There were always a few moments around this time of year that served as triggers to put my game face on.
Getting beyond Cheltenham and the Gold Cup. St Patrick’s Day. The Six Nations finishing up. Soon, the clocks will change and the long evenings will be upon us. The weather will continue to pick up (we hope). It always fueled me.
Indeed, with the split season, those signposts are a lot closer to the Championship than they used to be.
For whatever reason, I always struggled in League games, but the harder the ground, the quicker the ball, the bigger the crowd, well, it isn’t just me that that appeals to. It appeals to everyone.
Most of my career was spent in the old Division 1B so the crowds were smaller and the motivation was more difficult to summon. It even seemed to make the weather more miserable than it actually was.
And so, with the changing of the seasons, the League semi-finals will bring a bit of Championship buzz this weekend.
Maybe I’m mad, but I expect well over 20,000 to turn up for Limerick-Tipperary tomorrow evening.
Knowing John Kiely, the team talk after training last night will have been interesting. I don’t know Liam Cahill but his body language tells me that he won’t want to give an inch either.
I expect this game to showcase the best of the Limerick-Tipp rivalry.
I’m accused, at times, of reading too much into things and may well be again in the context of the fact that they will be playing again in the Championship on May 21, amid suggestions that they won’t want to show their hand.
Rubbish. A lot can happen in eight weeks. I think both will field their strongest teams or close enough to them.
You could fill video libraries on this Limerick team by now and all the other managers have access to footage of their body of work - so John Kiely won’t be too worried about what they might pick up at this stage. He’ll simply want to go all out for the win.
For Tipp, it’s a win-win scenario. Lose by a few points and they’ve still had a great League and developed the team. Win and their confidence will be boosted no end.
Either way, they’re a team that’s going places for me, though the proof of the pudding will be in the eating tomorrow evening.
There is always the danger that a game won’t live up to expectations but there’s a ‘bouldness’ to Tipp at the moment. It’s as if they identify a player or two to go after; a couple of weeks ago it was Stephen Bennett and I’ll be intrigued to see who it might be this time.
I expect them to hunt down goals too. They’ve got a few already this year, largely through hard running , risking that extra pass to create an opening rather than tapping over the handy point.
Limerick don’t tend to concede too many so if Tipp can rattle a couple, they could be raising green flags all summer.
Buckle up for this one. There’ll be skin and hair flying around the Gaelic Grounds.
Nowlan Park will give us a better reading on where Cork are at
I haven't bought into the hype around Cork just yet.
I was at an event recently with Pat Mulcahy and had a great chat with him about Cork hurling. I have great time for GAA folk in that county and you’d wonder with the numbers they have how it’s now 18 years since they last won an All-Ireland.
And they really only came close to winning it once in the interim.
Last year, teams were able to flash the ball around the pitch without a Cork player laying a glove on them and, while it’s the only time I’ve seen them this year, I felt it was the same old story in the first half against Limerick a few weeks back.
To be fair, they were a different team in the second half and I told Pat that if Cork supporters saw nothing else than a bit of grunt about their team this year and a willingness to shove it into other teams, wouldn’t be it a start?
So, if they marry that aggression with the skill that they always possess and do it consistently, they’ll be a team to be taken seriously.
What better place to prove that they’re the real deal than Kilkenny’s back yard on Sunday.
Write Davy Fitz off at your peril
I’d be slow to heap the criticism on Davy Fitzgerald and his tactics with Waterford as others have been doing.
Davy is somebody that I only got to know last year through working on TV together and we got on great; I loved talking hurling with him.
I’d love to pick his brains now but I’d probably be wasting my time - he’d be a closed book like all managers right now, as it simply has to be.
His tactics are certainly unique and I note that he’s been honing them in Portugal on a training camp with the team this week.
You can’t argue with Davy’s track record; he’ll be bringing his charges to play Limerick in a few weeks with some key men back and they’ll be coming in very much under the radar. It’s a nice place to be.
If a manager hasn't the players, he has nothing
March isn’t yet over and we’ve already seen the Donegal and Limerick football managers stepping down.
Like it or not, these days, if players feel that a manager isn’t up to scratch then there’s usually only one outcome - his departure, whether by having the good sense to read the room and then vacate it or by being pushed towards the door.
I know that Sean Cavanagh reckons that the Limerick footballers have put pressure on themselves by apparently forcing Ray Dempsey’s departure but I’m not so sure I agree with that.
The players had probably concluded that they were going nowhere as it was, so it was better to take a chance with someone else that might succeed.
Players may not have a huge say in managerial comings and goings but theirs is the most important input - because if you don’t have the players onside then, as a manager, you have nothing.
