*Limerick GAA news/discussion thread*

Fireball07

One_More_Mile wrote: »

Absolutely- they are worthy champions & best of luck to them. Now are we going to admire them over the bridge or try emulate what they have achieved?

Yeah, that's what I mean.

Clare definitely deserved to win this year. But going forward, I don't see why we can't go on and do something similar. They had underage success, so did we once upon a time... we have plenty of young, talented hurlers in the county... it's just a matter of getting the best out of them.

Shane O'Donnell scored 3-2 or 3-3 today. From play. In an All-Ireland final. He hasn't been a starter for a while now, didn't feature the last day...and before today, I don't know anybody who would take him ahead of the likes of Downes, Mulcahy, Dowling, etc. I still wouldn't, in fact.


The point is, they played a system that suited their players and got the best out of them. We have to do the same. We won a Munster in 2013. And I'm optimistic for 2014.

shockframe

One_More_Mile wrote: »

Now are we going to admire them over the bridge or try emulate what they have achieved?

@ we should but you have to respect what they have achieved.Clare have won as many 21 all irelands recently as we did back in 2000-2002 but they have arrived way ahead of schedule.

Clare have given younger coaches a chance and look where they are now.We picked a minor manager who despite hardly any involvement with underage hurling was at the very core of the senior strike in 2010.

We can moan about being close to an all ireland this year and if we had done this or that.get over it.We beat clare in thurles last year and we didnt care about what they could have done (or complaints they may have had after it).Clare knuckled down and picked themselves up again in the backdrop of some outrageous criticism during the summer.

We must follow their example now.It wont be easy.

phkk

Fireball07 wrote: »

Yeah, that's what I mean.

Clare definitely deserved to win this year. But going forward, I don't see why we can't go on and do something similar. They had underage success, so did we once upon a time... we have plenty of young, talented hurlers in the county... it's just a matter of getting the best out of them.

Shane O'Donnell scored 3-2 or 3-3 today. From play. In an All-Ireland final. He hasn't been a starter for a while now, didn't feature the last day...and before today, I don't know anybody who would take him ahead of the likes of Downes, Mulcahy, Dowling, etc. I still wouldn't, in fact.


Well I would! He has now proven himself, something many hurlers with huge potential never delivered. You can talk all you like about a player who has bundles of ability but its on a big day when you see the steel of a player come through. I don't like criticising players but see the problem is when you would still pick afew of the Limerick forwards ahead of him. Personally, I think Limerick are short two real forwards to compete really for All-Ireland's

One_More_Mile

phkk wrote: »

Fireball07 wrote: »

Yeah, that's what I mean.

Clare definitely deserved to win this year. But going forward, I don't see why we can't go on and do something similar. They had underage success, so did we once upon a time... we have plenty of young, talented hurlers in the county... it's just a matter of getting the best out of them.

Shane O'Donnell scored 3-2 or 3-3 today. From play. In an All-Ireland final. He hasn't been a starter for a while now, didn't feature the last day...and before today, I don't know anybody who would take him ahead of the likes of Downes, Mulcahy, Dowling, etc. I still wouldn't, in fact.


Well I would! He has now proven himself, something many hurlers with huge potential never delivered. You can talk all you like about a player who has bundles of ability but its on a big day when you see the steel of a player come through. I don't like criticising players but see the problem is when you would still pick afew of the Limerick forwards ahead of him. Personally, I think Limerick are short two real forwards to compete really for All-Ireland's

A lot of it is down to man management, he said himself today that he suffers from nerves and was only told 3 hours before throw in he was starting. if he was told during the week he might have been a basket case today. in fairness to Davy Fitz, he has proved me wrong and got the best out of a very talented group of players. If he started Honan today they may have been beaten.

mickmackey1

Just to mention that Clare were beaten by 19 points in the Munster minor this year, so it could be a one-off special generation.

shockframe

Fireball07 wrote: »

If Clare defended like they did today against us, I think we might have beaten them. Obviously a real strength that they can adapt their styles.

They have some very talented hurlers, but they're not KK..... I don't think they're a team we'd fear next season. Hopefully we get the right manager in.

Corks forwards are a bit faster than ours and cork perform on all ireland final day.Big difference.

Clare may be less physical than kilkenny but they are very fit and every player bar DOD no.2 is lean.Thats a huge asset going forward.

They may not look like a threat physically but they can win dirty ball.

You would be hopeful that they may falter tactically and defence may part but the scary thing is they will likely get stronger for this.Had they lost either of these finals it could have had a mayo-like effect on them.No chance of that now.There is another all ireland or 2 in them definitely.

Fireball07

Well I'm not going to say anything else about O'Donnell, in fairness, he's 19 years old and he's just won the All-Ireland for his county...an absolutely phenomenal performance. It would be harsh to be even halfway critical of him today.


