Limerick GAA Discussion Part 2

I actually thought butler deserved his over finn last yr but this yrs one is crazy in my opinion nash or casey were more deserving .

Also I'd have had t Kelly ahead of tj I'd have had c lynch ahead of him too despite his lack of matches .

Dave Fitzgerald can feel unlucky but then his and t Kelly's misses in second half of munster final didn't help the cause

Na Piarsaigh put up a good fight but they were second best. Where are you going with Ronan Lynch and his frees. He was terrible both from frees and open play. Vincent Harrington is a good young player but again had an awful hour. Ballygunner were the better team even though the ref was kind to them. Ref was biased against Na Piarsaigh in my opinion. How he didn't give a free before half time to Na Piarsaigh I will never know. Must be a Clare ref making up for the Srnior Munster final this year.

I dunno lads I wanted them to win but wouldn't be too disappointed If they didn't as our limerick lads might get a rest

let's call a spade a spade and say ballygunner were faR superior today a class side I hope they win it out now

Hard to argue with that.

I thought m casey was immense in 2nd half and enda mc evoy was it at 2? Had a fine game

Players called into the senior hurling training squad: Ronan Lyons, Joe Fitz, Darragh Langan (Monaleen), Liam Lynch (Mungret), Paddy O'Donovan (Effin), Cian Scully (Dromin-Athlacca), Evan O'Leary (Ahane), Ethan Hurley (NCW), Luke Flynn (G/B), Donal Coughlan (Doon), Emmett McEvoy (Na Piarsaigh), David Fitzgerald (K/P) & Mike Keane.

John Flavin added as a selector and Joe O'Connor back as S & C.

Rathkeale I believe.

judging by top division underage results in recent years , Monaleen , Mungret and Na Piarsaigh will be the backbone of limerick senior teams in the coming years

UL fitz team seem to be as strong as ever again this year. Is there many from Limerick playing with them?

English, o brien and o dalaigh springs to mind. Think o donovan is a great player too, will probably take him a while though to break in.

Most of our best backs at the minute are really forwards anyway so we'll be fine 😁

Unless I'm mistaken the only championship debuts this year were Adam English and 30 year old Aaron Costello. And the only player to break through in terms of regular playing time since 2018 is Cathal O'Neill.

The core group of 20 or so players all started coming through in 2015/2016/2017 and those were difficult seasons. The potential was clear but we had already been there in the 00's after the u21 3 in a row, we of all counties knew full well underage success counts for nothing. We have lads with multiple All Stars who in those three seasons looked very raw but nonetheless were given plenty of opportunities.

An under 20 graduate (and there's another issue, for numerous years now under 20 graduates don't look quite as ready as their under 21 graduates up to 2018) now doesn't get the luxury of two or three years to learn the ropes - they won't see a second of championship action until they are at the standard of a core group of players at their peak on one of hurling's greatest ever teams. Otherwise they have to make do with a handful of appearances in the Munster League and NHL. We've seen a handful of lads do that for 3/4 years only to ultimately end up being cut from the panel. (Brian Ryan, Robbie Hanley, Brian O'Grady, Darren O'Connell, Josh Considine and a handful of others). And there are a handful of players on the panel who are probably going to suffer the same fate - we have a handful of lads now aged 23/24 with 3/4 All-Ireland medals despite not yet having made their championship debut.

The fact that so many of the core group were born in 1994/95/96 is a bit of a ticking timebomb and I suspect that's why Kiely only sought a one year term this time. A rebuild job is approaching and I'm not sure he wants to be the one to do it - not a criticism of the man, he can do whatever he wants as far as I'm concerned, owes this county absolutely nothing. But it's a bit of a catch 22 - he and his selectors have a responsibility to pick the strongest XV available even if it comes at the cost of lads fighting away to make their breakthrough in the background.

Go back 5/6 years and the likes of Donncha O'Dálaigh, Shane O'Brien, Colin Coughlan, Adam English and Cathal O'Neill would have been championship starters on their debut season. The standard is insane right now, a nice problem to have I guess.

Agree...as a Clareman!!! imo the aim of John Kiely, similar to every manager I ever read about, is to will try and win as many titles as possible during his tenure. Next year I think that he will rely in as much as possible on the proven players, who have delivered an amazing 5 all-Irelands in 6 years, to try and win an unprecedented 5 in a row. He will not worry unduly about the team that will succeed him though naturally as a proud Limerick man he would like Limerick to continue as a major hurling force. imo it will take an exceptional player to break onto the current Limerick team in 2024. When John Kiely retires Limerick will still have the nucleus of this team playing, which with the addition of some very good younger players, will leave Limerick as a formidable but not invincible team for some years to come.

If that's the case then was there so much coverage of the court case involving the 2 rugby players a number of years ago, was that because Ulster were successful at the time? The reality is scenarios like this will get more traction when you've got a national profile, 2 perfect examples although not matters in court were the Ryan Tubridy payment saga and Dublin footballers caught training during lockdown.