EXCAVATING significance from the weekend's fixtures is a painstaking exercise, but the McGrath Cup match in Askeaton, between Limerick and Tipperary, has as good a claim as any. Goals from Ger Mullane and the long serving Timmy Cummins gave Limerick footballers their fourth consecutive victory in competitive matches.

There would be nothing that striking about the sequence were it not for the fact that in the previous two years, Limerick had managed only two wins. The arrival of Dave Quirke as manager in September has helped change the environment considerably.

Now, Limerick are unbeaten in Division Four and have reach McGrath Cup semi final where they will face Kerry.

Over the years, the county has occupied a subdued place in football's scheme of things. As with all the weaker Munster counties Clare and Tipperary are the others hurling has always received more emphasis. There have, however also been high points.

Prior to the introduction of the open draw in Munster, Limerick had been the last county to break Cork and Kerry's stranglehold on the Munster final. That was in 1965 and Dave Quirke played on the team as did Eamonn Cregan who sampled Munster final atmosphere in football before he ever did in hurling and who was, according to Quirke, "every bit as good" a footballer as he was a hurler.

More recently, former Kerry All Ireland full back and current Clare manager John O'Keeffe had control of the Limerick footballers and in the first two years of the open draw in the province, 1991 and `92, brought them very close to embarrassing his own county.

Limerick lost the `91 Munster final to Kerry by two points and the following year came even closer to beating them although losing by three in the semi final. Since then, things have gone into a tailspin as a side that was a little long in the tooth by the time they got a chance, gradually broke up so that there are now only six survivors from those years.

The county's League form was never hectic even during the good championship years and recently sank to the level where, last season, they became one of Kilkenny's irregular League victims.

Quirke is wary of too much being made out of the modest progress to date and knows the remaining League fixtures will be more of a test. "Luckily we have yet to meet the strongest opposition," he says, "and that helped us find our feet. We beat Longford and that gave the lads a bit of a lift. I wouldn't say we've turned it around because the next month could sort us out, too."

That match was a positive result because Longford, under the guidance of former Derry manager Eamonn Coleman, have been going well in Division Four and are in contention for promotion

The connection between unrealistic expectation and declining morale is obvious enough and in Limerick's case, Quirke agrees that it played its part. "Morale, was pretty low but people expected too much, too quickly. When it didn't happen, players were disappointed."

Quirke and his selectors cover the county he's from Oola in the east Pa Leahy from the west Sean McAuliffe from the South and John Redington, the city. As he says "Most of the talent out there has been noticed by the selectors."

With the championship offering nothing more comforting than a first outing against champions Cork, Quirke concedes that relative fulfilment is more likely to be found in the League. "Getting Cork is a very bad draw as far as Limerick are concerned. At least against Clare, Waterford and Tipp we'd feel it was 50-50. If we could get a few more results in the League, I'd be very happy."