As for the Cork forwards being faster... O'Farrell is fast but couldn't score in either game, doesn't have the physicality, Lehane is very fast and did exploit Clare at times... but Mulcahy is faster than any of the other Cork forwards, he is lightning. Downes is very quick too, as is Tobin. The likes of Hannon, Dowling, Breen, Ryan wouldn't be as fast admittedly, but our inside men are fast and got no real ball against Clare.


And as for being two forwards short....I don't know if that's true. If you get the best out of them, we do have options. Cork took Clare to a replay with only Harnedy and Horgan consistent all year. Clare's forwards aren't superheroes either...Podge Collins and Tony Kelly are real class acts, Ryan is a top free-taker, the rest are talented but have all been off-form at times this year.

relaxed

The draw is on next Thursday. Being cynical a defeat to clare in the first round might be the way to go. Back door games against Wexford, Offaly, Waterford etc. might be what's needed.

paddy no 11

Looking forward to the draw, don't care who we meet, a change from tipp might be nice though.

A manager would be good!

So I presume sheedy has fallen through or are they being really quiet about getting selectors in, does the fact that we're not hearing any rumours suggest an air of competence about the whole thing or are we up sh*t creek without a manager?

relaxed

paddy no 11 wrote: »

Looking forward to the draw, don't care who we meet, a change from tipp might be nice though.

A manager would be good!

So I presume sheedy has fallen through or are they being really quiet about getting selectors in, does the fact that we're not hearing any rumours suggest an air of competence about the whole thing or are we up sh*t creek without a manager?

This is just a guess but perhaps they didn't want to announce it before the All Ireland replay, maybe because Sheehy is on the RTE panel.

Rightwing

I heard it's a done deal, but not from an inside source it must be said.

paddy no 11

relaxed wrote: »

This is just a guess but perhaps they didn't want to announce it before the All Ireland replay, maybe because Sheehy is on the RTE panel.

Good point

Fireball07

relaxed wrote: »

The draw is on next Thursday. Being cynical a defeat to clare in the first round might be the way to go. Back door games against Wexford, Offaly, Waterford etc. might be what's needed.

I really don't think so. I'd say we're much better off getting tough games. Beating Clare in the first round would suit us better, I think. I think being in the first round would suit us though.


Although...

paddy no 11 wrote: »

Looking forward to the draw, don't care who we meet, a change from tipp might be nice though.

Not Tipp would be nice. Sick of them at this stage.

I wouldn't be scared of any team in Munster, could beat any of them on our day.

Quixoticelixer

Games v Cork or Tipperary next year will be away games, we have won games in recent memory away to Cork ('96 and '01) but I can't remember the last time we beat Tipp in Thurles in the Munster championship! The championship is a lottery, and next year the likes of Kilkenny, Tipp, Galway and Waterford have plenty of room to improve, and one team who will improve is Clare, the potential in that team is a little frightening to be honest....

Right now, I think we need to forget about next years championship until after the league, this year was ultimately a success but unfortunately it also goes down as a case of what could have been; only suffered two defeats this year, but two costly ones. The league final was a setback (rather than the disaster that many here and elsewhere made it out to be at the time) and we had an excellent chance of winning the All-Ireland title, there were four fairly green teams in the semi finals, that hasn't ever happened since the introduction of the backdoor and it won't happen again for a long time.

Next year, we need to get out of that second division! It's going to be a straight fight between us and Cork, but I think it's vital for us to get the return of spring time hurling, while two division 2 teams won their provincial titles, you'd have to wonder did the lack of division 1 hurling count against Limerick and Dublin when it came pitting them in the do or die situation of knockout hurling in the semi finals against two teams who had the benefit of what was a ferociously competetive league this year?

paddy no 11

Quixoticelixer wrote: »

Games v Cork or Tipperary next year will be away games, we have won games in recent memory away to Cork ('96 and '01) but I can't remember the last time we beat Tipp in Thurles in the Munster championship! The championship is a lottery, and next year the likes of Kilkenny, Tipp, Galway and Waterford have plenty of room to improve, and one team who will improve is Clare, the potential in that team is a little frightening to be honest....

Right now, I think we need to forget about next years championship until after the league, this year was ultimately a success but unfortunately it also goes down as a case of what could have been; only suffered two defeats this year, but two costly ones. The league final was a setback (rather than the disaster that many here and elsewhere made it out to be at the time) and we had an excellent chance of winning the All-Ireland title, there were four fairly green teams in the semi finals, that hasn't ever happened since the introduction of the backdoor and it won't happen again for a long time.

Next year, we need to get out of that second division! It's going to be a straight fight between us and Cork, but I think it's vital for us to get the return of spring time hurling, while two division 2 teams won their provincial titles, you'd have to wonder did the lack of division 1 hurling count against Limerick and Dublin when it came pitting them in the do or die situation of knockout hurling in the semi finals against two teams who had the benefit of what was a ferociously competetive league this year?

As someone who thought the league loss was a disaster, i'll just highlight the contradiction in your post which flags up exactly what I was on about at the time.

