Limerick v. Wexford, SHC QF, Semple Stadium @ 2pm

gizmo23

shmeee wrote: »

Likewise, games bring you on and give you the momentum needed but Galway did die a death in the wide spaces of Semple near the end. When was the last time many of this Wexford team played in Thurles?

The pitch is in some condition up there, a carpet.

That's actually a good question... The majority would have played in the debacle of last year I.e Antrim u-21 and also pur seniors played Clare there. Thurles to me looks the best pitch in Ireland.

Whatever happens come Sunday we can finally say we are competing against the big boys again and I cant tell you how good that feels after the "Bonner era"

gizmo23

shmeee wrote: »

Likewise, games bring you on and give you the momentum needed but Galway did die a death in the wide spaces of Semple near the end. When was the last time many of this Wexford team played in Thurles?

The pitch is in some condition up there, a carpet.

That's actually a good question... The majority would have played in the debacle of last year I.e Antrim u-21 and also pur seniors played Clare there. Thurles to me looks the best pitch in Ireland.

Whatever happens come Sunday we can finally say we are competing against the big boys again and I cant tell you how good that feels after the "Bonner era"

citykat

I wouldn't be expecting too much from McDonald. He's up against one of the best in Richie Mc on Sun. He'll get nothing like the freedom or space that he got against WD.

Mountainlad

citykat wrote: »

I wouldn't be expecting too much from McDonald. He's up against one of the best in Richie Mc on Sun. He'll get nothing like the freedom or space that he got against WD.

I wouldn't be so sure. Despite what people say, McCarthy struggled in the air against Callinan. It was apparent and led to two points, a free where he bear hugged him, the first Tipp goal, and to be honest if Callinan had not made some crazy decisions on the ball he would have had at least one if not two goals.

McDonalds fitness and age are the issues though.

bruschi

Mountainlad wrote: »

I wouldn't be so sure. Despite what people say, McCarthy struggled in the air against Callinan. It was apparent and led to two points, a free where he bear hugged him, the first Tipp goal, and to be honest if Callinan had not made some crazy decisions on the ball he would have had at least one if not two goals.

McDonalds fitness and age are the issues though.

fitness? in that it will be his 6th game in 5 weeks? shouldnt really affect someone so young IMO. and not at full forward either, be tougher if he was at midfield. Redmond is the only I'd be really worried about with regards to fatigue.

Vanolder

Wexford by 6.

TheMilkyPirate

I don't buy this fitness talk at all. These are young athletes with a whole week between games, That's plenty of time to recover barring any niggling injuries.

Fireball07

I actually agree with Mount on this one, Richie Mc is a class full-back, one of the best around. But he isn't that tall, and Callinan did beat him in the air a couple of times... When isolated one-on-one, Richie can be beaten in the air. His recovery and positioning is very good, he makes it difficult for forwards even when they have the ball, but he can be beaten.

If he has support, at least he can break it down. I do worry a bit about McDonald's height & physicality... because it only takes one chance to get a goal.

mickmackey1

Fireball07 wrote: »

But he isn't that tall, and Callinan did beat him in the air a couple of times... When isolated one-on-one, Richie can be beaten in the air. His recovery and positioning is very good, he makes it difficult for forwards even when they have the ball, but he can be beaten.

True, but then if he was taller he might be beaten by a fast low ball... there haven't been too many invincible full-backs, even Lohan was beaten once every few years.

Browney7

Limerick have named an unchanged team this evening.

Fireball07

mickmackey1 wrote: »

True, but then if he was taller he might be beaten by a fast low ball... there haven't been too many invincible full-backs, even Lohan was beaten once every few years.

Richie is up there with the best, no doubt about that.


Not sure about the unchanged team though, definitely wouldn't have been what I've done. I hope TJ knows what he's doing, and isn't just being cautious for the sake of it.

mickmackey1

Fireball07 wrote: »

Not sure about the unchanged team though, definitely wouldn't have been what I've done.

