Key battles everywhere in Cork-Limerick war
There's no such thing as a phoney war in the red-hot Munster Hurling Championship.
So says Antrim's Neil McManus, who's expecting a battle for the ages when Limerick welcome Cork to the TUS Gaelic Grounds on Sunday.
Earlier this week Brian Hayes said of Limerick: "They're still the top team around the place, so we'll be looking forward to trying to bring ourselves up to that level on Sunday."
But McManus is having none of that, suggesting the Rebels absolutely believe they are the county to beat in the race for the Liam MacCarthy Cup this summer.
"Make no mistake about it, Brian Hayes thinks Cork are the best hurling team in the country. There's no second-guessing that. Brian's playing the game there," McManus said on the RTÉ GAA Podcast before analysing where this contest could be won and lost.
"What I can't wait to see is Brian up against Dan Morrissey, because I think that's who he'll have for company.
"Every time we question Dan in any way, shape or form he comes up with the answers. Will he ever have played somebody in the form of Brian Hayes with the physical attributes to match? He's going to get a real test that's sure.
"These are the two teams that both believe they are the best two teams in the country."
The Rebels certainly have a chance to make a statement this weekend. There'd be no bigger declaration of their intentions that beating Limerick on their own patch.
"I would say Cork have said, 'lads, wouldn't it be lovely to go into Limerick now and turn them over? That would be a real sign that we're No 1'," added McManus.
"You can imagine that bus arriving into the middle of Limerick own the Galeic Grounds, the song 'Killeagh' by Kingfishr vibrating the bus as the lads get off.
"The match-ups all around the field... I cannot wait to see Tim O'Mahony go up against Will O'Donoghue, I think that'll be war to be totally honest.
"Then we've Cian Lynch against Robert Downey, even Eoin Downey against the Bull O'Brien, it's mouthwatering every way you look at it."
We're still in Munster, but such is the competitive ferocity of the province that neither of these elite sides can take anything for granted. They will not want to lose and increase the pressure on temseves ahead of next weekend's matches, when Cork face Waterford and Limerick take on Clare.
"These two teams can still end up in the final against each other," said McManus.
"It may well be the dress rehearsal, but there's no room for that so we're going to get the full-blooded version of this. It just might be part one."
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The 42
an hour ago
- The 42
'I was thankful that we got out with a point': Red card in rearview mirror as Barrett leads Cork into battle
HAVING BEGUN THE Munster senior hurling championship on a low note, Cork attacker Shane Barrett could yet end it by captaining the winning side in the final. If the Rebels are to win a provincial title for the first time in seven years, it will be Robert Downey lifting the Mick Mackey Cup in the Mick Mackey Stand but, as the Glen Rovers man has been limited to a place on the substitutes' bench due to a hamstring injury, his vice-captain will lead the side out. For 24-year-old Barrett, it was an honour to be asked by manager Pat Ryan but, equally, something he has tried to take in his step. 'Pat said it to me at the end of year review, would I be interested,' he says. 'I asked him who the captain was going to be, but he wouldn't tell me – I had a bit of an inkling and then I found out it was Rob. It is an honour to be asked especially when Rob was going to be captain. 'It is a nice honour but hopefully I won't have to do it too many more times this year and Rob will be back. Advertisement 'When I get the chance to do it, you are not really thinking about it at the moment but afterwards you reflect on it and it is a nice thing.' Reflection of the less-nice kind was required after the Blarney man's red card against Clare at Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg in the first round of fixtures. 'Look, I suppose it happened,' he says, 'and I was thankful that we got out of Ennis with a point. 'If we had lost up there, we would have been under a lot more pressure and I would have been feeling a lot worse but once we got a point and Tipp and Limerick also drew, no team was worse off. 'It cost us a point in Ennis and very regretful but we weren't any worse off than when we got up there. Pat had said beforehand that he would have taken a point against the All-Ireland champions.' Barrett tries to escape the attention of Limerick's Will O'Donoghue. Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO The indiscretion meant a watching brief in Cork's next game, the routine victory over a Tipperary side that were themselves reduced to 14 men after Darragh McCarthy's first-minute dismissal. 