Key to a Cats triumph lies in killing Limerick’s ruthlessness

Eddie Brennan

As a Kilkenny man, my concern is that Tom Morrissey had a poor game in the semi-final and that is unlikely to happen again. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

As a Kilkenny man, my concern is that Tom Morrissey had a poor game in the semi-final and that is unlikely to happen again. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Brian Cody

Tom Morrisey

As a Kilkenny man, my concern is that Tom Morrissey had a poor game in the semi-final and that is unlikely to happen again. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

July 11 2022 02:30 AM

When I think about Sunday’s final, and which team will lift the Liam MacCarthy, I think of a line from Rudyard Kipling: “The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack”.

All-Ireland final days are not about going for glory as individuals. It’s about which team, which pack, sees it out better.

I don’t see this as a shootout, a spectacular game to show off the skills of hurling, but as an almighty battle of intensity – two teams that will put heads and limbs in where other lads won’t. Success in finals can come down to this: are you willing to get hurt to win?

The Limerick wolf pack is experienced and solid – they’ll trust themselves. Kilkenny will try to dominate them on their own patch. But how cohesive are they? How clinical?

Kilkenny’s skills, drive and ability to mix up play has improved massively since the last round of Leinster. But we’ll only see how good their game is when they’re enduring a hell of a lot more intensity than they got against Clare.

Limerick have had every challenge thrown at them but answered every question. At the start of the season I asked in this column: how hungry are they?

Because that can wane a bit when you’re on the road for a couple of years. But they’ve stood up to every challenge. If they’re looking for motivation to finish the job, it couldn’t be any better than facing the last team to hurt them in championship hurling.

It’d be an incredible achievement – beating everyone in Munster, Galway in the semi and Kilkenny in the final. Their place among the all-time greats would absolutely be assured.

But the danger is if they present the same number of scoring opportunities they did to Galway. Kilkenny will punish that. Limerick don’t tend to cough up goals, though, and I think Kilkenny will need some.

As a Kilkenny man, my concern is Gearóid Hegarty and Tom Morrissey had poor games in that semi-final and it’s unlikely to happen again, but the Cats have to keep them quiet.

Brian Cody will have learned that you need your bench. The guys not starting might be most important of all. Cody will bring on four subs, maybe more, and they’ll need to make a mega impact, the kind Martin Comerford did in 2009.

From the Tipperary match, Cody will have learned there are certain guys Limerick want on the ball in their backs: Barry Nash, Diarmaid Byrnes, Declan Hannon.

They set up attacks and really hurt teams, either with points or by finding Aaron Gillane and Séamus Flanagan in pockets of space. That’s the foundation, so Kilkenny need to interrupt those channels.

A strength of Limerick is their ability to cancel out a point after you’ve scored. If I’m midfield and I see Eoin Cody making room to shoot a point, as soon as that ball is struck I need to be organising the Kilkenny backs to switch into next-job mode.

Limerick so often score that way through a quick delivery to Morrissey or Hegarty – getting a point so easily with those little triangles.

So when a Limerick player receives a ball, the guys coming to support him must be tagged from a Kilkenny perspective. They can’t allow Nash to break from the back, come off the shoulder of Hannon and carry the ball up the field – same for Byrnes.

Limerick will look at the relatively inexperienced Kilkenny full-back line and I think they’ll feed Gillane and Flanagan a lot – trying to go after players who are new to this.

When you’re playing a final, everyone says to treat it as just another game, but it’s not. There are more nerves, more noise, more fanfare, and so many extra little trimmings. When you get up in the morning, there’s a different mindset, a different mood. There’s also a level of fear.

These things can be paralysing for a guy in his first All-Ireland. I found the first two finals I played the hardest. When you’re younger it can get at you, make you think a little bit more.

That’s where Limerick have a plus. They’ve all been there for at least two years. They know what’s coming.

Fintan Burke did a savage job on Hegarty the last day – following him everywhere – and Mikey Carey looks the man for the same job on Sunday.

But doing so will leave a hole behind, and Kilkenny have to find a balance between how far they’re willing to let Limerick pull their defensive unit out of shape because, historically, they like to keep that.

These are the two best teams in the country and it’s a mouth-watering tie. Semi-finals can be cagey, focused on not losing, but All-Ireland finals are different. You have to attack it. Go after the title.

Limerick are ruthless at that. It’d be an incredible All Ireland for Kilkenny to win. The players have endured a whole lot of pain and, as a Kilkenny man, I’d love to see them do it. But they face the battle of their lives in trying to do so.

To topple the champions, they’ll have to hunt together as one hell of a pack.