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Michael Fennelly: 'Limerick must build on this success'

GAA.ie hurling columnist, Michael Fennelly. 

GAA.ie hurling columnist, Michael Fennelly. 

By Michael Fennelly

The Liam MacCarthy Cup will be very busy in Limerick over the next eight to nine months with schools, businesses, publicans, and households all eager to get their hands on it after a long 45-year wait.

You can never underestimate the impact that bringing Liam around the county can have, especially when it comes to visiting schools with it.

I was fortunate enough to win eight All-Irelands in my 12 years with Kilkenny and you might think that the novelty of the Liam MacCarthy Cup visiting schools would have worn off somewhat because it was such a regular occurrence.

But, if anything, the excitement seemed to be greater year on year.

Those visits are hugely important in terms of leaving a legacy because you’re encouraging kids to pick up a hurl and play the game.

Thousands of children will be dreaming this week of hurling some day for Limerick, and in this way seeds of future success are being sown.

When you look at Limerick you’d have to say that there is great potential now for a very bright hurling future in the county.

The county’s underage academy is very well organised as I’ve mentioned here before, and it’s a huge asset for hurling in the county too that the game is so strong in the city’s three Universities.

UL, who are due to open new state of the art pitch facilities in this coming semester, and Mary Immaculate College have won two Fitzgibbon Cups each in the last four years while Limerick IT are always competitive too.

When you combine that success with Limerick’s two All-Ireland U-21 titles in 2015 and 2017, and now their first senior All-Ireland in 45 years, you’d have to say that Limerick hurling is in a really great place.

The important thing now for Limerick in the short term is to keep building momentum rather than sit back and admire what they’ve already achieved.

Declan Hannon and the Limerick squad celebrate with the Liam MacCarthy Cup during the Limerick All-Ireland Hurling Winning team homecoming at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. 

Declan Hannon and the Limerick squad celebrate with the Liam MacCarthy Cup during the Limerick All-Ireland Hurling Winning team homecoming at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. 

If they really want to reinforce the tradition of hurling in the county, they need to win more silverware in the coming years.

Limerick have a very strong group of young players at this moment in time but they will need guidance and leadership from their more senior players as well as the Limerick management.

Success can bring distractions and without you even realising it you can lose your focus.

Normally it can be too late by the time you have realised you have left your guard down and not remained true to the values that brought you success in the first place.

Our neighbours Tipperary may have had been guilty of this after winning the double of All-Ireland senior and U-21 titles in 2010.

It can easily happen as everything feels great and your attitude is that nothing could possibly go wrong.

The Limerick players will rightfully enjoy this moment and all the celebrations that will come between now and Christmas, but it’s important they don’t fall into the trap of forgetting what it took to earn them this reward.

Regardless of how well Limerick handle this All-Ireland win, I don’t think they or any other team is going to dominate the scene totally in the coming years.

That’s no slight on Limerick’s ability and talent, I just think there are so many teams that are at a similar level right now that the competitiveness and closeness we saw in this year’s Championship is going to continue for the foreseeable future.

Galway will be bitterly disappointed after losing their All-Ireland title, and it’ll be interesting to see how they apply the lessons they should have learned from this year’s campaign.

Having to play two extra games in the shape of the Leinster Final replay and All-Ireland semi-final replay definitely hurt them, and exposed the fact they need to improve the strength in depth of their panel.

Their bench didn’t make as much of an impact this year as it did last year, and that’s an area they will need to strengthen in 2019.

Dejected Galway players pictured after their All-Ireland SHC Final defeat to Limerick. 

Dejected Galway players pictured after their All-Ireland SHC Final defeat to Limerick. 

None of the Galway U-21 team that won this year’s Leinster Championship featured regularly for the senior team this year, but I would expect them to start pushing the older players next year.

For spells this year in matches Galway looked so superior to their opponents, but they regularly undid much of their good work by then going scoreless for long periods.

That inconsistency within matches is something that I’m sure Micheál Donoghue will be looking to address next year.

The team managements who’ll be working hardest in the off-season will be Tipperary’s, Kilkenny’s, Wexford’s, and Dublin’s, because of all the genuine contenders they need to find more new players than the likes of Limerick and Clare do.

Cork were a couple of players short this year, but they’ll be hoping another one or two will emerge from the U-21 team that will face Tipperary in this weekend’s All-Ireland Final.

As for Waterford, they’ll hope they can avoid the sort of injury crisis that afflicted them this year, but they’ll also need to unearth a few new players.

Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh might be about to finally call time on his career, and there’s talk that Tom Devine might be focusing on his medical studies next year.

I expect all teams to utilise next year’s League as an opportunity to blood new players, because this year’s new Championship format underlined how vital it is to have a depth of real quality in your panel.

Joe Canning celebrates after scoring a point against Limerick in the All-Ireland SHC Final. 

Joe Canning celebrates after scoring a point against Limerick in the All-Ireland SHC Final. 

My Hurling Team of the Year

After the All-Ireland semi-finals, Galway’s Conor Whelan, John Hanbury, and Jonathan Glynn would have been in my Team of the Year, but unfortunately they had quiet matches in the Final itself.

Others like Cork duo Patrick Horgan and Mark Coleman and Clare’s David Reidy are unlucky to miss out.

My club-mate TJ Reid had an outstanding year for Kilkenny, but failing to get to the latter stages of the Championship ruled him out of consideration.

  1. Eoin Murphy (Kilkenny)
  2. Sean Finn (Limerick)
  3. Daith Burke (Galway)
  4. Richie English (Limerick)
  5. Padraic Mannion (Galway)
  6. Declan Hannon (Limerick)
  7. Diarmuid Byrnes (Limerick)
  8. Cian Lynch (Limerick)
  9. Darragh Fitzgibbon (Cork)
  10. Peter Duggan (Clare)
  11. Joe Canning (Galway)
  12. Seamus Harnedy (Cork)
  13. Aaran Gillane (Limerick)
  14. John Conlon (Clare)
  15. Graeme Mulcahy (Limerick)

My Hurler of the Year: Joe Canning (Galway)

After the All-Ireland semi-finals, Padraic Mannion and John Conlon would have been my two leading contenders for Hurler of the Year with Joe Canning and Peter Duggan also in the mix.

But after his brilliant All-Ireland Final performance, Joe Canning has jumped to the head of the queue.

His form all year has been very strong and he consistently delivered big moments for Galway in every game.

Winning Hurler of the Year is a huge achievement, but to retain it in consecutive years is monumental.