Some Limerick clubs to receive just two stand tickets for league final with Cork

WITH the scramble for tickets underway ahead of the Allianz Hurling League final between Limerick and Cork on Easter Sunday, local clubs have been told there is an extremely limited allocation for distribution.

Correspondence sent to clubs, seen by the Limerick Leader, revealed allocations of just "2 to 8" stand tickets available for the hotly anticipated clash at the TUS Gaelic Grounds.

While the Ennis Road venue has a capacity of over 45,000, approximately 20,000 are stand tickets.

The Division 1A final involving John Kiely's side is a double-header with the Division 1B final between Clare and Dublin.

It is believed that the competing counties have around 10,000 season ticket holders between them, taking up half the seated capacity of the TUS Gaelic Grounds.

The clash at the Ennis Road venue is expected to sell-out, the GAA predicted this week. The expected full house will mirror that seen last summer when the counties met in an historic Munster final that was decided on penalties.

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An Allianz Hurling League Division 1A final between Limerick and Cork looked likely from an earlier juncture in the season, with excitement building in both counties ahead of the game.

All season, Limerick manager Kiely has had an insular focus, not worrying about the opposition. He says he has no qualms about welcoming Cork to the TUS Gaelic Grounds just three weeks before the sides meet in Limerick’s opening Munster SHC clash. The fact that Galway whittled down an 11-point deficit to lose just by two on Saturday evening was more at the forefront of Kiely’s mind rather than back-to-back clashes with ‘the Rebels’.

“We've played Cork twice already, and the two teams we've played have been totally different, so I've no doubt that there'll be a lot of differences between the team we'll meet in the league final and the team we'll meet in the Championship, so that doesn't matter a jot to us, really,” Kiely said, referring to January’s Munster SHL game and the round-robin league clash. “For us, right now, we're very focused on ourselves. For the next 10, 12 days, we're going to be focused on that second half dip in terms of our performance levels, our execution levels. It's not going to be what Cork team is going to turn out in two weeks' time. We'll leave them worry about that.”

Kiely also reported that he expects a clean bill of health for the league final with the likes of Darragh O’Donovan and Peter Casey expected to return to training ahead of the final.

“Our player group has a lot of work to do in terms of fighting it out for those places on that league final team, so that's a huge focus. We've a number of players who've had a few injuries.

“They're all coming back into training again in the next week or so, which is a big positive, and I'm sure they're going to bring a right challenge to the lads that are there for those places in two weeks’ time.”

More than 12,000 witnessed the win over Galway on Saturday night, with Kiely crediting the large and vocal backing his side have enjoyed with helping the team get over the line.

“We’ve great support - we need every bit of it. Every team needs their support base now. We need the supporters to play their part. The players need the supporters. In the last 10 minutes (against Galway), the crowd really engaged in the game and it was a really important part of supporting the group.”