He was wing forward on the 2009 U21 winning team.

niallo27

I hear a few people talking about limerick injuries but Clare have a tought munster final at U-21 10 days before the semi final. We could have injury worries after that one, its all tipp have left to play for so it will be a battle.