That is the strongest Limerick team I have ever seen, same as the Waterford game where they couldn't name a stronger team. Us on the other hand, it doesn't seem like there's any two in the county who would pick the same 26.
100%. Particular credit to that Waterford selection - they did what they had to do to get the strongest lads on the field, and positions were quite fluid - a bunch of them swap positions at various stages also. They really should be 2 from 2.
For the craic, here's the Limerick first 15 vs second 15, and the same for Cork (allowing for injured lads to be in the second 15)
Limerick 1
Quaid; Finn, Morrissey, Nash; Byrnes, Hannon, Hayes; WOD, Lynch; Hegarty, Reidy, Morrissey; Gillane, Flanagan, O'Neill
Limerick 2
D McCarthy; F O’Connor, M Casey, A O'Connor; Costello, Coughlan, Quinlan; Murphy, D O’Donovan; English, C Boylan, Houlihan; D O’Dalaigh, S O’Brien, Mulcahy
Cork 1
P Collins; NOL, E Downey, SOD; TOM, R Downey, M Coleman; DF, E Twomey; Dalton, Barrett, Harnedy; Hoggie, AC, Hayes
Cork 2:
Saunderson; COC, Cahalane, E Roche; Millerick, Joyce, Daire O'Leary; B Roche, TOC; B Cunningham, Lehane, S Twomey; JOC, ROF, R Cotter
And to further the (eventual!) point...
Cork 3:
G Collins; Kingston, Lyons, Darragh O'Sullivan; Cathal McCarthy; Cormac O'Brien, Michael Mullins; Meade, Carey; B O'Sullivan, S Kingston, D Healy; W Buckley, Sean Walsh, D Flynn
Limerick's second string isn't bad but is light years of a difference to their first team. Cork's 3rd team on the other hand would give Cork's first team a decent game. And I've lads on Cork's 3rd team that will be on the pitch tomorrow night. Cork's second team every bit as good as their first. And I know what fellas will say - 'sure they play A v B the whole time, the coaches watch this and they have them sorted in line with how they're performing'. The use of Meade and Lehane over the last few weeks kinda shows that within a team environment there's always a thing around 'trusting' certain lads or 'backing' certain lads, and also there's a huge difference when real knockout championship pressure is applied. Our management team was shown plenty lessons on this over the last few years but chose to ignore it.
In one sense this exercise sort of removes responsibility from the management team by saying we've 40 odd lads all around the same go and not enough top top class IC hurlers... on the other hand it says the management team have failed to develop the panel to bring through the lads that would have gone down to Waterford and got the job done, come back to the pairc and sent Clare packing. We had the ability to do that in my opinion. But we didn't. And now we've a mountain to climb, with an awful fuckin obstacle standing in the way tomorrow night. There's a scenario I'm praying for: Crowd is hopping, Limerick are off it (I often find Tom Morrissey is a barometer of this - his radar can be totally off some days) and we get goals, 4+ needed. Collins, the Downeys, Barrett - they have to have the game of their lives. Mark Coleman has a massive point to prove - would love for him to make a statement tomorrow night.
boldthadyquill.blog