'It was my own doing, so I couldn't really give out to anyone else,' Barrett says. 'I probably hadn't watched a game like that in ages, so it was an experience I hadn't got since I was about 18. I didn't think of it much before the game but at the game it was horrible, but the lads were brilliant on the day and put the game to bed in the first half. 'So, I enjoyed the second half.' While the second half of the 16-point defeat to Limerick at TUS Gaelic Grounds three weeks ago was better than the first period, nobody in red was enjoying it. However, there wasn't any dwelling on it, either, given the need to respond a week later against Waterford. For Cork, the Monday gym sessions bring as much mental as physical benefit. 'That is the case,' Barrett says, 'especially when you have the back-to-back games and say you have been playing on the Sunday. 'You come in on the Monday and completely park that game. In our case it was Waterford this week, so you don't have time to be dwelling – you are just fully focused, about being back around the lads and getting our work done, getting ready for training on Tuesday and the match at the weekend.' And, given the chance to avenge that earlier defeat, where does Barrett identify the major areas for improvement? Related Reads 'It was a whole new world for me': Limerick-Cork Munster final memories 50 years on 'That narrative has been debunked now' - Limerick boss hits back at end of an era talk Pat Ryan: 'Some of our own people writing off Limerick. Are they off their game?' 'Everything, really,' he says. There wasn't anything we could have taken as a positive, they blew us completely out of the water. We had no answer for them whatsoever. 'I think we improved on a lot of things against Waterford, that weren't there in the Gaelic Grounds, but we just had no answer for them up there. 'Limerick are an unbelievable team. You just have to respect what they've done over the last seven, eight years. They're an unbelievable unit, a well-oiled machine. They know each other inside out. 'It's about weathering the tough moments against them, and trying to impose your own gameplan on them.'
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Galway's Conor Whelan: ‘Mental health is not as abstract as people sometimes make it sound'
He arrived in a stork basket, 10 years ago next week. Conor Whelan had been the best forward on the 2014 Galway minor team but whatever currency that might have held in other years, it looked like pennies on the dollar this time around. Though he'd scored two goals against Limerick in the All-Ireland semi-final, Galway had been torched by 15 points . If there was help for the senior team coming from that group, it surely wasn't coming in a hurry. Anthony Cunningham saw it differently. Whelan was in his first year in college in Limerick when the then Galway manager got in touch. The first contact was early in the season but Whelan declined, not wanting to rush into it. By mid-summer, Cunningham was back asking again. It was in the run-up to the Leinster final and this time Whelan said yes. His first training session was in the second week of June 2015. His first senior intercounty game was the All-Ireland quarter-final in July. Six weeks later, he was starting an All-Ireland final. An All Star nomination came on the back of a career that was three games old, none of them in the league or provincial championship. It must be a record. 'The stars aligned a little bit in terms of getting your chance and going in,' he says now, upon being reminded of the decade anniversary. 'I suppose I stepped up and took it too. It seems like only yesterday really. When I look at the whole 11 seasons, it feels like one big blur. READ MORE 'It just goes so fast. Something that I always say is if you have a season where you get knocked out of the round robin series, you lose a lot those years because you're only playing five championship games and the whole thing is over. You feel like you never really got started at all. 'I've been fortunate with injury, I've only missed one game – against Westmeath in 2022 and I could probably have played if I really needed to push my body. It's been a journey, definitely. Lots of ups and downs.' Conor Whelan of Galway in action during the Allianz Hurling League game between Galway and Clare in February. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho And plenty more to come, most likely. According to the numbers put together by hurling's great annals-keeper Leo McGeough, Whelan has played 57 championship games for Galway. Of the current crop, all the players who have more than him – two Burkes, two Mannions and Conor Cooney – are all over 30. Whelan won't be 29 until October. But if it all ended tomorrow, he'd leave a hefty footprint behind him. He is the fourth-highest scorer in Galway's history, with 16 goals and 129 points to his name. That 177 total means he is behind only Cathal Mannion (8-171, or 195), Cooney (14-199, or 241) and the unreachable Joe Canning (27-486, or 567). The difference with Whelan is that every one of his scores has come from play. He has scored in 50 of his 57 games, has scored twice or more in 42 of them. He's Galway's only All Star forward this decade and one of only three Galway attackers to win multiple All Stars since the turn of the century – Canning and Damien Hayes are the others. By any measure, Whelan is among the greatest-ever Galway hurlers and as electric a player as the game has to offer. [ Opens in new window ] And yet, when you're looking for a lens through which to tell his story, hurling is probably one of the less interesting things to catch the eye. We might start with his PhD, which he is due to hand in this week. Go back to that 18-year-old in his first year in Mary I in 2015, giving a polite thanks but no thanks to the Galway management when they're trying to make an intercounty hurler out of him. Now ask him about his PhD. 'So basically there's 950 Gaelic games student athletes in Ireland,' he says. 'An elite student athlete is someone who's registered as a full-time student education level and they've spent at least one year on a senior intercounty panel. So there's 950 of those registered with the GPA. 'I kind of came up with this concept of administrative intervention where you pair the student athlete with a mentor. My PhD is out of ATU Galway. There were 13 elite student athletes there and I paired them each with an alumnus in the college. So not somebody that was their lecturer and not somebody that was from their sporting environment. Somebody that they didn't know. 'They were to meet every two weeks and just plan out their time for the student athlete. They set goals, both sporting, academic and personally. They were also there for social supports – any issues that come up around assignments, conflict between lectures and training and so on. 'We're all aware of the mental health issues in Ireland and we're all aware of the challenges that student athletes face. But you have to design something that's realistic and something that you think students could utilise. The feedback I got from the 13 student athletes was that, yeah, there's someone there and to be honest, I didn't meet them every week. But if I needed them, he was there.' Whelan's day job is in occupational health and wellbeing with the Castle construction group. His PhD was always going to delve into some aspect of mental health: ever since his cousin, the Galway defender Niall Donohue, died by suicide in 2013, Whelan has continually immersed himself in that world. All going well, his PhD will form a template for the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) and other organisations to use to help student athletes manage their mental health and wellbeing from here on out. Galway captain David Burke, Kilbeacanty chairman Justin Fahy, Shane Donohue, brother of the late Niall Donohue, Galway hurler Conor Whelan, cousin of Niall, and Niall's father, Francis Donohue. Photograph: Joe O'Shaughnessy 'Initially, I kind of just wanted to understand it better. I suppose after my cousin had passed away, I was kind of pushed into that space a little bit and I was like, 'If I'm going to be in this space, I want to really understand it and be able to offer actual tangible advice rather than just regurgitate other stuff you read.' '[Niall's death] is definitely a factor. I've been fortunate enough that I have also done a masters in psychology. I have been very interested in alcohol and addiction and spent some time volunteering in Cuan Mhuire [rehabilitation organisation] for six or seven months. I've always been interested in that concept of mental health and how far out it goes, what it delves into and all the different strands that affect it. 'And yeah, obviously Niall would be a factor in that. Unfortunately, he experienced acute mental illness. I suppose as a direct consequence of that, my view on mental health is that it's not as abstract as people sometimes make it sound. There's always factors in the background that can influence it. 'When you think of mental illness, you always think of acute mental illness, which probably makes up for about 15 per cent of the population. But there's so many other variances within that 85 per cent.' As for his own head, one of the ways he clears it is by travelling. Generally with friends but sometimes on his own, Whelan makes a point of getting away as much as he can in the off-season. Asia, Australia, South and Central America. Purposeful wandering, off the grid where possible. 'I suppose a couple of different things appeal about it,' he says. 'I really enjoy the whole thing of just working hard and doing your turn, your graft, back here and then taking a few months and heading off at the end of it and seeing the place. Just going away and getting a fresh perspective. I find sometimes that you go away too and you have a lot of appreciation for the life that you're coming back to and the things you have in your life. 