Fireball07

I don't think the Division 1 thing necessarily counted against us in those terms, although our preparation for the semi-final obviously wasn't good enough in a psychological sense, some of the players were unbelievably nervous.

I wouldn't worry about the away games too much, it was nice to get home games this year, but we have to be able to win away from the Gaelic Grounds too.

Quixoticelixer

paddy no 11 wrote: »

As someone who thought the league loss was a disaster, i'll just highlight the contradiction in your post which flags up exactly what I was on about at the time.

It's not a contradiction, there were people acting like we may as well not bother with the championship this year, we lost to a good Dublin team, it was a setback, not a disaster. Just as not getting out of D2 would be a setback next year, but not a disaster. Big difference between a setback and a disaster.

Go back and look at some of the posts here from when the league final defeat occured, much hyperbole and hysteria. It was quite disrespectful to Dublin really!

A disaster in hurling terms for us is something extreme like Justin McCarthy's 2010 disaster!

sasta le

Paul Kinnerk is the Limerick footballer doing fitness with Clare?

glasagusban

sasta le wrote: »

Paul Kinnerk is the Limerick footballer doing fitness with Clare?

He's a limerick man living in Clare who is coaching the 21s and seniors.

glasagusban

No sign of a manager yet. If the set up is right I think we have the players to compete with any team. For the man saying we need two more top forwards, they're there, start downes and dowling.

The age profile of this team is quite decent. I imagine we'll lose Moran, and think DOG will give it another year at least. The next few oldest players have a good three to five years in them. We have some decent young players coming thorough, some of them on the subs bench all year. Cian Lynch, Ronan Lynch, and David Dempsey look like they'll be in the shake up for a place on the team in two years or so if they continue developing.

The next managers appointment is crucial. The players are there to compete with anyone and potentially win some more silverware for the next 3 to 5 years, hopefully the 21s, intermediates, and senior set ups can come some way close to Clare's level to make the best of the players that are there.

sasta le

Maybe Limerick should be getting Paul Kinnerk back to there set up

shockframe

The good times roll on for Kinnerk. Monaleen beat St Pats by a point in the county semi final today.

Would have been great to see St Pats make the final.They've done their best to make a go of gaa in the city the last decade.

Drom/Broadford v Monaleen in the final. Great chance for Monaleen.

One_More_Mile

Its all about championship- everything else is just killing a spring afternoon!

pajoguy

One_More_Mile wrote: »

Its all about championship- everything else is just killing a spring afternoon!

Look like we might have opportunity to be more than killing a spring afternoon. Just saw a proposal for league restructure. Some mouthwatering ties to be fair if it gets go ahead.
8 team division 1a including limerick and cork.
Proposal to ard comhairle on 12th oct.
Good man FRANK!
Seriously not sure who is proposing this.

jj1

pajoguy wrote: »

Look like we might have opportunity to be more than killing a spring afternoon. Just saw a proposal for league restructure. Some mouthwatering ties to be fair if it gets go ahead.
8 team division 1a including limerick and cork.
Proposal to add comhairle on 12th oct.
Good man FRANK!
Seriously not sure who is proposing this.

I think the 6 team league despite it's flaws is probably as good as any setup with the current Championship sstructure.

How & ever, an 8 team division 1 next year would be brilliant. 4 good competitive games every week for 7 weeks.

Imagine that in the middle of summer, oh to dream....

Davin Stand

Early dividend for the Limerick County Board for proposing the seeded draw in the Munster SFC. Nice reward, but a pity that they had sell out on their footballers to get it.

Fireball07

Tipp in both football and hurling.


Possibly the worst hurling draw we could have got, we would have benefited from a possible extra game in Munster, so a first-round draw. And we've played Tipperary the last 2 years, would have loved a crack off Clare or Cork.



In the football, if we do get over Tipp, we'll be up against Cork, who will likely be rejuvenated under a new manager. After hammering us this year, I don't give us much hope. Tipp would fancy beating us too, with no manager, possibility of retirements and their promising young players.

Mountainlad

Fireball07 wrote: »

Tipp in both football and hurling.


Possibly the worst hurling draw we could have got, we would have benefited from a possible extra game in Munster, so a first-round draw. And we've played Tipperary the last 2 years, would have loved a crack off Clare or Cork.



In the football, if we do get over Tipp, we'll be up against Cork, who will likely be rejuvenated under a new manager. After hammering us this year, I don't give us much hope. Tipp would fancy beating us too, with no manager, possibility of retirements and their promising young players.

I'm glad you realized Waterford would just be an insurrmountable task.

Fireball07

Mountainlad wrote: »

I'm glad you realized Waterford would just be an insurrmountable task.

Nothing against Waterford, but before getting Tipp, we seemed to be playing Waterford all the time.


Much rather play Clare on the back of an All-Ireland than Waterford coming under the radar.

paddy no 11

shoight