Agree, that half-back line just is not AI winning standard.

citykat

The full forward I'll be looking out for on Sun is Dowling. Saw him in the flesh in the MF in PUC. Quiet first half but came to life in the second half. He doesn't look the quickest but with ball in hand he can find space and always gets a shot away. He went close on a couple of occasions in PUC. If he gets any of these on target on Sun, they'll be hard stopped.

The Letheram

citykat wrote: »

The full forward I'll be looking out for on Sun is Dowling. Saw him in the flesh in the MF in PUC. Quiet first half but came to life in the second half. He doesn't look the quickest but with ball in hand he can find space and always gets a shot away. He went close on a couple of occasions in PUC. If he gets any of these on target on Sun, they'll be hard stopped.

He is actually the type of full forward that should suit Matt O Hanlon. I would ne more worried if Graeme Mulcahy got isolated with him. Having said that, Dowling is seriously dangerous with ball in hand.

Mountainlad

On the full back, in fairness no matter how good you are it's one position where you will be bet up a stick if your not given cover and there is fast ball coming in given the quality of inter county full forwards.

As for Dowling, I would disagree in a big way. Loads of ball went in in the first half and he won next to nothing. Of the two clean balls he won that were goal chances in both halves, he bottled them. I'm convinced that Downes would have made hay. He was marking a corner back, and while O Neill is a great marker he is very small. Should never end up full back.

Dowling is only 21 and has talent but to be honest I don't think he should be full forward, or at least not all day.

McDonald and McCarthy will go along way to deciding the game.

Amprodude

Wexford will take Limerick at weekend. I dont rate this Limerick team at all. Ryan said that if they took their chances they could have beaten Cork. He failed to see that the Limerick backline was destroyed by pace of Cork forwards and that their two wing backs were taken off. Limerick i thought were lucky to lose JUST by 6 points.

bennyl10

Amprodude wrote: »

Wexford will take Limerick at weekend. I dont rate this Limerick team at all. Ryan said that if they took their chances they could have beaten Cork. He failed to see that the Limerick backline was destroyed by pace of Cork forwards and that their two wing backs were taken off. Limerick i thought were lucky to lose JUST by 6 points.

Just 6?!

Limerick could, maybe should, have been up by a couple at half time if theyd taken their chances
Last twenty minutes, once the goal went in, Limerick had to push for it, havingeft a goal chance or two behind them early on, and cork,.to their credit, pushed on amd put the game to bed, capitalizing on a few mistakes..

I think if tj can sort out the issues from cork, limerick should have enough for Wexford sunday

Limerick by 3 i think.

slegs

Amprodude wrote: »

Wexford will take Limerick at weekend. I dont rate this Limerick team at all. Ryan said that if they took their chances they could have beaten Cork. He failed to see that the Limerick backline was destroyed by pace of Cork forwards and that their two wing backs were taken off. Limerick i thought were lucky to lose JUST by 6 points.

Limerick were beaten by a Cork team at the peak of their powers on home turf by 2 goal lapses. Would agree our wing backs played poorly something that hasnt been the case for Limerick in recent years, even more reason to say it should have been closer. Wasnt much in it all.

Would love another cut off Cork if we got there as I think we would take them.

Wexford are on a roll but Limerick are a better team and should win.

Fireball07

There have been visible problems in the Limerick team for a while, and even in the last 2 games, where we did alright, there were weaknesses which were plain to see. TJ hasn't made any changes, which isn't the most encouraging thing in the world. Does he have a lack of faith in the depth of the squad? Does he trust the under-performing players to give a big performance? Or does he have some plan up his sleeve?


I hope everything goes right, but that seems unlikely. You don't need everything to go right to win though, so hopefully we can expose more of Wexford's weaknesses than they can ours. A deeper half-back line and isolating Downes & Mulcahy against their markers will go a long way to doing that.

bennyl10

Fireball07 wrote: »

There have been visible problems in the Limerick team for a while, and even in the last 2 games, where we did alright, there were weaknesses which were plain to see. TJ hasn't made any changes, which isn't the most encouraging thing in the world. Does he have a lack of faith in the depth of the squad? Does he trust the under-performing players to give a big performance? Or does he have some plan up his sleeve?


