I can't speak for how Kilkenny people view Limerick, but I can say with reasonable authority as to how we see them.
Limerick people would have huge respect for Kilkenny folk, right across the board.
When Kilkenny were hoovering up All-Irelands, they always had a great sense of humility. And when they stepped between the white lines, you had to earn your crust off them.
Tough as teak, hard as you like, but the minute the final whistle blew, all parties shook hands and moved on.
I always loved playing against Kilkenny. There was no massive rivalry like we have with other counties, largely because we haven’t crossed swords terribly often. Just four All-Ireland final meetings in the last 50 years and another few Championship games thrown in around them.
They’ve become more plentiful in recent years, however.
We went to Nowlan Park for a qualifier game in 2017, John Kiely’s first year at the helm, firmly believing we were going to win.
That’s the type of attitude you have to bring but, looking back, did we really have a chance?
It was my first time playing there and when I walked into the dressing room, Eoin Larkin was plastered all over the wall. He was just retired and had cut us asunder in a piece earlier that week, but that’s where we were as a team at the time - driven by emotion.
Just by saying “f**k you, Larkin”, we were going to go on and dump Kilkenny out of the Championship in their own backyard. Of course, we did no such thing.
Kiely has spoken since about how he paced his house during the subsequent close season, asking himself if he was up to the job. When he concluded that he was, he and the management sat down and discussed what Limerick should look like in 2018.
They came up with a plan and went after it, and have been executing it ever since.
A year on from Nowlan Park, we beat Kilkenny for the first time since 1973 in a quarter-final in Thurles in what was, for me, THE moment for Limerick hurling. Lose that and there’s no All-Ireland a few weeks later and the pressure ramps up further.
What was the difference between that and the year before? Well, we didn’t have Eoin Larkin or anybody else on the dressing room wall, trying to get a phoney edge out of something that had been said about us.
This was a new Limerick and we would only answer the questions that we asked of ourselves. Beating them in 2018 infused us with a belief that hasn’t left the team since.
Kilkenny appeared again the following year in the All-Ireland semi-final, ready to go to war this time. It was 20 minutes before we got to the pitch of the game and that, ultimately, was the losing of it.
It proved to be my last game for Limerick and they haven’t been beaten in the Championship since - join the dots!
It was a similar Limerick team but a new Kilkenny one in last year’s All-Ireland final but, still, with a few minutes left, nobody could have confidently predicted a winner.
This Sunday, Limerick are clear favourites again and their form has been more impressive but I fully expect Kilkenny to rise to the occasion.
I believe that Limerick will win, not because they will outwork Kilkenny, but just because they are further ahead in their development.
One thing you can be assured of, however, is that both teams will go at it. Hell for leather.
Can Kilkenny forwards contain the Limerick backs?!
We have seen how the Limerick full-back line play as auxiliary forwards and get up the field, clipping scores.
Barry Nash has been particularly rampant in that respect over the past couple of years. And why wouldn’t he, when he’s played most of his life in the forwards?
But you’d wonder if and when teams are going to try and counteract this. Could we see it from Kilkenny on Sunday? It’ll make for very interesting viewing if they do.
Is Billy Drennan going to tear back up the field after Nash or Mike Casey when they make a lung-bursting run to get on the end of a pass on overlap, hoping to take a score?
Pairc Ui Chaoimh, like Thurles and Croke Park, is a big pitch and it allows for space that runners like Nash and Casey will sprint into.
Kilkenny will want their inside line to inflict damage on the Limerick full-back line. Whether they can limit the damage going in the other direction will be fascinating.
Splitting hairs between Eoin Murphy and Nickie Quaid
The two goalkeepers that are widely recognised as the best in the game will share the same field on Sunday.
Who is better, Nickie Quaid or Eoin Murphy? It’s a simple question but a very difficult one to answer as they are two gifted individuals.
I believe that Nickie is ahead, not in terms of ability, but more because he has been working under Paul Kinnerk for seven seasons now, while it’s been more of a mixed bag for Murphy as Kilkenny’s strategy around puckouts hasn’t been as coherent.
Pare it back in terms of the basics and dealing with dropping balls, shot-stopping, vision and there is nothing between them.
But Quaid’s puckouts are different class and it will be interesting to observe if Kilkenny have made up much ground under new management in that respect on Sunday.
