Eyes Wide Open

Like almost everything in life, we have been here before. By the time we all pack into Croke Park on Sunday afternoon it will have been 5 years, 11 months, 2 weeks and 1 day since the last time we played Limerick in an All-Ireland semi-final. It was a day of pure, unadulterated pain.

Not that we think about it that much. Not that we ponder the sliding doors nature of the day endlessly. Not that we ever, ever wish that we were living in one of those multiple parallel universes where Nickie Quaid doesn’t make that save or Patrick Horgan’s effort comes back off the post and into the hands of Mark Ellis. Not that we ever look at the Big Green Monster through the eyes of the green eyed monster and wonder. And just wonder.

We’ll move on, someday. Sunday?

We may have been here before, but this time it is very, very different. In reality, it’s incomparable. Last week, when discussing Cork’s pedestrian displays that have filled the excruicating gap between Tipperary and Sunday, there was a reference to the existential nature of Kilkenny, Galway and Dublin. Namely that they are who they are.

Limerick may have been Limerick 5 years ago, but now they have metamorphosised into something far more ominous, far more substantial, far better than they could have ever even imagined themselves. The old bruises that were a result of chronic underachievement have been replaced by new lesions that are a result of their continuous pinching of themselves to make sure that this is all actually real.

We, however, don’t have to pinch ourselves. We know where we are. All too well.

Cork approached that game in 2018 as a kind of first amongst equals in the chasing pack behind Galway. They were back-to-back Munster champions, unbeaten in an arguably tougher Round Robin than we have now and, in our hearts of hearts, we would have always expected to beat Limerick in such circumstances. We definitely wouldn’t have feared them, even if the game down the Páirc in May of that year did give us plenty to be nervous about. But Cork are Cork, like. Or at least they were, once upon a time.

And now here we are again. Whereas 2018 was a tough game to call, all logic dictates that the 6 in-a-row Munster champions cum 5-in-a-row chasing green dynasty will take great pleasure in putting Cork back in their box. Because, that’s what they do now. Especially when the stakes are at their highest. The bigger the game, the better they play. In that final 10 minutes, if you can go that far with them, there is no better team. They have the belief, the talent, the muscle memory, the ruthlessness and the sheer bloody mindedness to get the job done, the vast majority of the time.

The odd romantic on Leeside may think that Limerick fear Cork. However, anybody with a realistic world view knows that Limerick don’t really care. They’re too good to worry about anybody. Too focused on themselves. Too comfortable in their own skin to look across the border, to look anywhere, and do anything other than smile. Like all great teams, defeats hurt them, but they also steel them. If anybody does manage to get one over on them, they take it personally, like all great teams do, very much like Michael Jordan in The Last Dance.

That isn’t very good news for Cork. Neither is the next bit.

Back when Kilkenny were kings of the world, the perceived wisdom was that they were at their most vulnerable in an All-Ireland semi-final. And yet, they only ever lost two under Brian Cody, and none after 2005. That is, none when they became really great. Limerick are 5 for 6 going into the weekend. The exception was 2019 and as well as the Cats played that day, Limerick blew it. The radar was off. They created the usual amount of chances but didn’t take enough of them. Kilkenny, being Kilkenny, took theirs. If Cork are going to get over the line on Sunday, it will probably have to be a similar type of game.

They will need everything to go right for them. They will need to score goals, and concede no more than one, probably. They will need to get all of the big decisions right. And most of the little ones too. I suppose, the biggest decision lies in selecting the starting 15. Most of it is pretty easy. 1-4 looks after itself, as does everything from 9-15, really, assuming Darragh Fitzgibbon wears number 9. That means that two from Tim O’Mahony, Rob Downey, Mark Coleman, Ethan Twomey, Luke Meade and Ciarán Joyce won’t start on Sunday.

The loss of Ciarán Joyce before the game in May felt like a mortal blow at the time, and yet things worked out. However, in the cold light of day it’s hard to imagine Cork going into a game of such magnitude without a defender of his quality. Because, in thinking about the start, Cork must think about the end. They cannot afford to fall too far behind early on if they are to have any chance of causing an upset.

They will have also have to be themselves. Whoever does eventually beat Limerick in Croke Park won’t do so by mirroring what they do. Nobody does what Limerick do better than Limerick, obviously. By playing 3 up top back in May, Cork managed to bend the game to their will to a certain extent. They managed to pin Limerick back, to make them defend, to turn that outrageously good half back line back towards their own goal. It worked then.

Will the same think work again? Probably not to the same degree. Will Cork manage to dominate the breaking ball as much from their own puck outs? Again, probably not to the same degree. But they will have to. And there lies the rub.

As supporters, all we can really hope for, all we can really expect is for Cork to put in a performance that leaves them there or thereabouts with 15 or 20 minutes to go. Of course, there’s nobody better than Limerick from that point on in any game. But you only have to be good enough once in knock-out championship hurling.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for it to be over. I can’t wait for it to begin. I can’t wait to just know. 

We’ll soon find out.

John Coleman