OPINION: Two big displays and our summer is set up nicely - Shane Dowling

BY the time throw-in time comes around in Thurles on Sunday, Limerick could be fighting to stay in the championship.

We know they have to win both games anyway to get out of Munster, but if the Rebels turn over Clare in Ennis before throw-in time at FBD Semple Stadium, it’s a must-win game or else it's an early summer exit. Mad even writing that to be honest.

We have been so accustomed to just winning over the last number of years. But guess what? And I keep on saying it - players are humans, and not machines.

At some point, the Liam MacCarthy is going to have to be handed over to someone else. But I hope we can delay that a little while longer.

It's mad how time can change things, and quickly. A month ago it was a question of whether it was five-in-a-row, or possibly even a six-in-a-row. Now it's all hands on deck to stay alive.

I did believe our biggest challenge is getting out of Munster, because once a Munster final comes, or the trip to Croker, we will take some stopping again. But for now, it's Sunday. And it’s a must win.

I do think the three-week break came at a vital time. Limerick were back training earlier this year then they ever have before. They got very little if any break throughout the Allianz Hurling League, with a short turnaround time.

The lads were able to put the feet up for the week, do as they please and have some down time. See, when your within a set-up you can be hoodwinked and refuse to believe any of the noise from the outside, which has to be done of course.

But the majority of these lads are on the block, year in year out for the last five years. And it's really important down time is built in to that. Now, when all that is said and done, it's certainly back to business, heads down and let's get going again.

If you are in Liam Cahill’s shoes, how do you approach this? Well, it's certainly what I would call, a free hit. Why?
Well, because you lose this game on Sunday and you still have Waterford to play in Thurles to get out of Munster, and considering the Deise are out of the championship, you can only see a Tipp win in that game. So this is a game where he can have a go. And he will have a go.

Liam Cahill and Mikey Bevans have done an outstanding job in Tipp in such a short space of time, no different to what they had done in Waterford for the past three seasons.

Tipp were very good against Clare, and also cork, but the one area John Kiely and Paul Kinnerk will want to identify is how can we get the same goal opportunities that Clare and Cork created in those earlier games.

I know limerick haven’t scored a huge amount of goals in recent years, but I think this is an area Limerick could exploit on Sunday. On the flip side, Tipp have been scoring some amount of goals throughout this year's campaign, although the one game they struggled in was against Limerick in the League semi final.

But - and a big but - is there won't be a Sean Finn there this time. Am I worried? No. Don’t get me wrong, I'd much rather have him because obviously he is one of the best, if not the best, defenders in the country, but whether it's Mike Casey or Richie English, I have no doubt they will be doing a similar job.

One area that Limerick did struggle with in the league encounter with Tipp was getting quality ball into the inside forward line.
Since then they have definitely gone after that and hit a lot more ball in, but whether it was Tipp worked so hard out the field to delay the delivery, or Limerick were taking too many extra passes I'm not so sure.

I just remember last year's game in the championship between the sides, the long ball in caused the Tipp defence huge trouble, and Aaron Gillane was at the end of those deliveries to score a couple of goals.

I know Mikey Breen is back there this year, and while I rate him, I really believe that Aaron would be too clever for him. If it was me, I would, on purpose, deliver long high ball down on top of his forehead, and I would have no doubt he would claw a few, or if not that, Casey and Flanagan work off the breaks.

On that, it's been obvious that Peter Casey is playing an extremely deep role and getting back the field a hell of a lot more.
While he is very good at that, I think he is most dangerous in deep, and I would love to see him in beside Gillane and serious damage could be caused, if they get the ball in there quick enough.

What I do know is you won't see the same Limerick that we saw a few weeks ago. Paul Kinnerk will have come up with something different as now the perception is that teams ‘know’ had to beat Limerick.

Well, let's see. Come on boys. Two more big performances and our summer is set up nicely again for 2023.