THIS Sunday at 2.30 in the Gaelic Grounds, Limerick senior hurlers embark on a new journey. That journey is being led by new manager Justin Mc Carthy. The Cork native has been no stranger to success throughout his career as a player with the rebel county and more recently as manager to the Deise.
In fact, McCarthy has been involved in more success recently than Limerick as a whole have been in more than 20 years.
The new man at the helm is a hurling professor. It has often been the case that Justin has gone as far as reshaping players hurleys to suit their swing styles.
Some people may think that Limerick hurling in recent years has needed a trip to Lourdes more so than a trip to the sander, but one thing is for sure. The manager has come with the experience and knowledge needed to deliver. It is now up to the players to take that information, process it and relay the successful style of hurling Mc Carthy is known for, on the field.
The green and white have their first chance to do this on Sunday in Limerick.
The opening tie of the season sees Limerick take on Clare in the Division one tie. The near neighbours will come ready for action. Limerick will need to be prepared and hopefully come Sunday evening late, we will have a winning start to the new campaign.
The team for this weekend’s opener was not available to us at the time of going to print. Their final touches were being put to the squad in UL on Tuesday night. There are two definite stalwarts out of the weekends game. Brian Geary is away on honeymoon (congrats from all at the Post) and Ollie Moran is out, recovering from a knee operation. (Get well soon).
There are of course some new faces to look out for this season. According to sources close to the camp, the following players have been going well and are close to making the full break through this season. Tom Condon from Knocklong, Paul Browne from Bruff, Don Hanley from Knocklong and Richard Mc Carthy from Blackrock. The preparations for this season have not been ideal. Especially the loss to UL in the Waterford Crystal Cup. However, Justin has made full use of this panel in challenge matches against sides such as CIT and UCC.
The indoor facility in Mallow has also been used to breaking point and if rumours coming out of the camp are anything to go by, then Limerick are in good stock for this season’s league campaign.
The bookmakers have Limerick at 16/1 to win the first division, which is an extremely good bet, while they currently lie at 4/1 to win the Munster crown.
Those prices will come down as the year goes on, I am sure of that.
Limerick’s schedule for the National Hurling league is as follows.
8-Feb-Clare (H), 15-Feb-Kilkenny(A), 1-Mar-Dublin (H), 22-Mar-Galway (A), 29-Mar-Cork (A), 5-Apr-Waterford (H), 19-Apr-Tipperary (H).
On the football front, last weekend saw Limerick take on Louth in the opening round of their national league. An 11 point defeat leaves Limerick with more questions than answers. The nature of the defeat was a little disappointing, even if Louth have been training for several months together. There may be some positives to come from this game, but we may have to wait for their home game against Roscommon to see them.
On a final GAA note, there has been some talk in Limerick over the past week of the Heineken Cup Semi Final being played at the Gaelic Grounds. This, I can reliably inform you is a non runner. Unfortunately, the ERC has a rule that “home” semi finals need to be over a certain distance from the “home” ground of the team. Therefore, with the HQ being too close to Thomond Park, the idea is nothing more than wishful thinking.
Maybe sometime in the future, Limerick GAA and the stadium itself will get a game of international standard to suit it’s impressive structure. Watch this space.
