Limerick face unexpectedly crucial meeting with Tipperary in Thurles

It would have amazed the consensus a month ago were it known that by their third match in the Munster championship, All-Ireland favourites Limerick would be playing for their future.

On Sunday, they head for Thurles to take on a revitalised Tipperary, knowing that they must win to make sure of progressing out of the province they have dominated for the past four years.

“If we don’t win on Sunday, we’re in trouble,” according to county secretary Mike O’Riordan. “Clare are ahead of us on the head-to-head.”

Clare’s groundbreaking win in the TUS Gaelic Grounds gave them a vital edge over the champions and brought to a halt their 11-match unbeaten run in the province going back four years.

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Brian Lohan’s team comfortably beat Waterford last Saturday to move to four points in the table after three matches, having lost their opener against Tipperary.

It means that if Limerick are beaten on Sunday they won’t be able to move past Clare on four points. They will need Cork to lose in Ennis this weekend and hope that they can beat the same opponents in their last match.

Tipperary could get to five by winning at the weekend, as could Cork if they beat Clare. Such an outcome would guarantee Limerick’s exit and failure to reach the All-Ireland semi-finals at least for the first time since 2019.

It’s not by any means a hopeless situation but far more fraught and complicated than would have been anticipated before the start of the championship after Limerick had crushed Kilkenny in the league final.

Since then they have been on the receiving end of Waterford’s best performance and won only narrowly having had former Hurler of the Year Gearóid Hegarty sent off for most of the second half.

In general Limerick played better in the second match than they had in the opener and it is true that Clare seem to perform better against their neighbours than they do against other teams. But there was further bad news for John Kiely’s team on the night when injury forced the withdrawal of Seán Finn and Cian Lynch.

The news on Finn was bad, as he was diagnosed with a cruciate injury and will miss the rest of the season. A four-times decorated All Star, he has been rated as then best corner back in the game.

Lynch missed virtually all of last year’s championship with a damaged hamstring, followed by an ankle injury on his return to fitness. His form has been subdued so far and news that he pulled a hamstring was potentially a disastrous development. But John Kiely allayed concerns, saying the week after, “Cian has a minor hamstring injury, should be no more than a week or so.”

If there was good news for the county it was the three-week break between the Clare match and next Sunday.

O’Riordan confirmed the former Hurler of the Year was on course to return at the weekend. “Cian was training away last week and we’ll make a decision on him nearer the time.”

Hegarty’s form has also been an issue and after his red card against Waterford, he was dropped and played poorly when introduced as Lynch’s replacement against Clare.

In his defence it was pointed out that he tends to be at his best when the championship moves to Croke Park and last year he was named man-of-the-match after the All-Ireland final win over Kilkenny and had also been in that conversation for the previous year’s final victory over Cork.

Rumours that he was unhappy, circulating on social media, were firmly denied by O’Riordan. “There’s no truth in that whatsoever,” he said. “I was sitting across from him at the meal after training on Sunday.”

Speaking on Limerick local radio Live 95, Hegarty’s father Ger, a former All-Ireland winner at minor and under-21 as well a member of the team that lost the 1994 senior final to Offaly, said that his son would bounce back from the disappointment of losing to Clare.

“He’s in his own little bubble around championship time and we give him a bit of space. He’s living out in west Limerick in Dromcollogher and we tend to leave him alone. He’s fine and got over it very quickly. He’s much stronger than I was when I was playing. The fact the matches aren’t knock-out games like they were in my time – you move on very quickly.”