'And being off the grid – I can remember being on the east coast of America with one of my best friends and you're travelling for five hours on a Greyhound bus and you've no signal or anything. You're not getting emails about work or anything like that. When you're there, you're there. 'That is definitely, in the modern world, one of the things I love the most about it. Just being completely there. Like, I don't buy a Sim card in a new country. If I happen to go to a place that has wifi, great. And if I don't, fine. I'm just here. 'Every day I was over in Japan, I was just literally heading off and my sole objective was, 'I'm going to go here today. I have no idea where I'm going but I'm going to just explore this place and see what's the crack with it.' And you're just going out and you're literally people-watching in a cafe. You're watching people go to their normal work dressed as full anime characters or whatever.' He doesn't train when he goes away. He doesn't bring a hurley. He might get a run in somewhere but it won't bother him if he doesn't. He gets on a flight and leaves his life behind, the better to see what he can see. 'It's really interesting from a mental health point of view to go to these places and see how they approach things. Places like Japan and South Korea have massive challenges around mental health. I couldn't get over how much time they spend on their phones. 'In Japan, they have a suicide forest down around Mount Fuji that's very famous. I was in South Korea and they have a really terrible work-life balance there. Just being in these countries shapes your perspective and changes it.' Conor Whelan of Galway in action in the Leinster SHC game between Galway and Antrim at Pearse Stadium on May 17th. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho And when he comes back, he's a hurler again. He's Conor Whelan, Galway's best and most reliable forward. Micheál Donoghue used 40 players in the 2025 league campaign – only Tom Monaghan and Cianan Fahy played more minutes than Whelan. He's carried his bat through the Leinster championship too – only getting a rest for the last half-hour against Antrim when Galway were well out the gap. 'It's been very enjoyable. Micheál brings such positivity to the group and, in fairness, he's given everyone a chance. He played 40 players in the league and I think he's up around 30 in the championship as well. 'I've been part of groups before that have had that idea starting out but once you lose one or two games, have reverted to type. But he hasn't done that. It's really good to see young lads coming through and getting their chance.' He would know. Not many have made better of it. If you are affected by any of the issues in this piece, please contact The Samaritans at 116 123 or email jo@
RTÉ News
3 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Munster Senior Hurling Championship final preview: Cork need divine display to deny Limerick seventh heaven
For a brief period there, it looked like Limerick might be vincible. Denied the five-in-a-row last year. Held to a draw by a rebuilding Tipp in the opening round in Munster. Was the engine starting to wear in the once in a lifetime Green Machine? The subsequent, more-comfortable-than-it-looked, win over Waterford and 16-point annihilation of the Cork side who beat them twice last season suggest the answer is no - same as it ever was. Sure, John Kiely's men lost the last game of the round-robin to Clare, but that was with qualification already assured, eight changes, and facing eliminated All-Ireland champions and bitter rivals playing for pride. Limerick set a new record of six consecutive Munster Senior Hurling Championship titles last year and are hot favourites to extend that to seven this evening. Presumably, the provincial council didn't imagine renaming the Munster Cup after Treaty legend Mick Mackey (in 2022) would mean nobody else ever winning it again. The high-scoring nature of hurling lends itself to big swings in results – Tipperary either lost narrowly to Kilkenny or hammered them in finals from 2009-19 – and Cork will surely improve on their performance three weeks ago. But will that be enough, back on enemy territory? Even if the crowd at the Gaelic Grounds is evenly split. Kiely's selection of full-forward Aidan O'Connor for his first Limerick start in a Munster final is a signal of the strength-in-depth Limerick have developed. It seems a bit harsh on Shane O'Brien, who hit 1-08 from play in the opening two games before having less impact against Cork and Clare, but what is just as illustrative is the fact that Seamus Flanagan and Peter Casey now seem to be considered impact subs. They are not the only former All-Stars/multiple All-Ireland winners