Limerick GAA Discussion Part 2

It's hard to know how hungry Limerick will be for it next year. They have won 5 in 6 years with practically the same team through that period. There will need to be an infusion of 3 to 4 players with the some of the regular players maybe needing to become squad players which can be more difficult for a manager keeping the spirit of the group intact. Kilkenny came back after doing 4 in a row and won another 4 over 5 years so anything is possible. Back2Back All Ireland's would be a great achievement for Clare given their age profile. Cork should have serious hunger next year and be highly motivated but there is extra pressure now for them. It's hard to see any other county winning Liam next year. Cork, Clare or Limk

The core of this Limerick team were from the 2015\2017 All Ireland U21 Winning Teams. They are all 28-30 now with alot of mileage on the clock. JKiely did a remarkable job getting 5 All Ireland in 6 years which is unbelievable return. I would be concerned that there is not enough star quality coming through from U17/U20 over the last few years. Apart from Cathal O'Neill no other players have been able to break into the team. The Round Robin won't be any easier next season. Limerick will be still the team that every other team will want to bring down rather than Clare. I think JK will use the round robin to blood more players next season and rotate the players giving them more experience. The likes of Colin Coughlan did not see any championship time and if he had would surely have being introduced in the semi final against Cork. We are light on cover from 2-9 and I think this will be areas that will need to be focused on during the league. There is going to 3/4 injuries to contend with every year.

Great news. Hopefully all the players will stay on board. There is certainly a few more All Irelands in this team

They had the line ups for every match across all grades.

if kiely was walking away it would be announced by now. Sure davy has left a county and got a job with a county and vacant roles more or less filled since.

Interesting not one player retirement yet.

Anyword on casey. Danilo for forest had a similiar injury completely broken ankle in the prem in august and is expected back january.

need curid back. The two seasons she wasnt involved. 2019 and 2024 two sf losses.

Was never in doubt. Though my favourite rumour over the last few months was the Paul Kinnerk and the Dutch national hockey team!

They still have the players to win one or both of the two AI’s on the new term. But a number of changes are needed as well. A lot of lessons to be learned from the first half down in Supervalue Park and the second half in Croke Park.

Getting Currid back would be massive, and you’d have to assume contact has been made but Sligo hasn’t gotten any closer to Limerick in the last 12 months. We may need to move on and learn to win without her.

The format is delivering exactly as intended in terms of delivering the best 4 teams to the semi finals but it seems to be the same 4 teams for nearly a decade now?

Aside from when South Liberties earned a shock win over Patrickswell in the 2022 semi finals it has been Kilmallock, Doon, Na Piarsaigh and Patrickswell in the semi finals every year since Ballybrown made the 2016 final and it looks likely to be the same 4 once again this year.

It’s gone stale. The format suits the big 4 as there’s no real jeopardy until next weekend. Senior B is more wide open but the team that goes up generally tends to come straight back down. And then you have Ahane in limbo for the last 5 years - 5th place every year, just short of competing with the big 4 and good enough to retain their place in Senior A.

Open draw on two non tiered groups of 6 would add a bit of variety. But an even bigger issue we need to address is how we can go so long with effectively a closed shop of top tier teams. Up until the mid 2010’s there would have been a greater rotation of teams making the last 4. Good on those clubs as they obviously have their house in order but is there anything that can be done to help bring other clubs on.

Mungret and Monaleen have huge population centres and are doing alot of good work underage so likely that they will join NaP and you will have a big 3 contending. Pwell, Kilmallock, Doon etc will always have tradition but it will be difficult for them stay in the top 4.

Doon have Oola as well to pick from and although they have never won a Senior would have always been in the senior grade and would always have representation on Limk minor, U20 etc. There has been very little new housing estates built in rural villages in the last 20 years so rural clubs are likely to struggle going forward in terms of numbers.

Doon were already assured of a semi final spot. Different story if something was on the line for them.

I called it “effectively a closed shop” which is not the same as a “closed shop”.

Do you really not see how the the same four teams having an almost unbroken hold on the semi final spots for the best part of a decade cannot be analogously (and given how pedantic you are on semantics I actually have to clarify that I’m speaking analogously rather than literally) termed as effectively a closed shop or a big 4? Stop arguing for the sake of arguing, you know full well what I mean.

As for something needing to be addressed - yes, we need more competitive clubs. The day we don’t strive for that is the day we may as well just call it a day.

If we found ourselves in a situation where 4 counties locked out the All Ireland semi final positions for 9 out of 10 years we’d be hearing non stop about the state of the game and how to bring more counties back into the fold.