I hope everything goes right, but that seems unlikely. You don't need everything to go right to win though, so hopefully we can expose more of Wexford's weaknesses than they can ours. A deeper half-back line and isolating Downes & Mulcahy against their markers will go a long way to doing that.

Youd like to hope TJ would have some mind of plan up.his sleeve, but it took him.62 odd minutes to make a change against cork, when changes were obvious literally staring him in the face from just after half time..

Of course hes had a couple of extra games to watch Wexford in flow and maybe get an idea of how to stop them.. but i'd have liked to have thought hed have seen an issue or two with the team that needed small tweaking..

I doubted him before Tipp and he proved me wrong, so im.hopeful he'll do the same sunday..

Neber know he could make a late change or two sunday and pulled all our bluffs!

Fireball07

bennyl10 wrote: »

Youd like to hope TJ would have some mind of plan up.his sleeve, but it took him.62 odd minutes to make a change against cork, when changes were obvious literally staring him in the face from just after half time..

Of course hes had a couple of extra games to watch Wexford in flow and maybe get an idea of how to stop them.. but i'd have liked to have thought hed have seen an issue or two with the team that needed small tweaking..

I doubted him before Tipp and he proved me wrong, so im.hopeful he'll do the same sunday..

Neber know he could make a late change or two sunday and pulled all our bluffs!

He talks fine, he's highlighted Wexford's forward movement... and after what Cork did to us, you'd have to hope he has some plan. He's not stupid, after all.


There are rumours of an injury too, but again, I don't know what to believe anymore.

bennyl10

Fireball07 wrote: »

He talks fine, he's highlighted Wexford's forward movement... and after what Cork did to us, you'd have to hope he has some plan. He's not stupid, after all.


There are rumours of an injury too, but again, I don't know what to believe anymore.

Youd imagine hed have a plan or two anyway
And with wexfords forward, if theyre given that kind of space, can cause serious damage.

Injuries this close to the game are not ideal in the slightest though..

TJ has proven himself to be very capable,so far, just the timing of his changes in PUC left me sctatching my head a little

I do think we should have enough for Sunday though, if we keep the physicallity weve had so far in the championship, think well be 2 or 3 points better off come half 3

letowski

Really tough one to call I think, but I going to side with Limerick. Probably the toughest to call of the year to date.

There's no doubt Wexford have some serious forwards up front, and they've put up a great score in the last 3 games. But what has impressed me from watching them, has being their performances in the half back line and midfield (especially with Redmond/Chin). They've basically dominated Clare and Waterford both aerially and on the breaks, meaning the McDonald, McGovern, Morris and co. have blossomed to date.

However I think that Limerick are better equipped than their two Munster counties to counteract this. With the exception of probably Mulcahy, all the Limerick forwards are comfortable with winning their own high ball. On the break, in Ryan - Browne - DOG, Limerick will typically compete like demons, making it harder for the Wexford to get quality ball into their forwards. In general, Limerick will compete physically far better than what Clare/Waterford did so poorly.

I feel in the head to head match ups, Limerick are better served marginally, though Rossiter being fit is huge. I think it's important that Wexford start well as chasing a game, after the schedule they've had, might be difficult. Limerick, last year v Clare aside, have been performing at a consist level in the last few years of championship and I think there is a big performance that their forwards have being threatening.

Should be a good one!

68deville

Wexfords forward unit seen to be scoring more goals in a short period than
The the Lk ,the Downes,Mulcahy,Dowling trio do from a much more settled
LK team,a lot more expected from LK than WX forward line,WX is a very
Inexperienced team as opposed to LK,can't wait for Sunday!

Amprodude

slegs wrote: »

Would love another cut off Cork if we got there as I think we would take them.

Doubt it. If Limerick could master Croke Park then they could have a chance. Cork team that played Limerick this year are a far better team than what faced Limerick in 2013. I think some fans here are going on past glorys to justify Limericks performance and some here are really overrating the team. I doubt Limerick would have beaten KK last year. They may beat Wexford but I guarantee you they will make hard work of it.

slegs

Amprodude wrote: »

Doubt it. If Limerick could master Croke Park then they could have a chance. Cork team that played Limerick this year are a far better team than what faced Limerick in 2013. I think some fans here are going on past glorys to justify Limericks performance and some here are really overrating the team. I doubt Limerick would have beaten KK last year. They may beat Wexford but I guarantee you they will make hard work of it.

