For the longest time now, Kilkenny have been unable to solve the Limerick puzzle. Where once the Cats set the standard in hurling, these days Limerick are the benchmark.
In April of last year, Limerick beat Kilkenny by 11 points in the National Hurling League final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. They would meet again in the All-Ireland final in July, where John Kiely’s men ran out nine-point winners.
The last time Kilkenny beat Limerick was in a 2019 All-Ireland semi-final but they haven’t taken the Treaty County’s scalp in the league since 2010.
That was the season of the strike in Limerick hurling. It was also the year Kilkenny were hoping to capture an unprecedented fifth successive All-Ireland title, only to come up short in the decider against Tipperary that September.
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Limerick are on that five-in-a-row Liam MacCarthy path now, aiming for history while swatting all comers along the way. Kilkenny get to take their latest shot at hurling’s kingpins on Saturday, back at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, this time in a league semi-final – though the contest rather than the competition might be more relevant. There is a sense Kilkenny just need to beat Limerick.
Limerick’s domination of the hurling landscape has been so pronounced in recent years that occasionally opponents have appeared defeated before taking to the field. But this is a chance for the Cats to at least see where they measure up with Limerick in advance of the business end of the season.
“It probably comes down to mentality and when you are winning you have that winning mentality and, no matter what, even if you are going out playing with two players you still believe you can win,” says Kilkenny’s Eoin Cody of Limerick’s dominance.
“That is what winning does for you inside and throughout the team. Obviously they have been in a winning camp for the last four years, they know how to win and that spirit spreads throughout the dressingroom.
“If you are only a new player coming in or you are there 10 years, they all have that same mentality, that same belief and that comes from winning.
“And in order to get to that mentality you have to start winning and we want to do that. Obviously, Limerick have beaten us in the last couple of years so that probably gives us a bit of an extra edge to go and beat them maybe this time.”
It is difficult to judge the merits of league semi-finals and certainly the outcome on Saturday won’t define either Kilkenny or Limerick’s season. But a victory could still provide Derek Lyng’s Cats with a worthwhile psychological edge as much as anything else.
“They’re a physical side, big men and the way they hurl is second to none,” continues Cody. “Their skill, their use of the ball and maybe their intelligence and the way they train is just brilliant.
“They can go short, they can go long, they can do it whatever way they want. It’s no problem for them. And as I said, they know how to win and get over the line, regardless of how well they play, they still manage to get over the line in the end.”
Cody feels last year’s league final defeat to Kiely’s side actually proved to be the kick-start they needed ahead of the championship.
“That’s the benefit of the league, when you go out and you don’t win games, you can really use them to your advantage and learn from them. Whereas championship it’s probably more negative if you lose a game, it has more of an impact.
“But league, you get to use the negatives and turned them into a positive. I think that performance against Limerick last year probably drove us on for the championship, we probably didn’t let a performance from that day happen again for the rest of the championship.
“We probably let our standards down a bit that day and really upped them after that. It was really a wake-up call, I suppose.”
Kilkenny have been decent without setting the world alight so far this season. But they have done enough to guarantee their spot in hurling’s restructured top flight next season. And Cody doesn’t see their winless streak against Limerick as heaping any extra burden on the players to end that run of losses this weekend.
“It’s probably not pressure, but we want to win it,” he says.
“Maybe our fans and supporters really want to see us winning, and as a team we do as well, but I don’t think pressure would be the word I’d use, just a want to win. I wouldn’t use the word pressure. Limerick are the best team in the country and if you are beating them you are obviously doing something right. So, if we could win, it would be great.”
On the broader question of the league structure, Cody believes teams might benefit more from having a free weekend at this stage of the season rather than league semi-finals – given the immediacy of the championship on the horizon.
“Maybe this year, if there was just a league final and it was for the teams who topped the two groups it would give everyone that break,” he says.
“These few weeks are huge in terms of getting ready for the championship, it probably drags on for the teams and if you had the league final this weekend you would have three or four weeks to build up to the championship.
“Teams who are in the league final are really going to be under pressure to get themselves ready for championship.”
– Cody was speaking at the launch of the oneills.com U20 All-Ireland Hurling Championship.
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