ALL-IRELAND SHC QUARTER-FINALS:Cork selector Seánie McGrath tells JACKIE CAHILLthat Galway's victory in the Leinster final has been good for hurling ahead of the quarter-finals
BARRING REPLAYS, the race for the 2012 All-Ireland senior hurling championship will be whittled down to four teams by Sunday evening. Semple Stadium is preparing to host a quarter-final double-header and Cork selector Seánie McGrath is eagerly anticipating the prospect.
First up in Thurles are Cork and Waterford, a rivalry that has intensified over the past decade. Classic Munster championship clashes will be recounted in the various Thurles hostelries before battle commences.
The general consensus is that the winners will play Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final but the proviso for that scenario is that Kilkenny take care of business against Limerick. Win, lose or draw, McGrath will stick around for the second game on the double bill and he’s predicting that Limerick will give the wounded Cats plenty to think about.
And McGrath understands what it takes to unsettle Kilkenny, having played on the Cork team that beat the Noresiders on a wet September Sunday afternoon in 1999 to claim the All-Ireland title. McGrath acknowledges too that the pure knockout sense to next Sunday adds an extra dimension.
“Our previous qualifiers against Offaly and Wexford were knockout too,” he reflects. “But in the first round of the Munster championship, you always have the cushion of the backdoor. Now, you’re gone if the result doesn’t go your way. Win, and you’re in Croke Park for an All-Ireland semi-final. Then it’s down to the last four, where surprises can happen and unusual results can take place. Whoever wins will have a huge challenge.
“If Kilkenny win, they take on Tipperary but a Limerick win blows it open again. But we’re not really looking beyond Sunday. Our focus is on beating Waterford and we know that will be a huge challenge against a very good side.”
McGrath insists that hurling aficionados are being lured into a false sense of certainty when it comes to the outcome of the Kilkenny-Limerick clash. The fear for Limerick is the Kilkenny backlash will be ferocious following their shock Leinster final defeat to Galway.
When the Cats last lost in the provincial championship, in 2004, they recovered to reach an All-Ireland final but lost to Cork. And McGrath predicts: “It’s going to be a cracker. Limerick won’t fear Kilkenny and they have been improving all season.
“They have some really good young players like Shane Dowling, Kevin Downes, Declan Hannon and Graeme Mulcahy. They won’t be carrying any baggage of defeat. Obviously they suffered a big defeat in the 2007 All-Ireland final but very few of those Limerick lads are left. It’s wide open.”
And McGrath concedes that Galway’s victory over Kilkenny was good for hurling in a wider sense.
“I think it was,” the former corner forward agrees. “The first half was nearly freakish. Nobody in my generation has seen Kilkenny getting beaten by that much.
“Kilkenny put up a right good fight in the second half, and had they taken a couple of goal chances and had a bit of luck, they could have been even closer. And they’re still an excellent side with fantastic players.
“The championship in general has been good,” McGrath insists. “Ourselves and Tipp was a good game, then you had Clare and Dublin in Ennis, Limerick and Clare after that. The qualifier games weren’t that bad either. We got a small bit of stick after Offaly and Wexford but they’re good sides.”
But McGrath concedes that Waterford will represent a considerable step-up in class. According to Déise insiders, losing the Munster final to Tipperary has not unduly rattled morale and they’re ready for a new championship.
“It will be a really hard game, really, really hard,” McGrath says. “They’ll go in with plenty of confidence but we’re happy enough. We’ve been tipping along since the Tipp game and played two reasonable qualifier matches. But it will definitely take an improvement to beat them.”