Maybe you are right but I don't think Cork are as good as you think either. We made mistakes to make ye look good the last day.

People like you will keep putting Linerick down with comments like above but that's just because you fear us.

It's really just the typical Cork arrogance back on full tilt now that you have your first silverware in 8 years.

Rightwing

Amprodude wrote: »

Wexford will take Limerick at weekend. I dont rate this Limerick team at all. Ryan said that if they took their chances they could have beaten Cork. He failed to see that the Limerick backline was destroyed by pace of Cork forwards and that their two wing backs were taken off. Limerick i thought were lucky to lose JUST by 6 points.

I'm not sure Limk are great either. Losing to Cork was poor. KK and Tipp well ahead of the chasing pack.

Rightwing

slegs wrote: »

Maybe you are right but I don't think Cork are as good as you think either. We made mistakes to make ye look good the last day.

People like you will keep putting Linerick down with comments like above but that's just because you fear us.

It's really just the typical Cork arrogance back on full tilt now that you have your first silverware in 8 years.

Cork are essentially a div 1 b team, like limerick. If we were to make it to the all ireland which is highly unlikely, cork are the team I'd like to face.

Browney7

If Wexford win this it will be because Limerick beat themselves and in fairness most Limerick fans would always have a fear of this.

Plenty has been said about Limerick losing to Cork in Cork. I felt Limerick played quite well in Cork and the game was nip and tuck until the first Cork goal. Fair play to Cork they were deserved winners but lets not forget Cork had never lost a Munster Final in Cork (looked back as far as 1920 ).

A lot has been said about Wexford in the media and in fairness to them they've been the story of the championship this year. But lets look at their performances so far:

Lost to Dublin down in Wexford park comprehensively enough 22 points to 1-14. That's 22 scores to 15. Granted it was the first game of the championship and may have been rusty but they had home advantage which I feel is worth about three points to a team (plenty said Limerick only won Munster last year because they had two home games:rolleyes:).

Next they went to Ennis and put in a great performance away from home against the All Ireland champions (who were comprehensively beaten by Cork in a neutral venue Thurles - a late goal put a bit of gloss on the scoreboard) but really should have closed the game out. They have a dangerous full forward line and they exposed the weaknesses in the Clare full back line early in the game to great effect to give them a strong foothold in the game. I'd give them great credit for getting the replay after extra time when it went back to 15 on 15.

The replay in Wexford park was a nervy encounter but how they didn't win in normal time with two extra men for more than 20 minutes I'll never know. Again, I would give them massive credit for winning in extra time. I really can't figure them out on this front. They seem to thrive on adversity.

They never looked like losing against Waterford but again they left Waterford in the game for long periods. How good was this Waterford team? They rattled Cork in May but in the replay Cork made a few changes and really cut loose on them. The Cork under 21s, who many on the Cork thread didn't hold out much of a candle for, beat Waterford 21s (who have numerous senior players) in Walsh park and most Waterford fans would acknowledge they wouldn't have much faith in their senior manager.

On paper Limerick should win this by 4 or 5 points but the game ain't played on paper. If Limerick have their heads right (it isn't Croker we're playing in so hopefully they should be) they should be too strong. Nonetheless I'm expecting a good battle with Limerick going into an early lead (I'm expecting TJ to try and create space early for our inside line and trying to get Mulcahy and Downes on the ball and going for early goals like KK did to us in 2007 to silence what will be a very large Wexford crowd) and controlling the game and seeing it out by 4 points. Luimneach abú!

hawthorn

Hi Folks

Apologies for a ticket question but I dont know where else to post it....

Anyone know would I be safe in leaving it till Sunday early to get a terrace ticket? I dont want to get one now just in case Im lucky and find someone selling a stand ticket on Sunday?

Are they always genuine tickets if individuals are selling? ie could you be scammed?

thanks

h