warming a fearsome bench; Declan Hannon, hurling's most successful captain, Darragh O'Donovan and Shane Dowling (as sub-keeper) are all there too. As is Cathal O'Neill, who scored at least two points in all six of their championship games last year. Barry Nash's versatility has taken him to wing-back, allowing Kyle Hayes to move into the centre-back role that ensures he will be more involved in play – Cork deliberately avoided his wing last July - and Will O'Donoghue to his preferred midfield spot. The rain should have eased off by the 6pm throw-in, an advantage to a gameplan built on retaining possession, but Limerick will have to be careful with their handpasses – today's referee Thomas Walsh penalised them for three throws in the second half of their draw with Tipp. A lot of air has leaked from the red balloons since Tipp were swatted aside in the league final, though in fairness to Pat Ryan he wasn't the one selling the notion that Corkness - "It drives me mad when I hear that [word]" – and early-season form after going so close in 2024 made an end to the 20-year All-Ireland drought inevitable. The manager laughed off suggestions he had had one eye on this clash when the finalists met three weeks ago, insisting it was just "a bad performance" but also warning that "I can guarantee you we'll be able to perform in the final." The Rebels seemed to lack the defensive work by the forwards and aggression that allowed them to compete with, and beat Limerick, twice last season, so that could be fixed at least. But they are missing some significant personnel to injury, particularly in defence. Captain and centre-back Rob Downey (knee) and corner-back Niall O'Leary (groin), though both are named on the bench. Ger Millerick (broken finger), who had done well in the full-back line in O'Leary's absence. Veteran Damien Cahalane will thus have his hands full with O'Connor or Aaron Gillane while Cormac O'Brien has the unenviable task of trying to contain Gearóid Hegarty on his second championship start. Another absentee is Declan Dalton (hamstring), who relishes the physical onslaught Limerick always bring and offered a long-range threat comparable to Diarmaid Byrnes in last year's electric semi-final victory. Diarmuid Healy has big boots to fill on what is also his first time in a championship XV. Cork's stand-in captain Shane Barrett will try to test Hayes, Ryan having decided that Darragh Fitzgibbon's roaming instincts might be better served in midfield than at centre-forward. If he can get away from O'Donoghue and the conductor Cian Lynch, who is likely to direct proceedings even if assigned a man-marker. As Brendan Cummins identified, Cork might need their half-forwards working back to let the half-back line sit, or else risk conceding fatal amounts of space to Gillane and Co. That could also open up the space for the running attack that caused Limerick issues last year but they would need Brian Hayes to win a lot of ball for Alan Connolly and the now 37-year-old Patrick Horgan to maintain the potent goal threat they surely need to turn the tables. Nobody will be out at the final whistle (which could be after extra-time, or preceding penalties) but a second trouncing by their neighbours might challenge even that famous Cork confidence. Like Clare last year, they could be left hoping that someone else takes Limerick out before the final. Win against the odds and the hype will explode again. A more competitive defeat would still leave room for improvement. Victory would be same as it ever was for this Limerick team, who haven't gone through the back-door since their breakthrough triumph of 2018, the last time the Rebels reigned in Munster. That year was the least convincing of their five All-Ireland triumphs, albeit with a very young team, and it's hard to imagine Dublin doing more than softening them up for the Leinster champions. It wasn't enough last year but Kiely believes the four-week break for the provincial winners is a prize "worth fighting for". They have yet to lose a final under his watch. Cork will need plenty of fight if they are to change that. Limerick: Nickie Quaid; Seán Finn, Dan Morrissey, Mike Casey; Diarmaid Byrnes, Kyle Hayes, Barry Nash; Adam English, Will O'Donoghue; Gearóid Hegarty, Cian Lynch, Tom Morrissey; Aaron Gillane, Aidan O'Connor, David Reidy. Subs: Shane Dowling, Peter Casey, Colin Coughlan, Seamus Flanagan, Declan Hannon, Barry Murphy, Shane O'Brien, Donnacha Ó Dálaigh, Darragh O'Donovan, Patrick O'Donovan, Cathal O'Neill. Cork: Patrick Collins; Damien Cahalane, Eoin Downey, Seán O'Donoghue; Cormac O'Brien, Ciarán Joyce, Mark Coleman; Tim O'Mahony, Darragh Fitzgibbon; Diarmuid Healy, Shane Barrett, Seamus Harnedy; Patrick Horgan, Alan Connolly, Brian Hayes. Subs: Brion Saunderson, Niall O'Leary, Rob Downey, Tommy O'Connell, Ethan Twomey, Luke Meade, Shane Kingston, Jack O'Connor, Brian Roche, Robbie O'Flynn.
