We’re at the quarter-final stages of the best All-Ireland winners series, with 2010 champions Tipperary facing off against 2018 kingpins Limerick.
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We saw Liam Sheedy face off against John Kiely twice during the 2019 hurling championship, but on both occasions it was not knockout.
While Tipperary won a dead rubber Munster group game, it was the Treaty that lorded the provincial final meeting at the Gaelic Grounds just a couple of weeks later.
Given that the Premier didn’t need to win the previous clash at Semple Stadium, it proved costly to start their full team as Cathal Barrett and Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher were both lost through injury.
While the visitors started well, Limerick ultimately pounded Tipp into the turf, and won by a handsome scoreline that in no way flattened them.
“We worked really hard and just didn’t give the Tipp half-backs and midfielders the time to pass in quality ball to their forwards,” Kiely said after the Munster final.
“I think that’s reflected in the scoreboard. When you can apply yourself, that high level of work rate, you are going to compromise their ability to get the ball in.
“It’s going to have an impact on the game, and you’ll probably create some chances yourself. We got a good few scores on turnovers as well.”
Sheedy was clearly disappointed but, as he found out when winning the All-Ireland via the back door in 2010, one swallow does not a summer make.
“Of course it is a worry and we only have two weeks to turn it around but turn it around we will,” he said. “There is a very very good dressing room in there.
“There is a very, very committed bunch. They are hurting right now but for us the healing process starts this evening.
“We have got to think about two weeks’ time and meeting significant opposition in an All-Ireland quarter-final.
“Previously, you could have found yourself when you would have been out of the competition, we now have an All-Ireland quarter-final to look forward to.”
In our video above, Shane Stapleton and Michael Verney wonder if the 2018 Limerick team — who changed very little the following year — would overcome the Tipp side of a decade ago.
Would the trailblazers in green that so lit up the hurling landscape during their pulsating run to the Liam MacCarthy Cup under Kiely take down a youthful brigade of current stars: Padraic, Brendan and Bonner Maher, not to mention Noel McGrath and Seamus Callanan.
Into the mix you can also insert Eoin Kelly, then Hurler of the Year Lar Corbett, and iconic goalkeeper Brendan Cummins.
Could they handle a Limerick team filled with the class of Cian Lynch, the brain of Declan Hannon, the strikerate of Aaron Gillane, and the workrate of that huge half-forward line?
Our panel discuss. Please vote for the team you think should go through in our poll below.
