Preview: Limerick and Cork set to deliver feast of hurling for Easter Sunday

A PACKED house at the TUS Gaelic Grounds is anticipated on Sunday as Limerick and Cork do battle in the latest installment of their budding rivalry.

After an earlier-than-usual ticket scramble normally saved for big championship outings, this Allianz Hurling League Division 1A final saw entry to the game like gold-dust with clubs only getting a handful of stand tickets for the game.

External noise about the prospect of the Munster rivals meeting five times between league and championship is not being entertained by a Limerick camp that is taking it one step at a time.

Of course, recent years had talk of the Shannonsiders and Clare meeting three times in the championship which never transpired.

In that spirit, talk of Limerick meeting Cork in Munster and All-Ireland finals can be parked for now as the league final takes center stage.

For John Kiely, an opening outing saw defeat to Waterford in Walsh Park. Since then, the 'Treaty' have found their form, winning five on the bounce.

Nearly being caught by Galway last time out despite being in a commanding position however, serves as a reminder that you can't take your eye off the ball.

“I think we just lost a little bit of that sharpness in our use of the ball,” said Kiely reflecting on that second half against the 'Tribesmen' at the TUS Gaelic Grounds.

“It wasn’t that we didn’t have it, we did have it we just turned over too much ball and when we turned it over, straight away they got a shot off.

“All told, we’ve learned a lot from that second half ourselves. We’ll take an awful lot from that second half.

“Do I regret what happened? From a learning perspective. having got the two points, definitely not.

“That second half will really have been a valuable experience for us.

“We will have a far more meaningful conversation than we would have had even at half time. A lot to be learned.”

Cork come into the final with a similar record to that of the hosts - five wins from their six league outings. Their only defeat came against their final opponents at the Ennis Road venue.

A comprehensive 24-point victory over Offaly was hardly ideal preparation for the Leesiders who impressed in the early part of the campaign, grinding out a win over Kilkenny at Nowlan Park in a low-scoring battle a highlight for the new attitude Ben O'Connor is trying to instill in his side.

While Cork impressed early in the year, Limerick and Kiely have kept the insular focus they have expressed all year.

“We played them twice already and the two teams that played have been totally different. I’ve no doubt that there will be a lot of differences between the team we meet in the league final and the team we meet in the championship,” Kiely said, referring to round robin games in the Munster and national leagues.

“For us, right now, we are very focused on ourselves... we are going to be focused on that second half dip (against Galway) in terms of our performance levels, our execution levels so that’s where our focus is going to be. It’s not going to be on what Cork team is going to turn out - we’ll let them worry about that.”

The TUS Gaelic Grounds clash throws in at 4pm.