Limerick hurling star Sean Finn: 'There is probably a target on our back' as champions

“THERE is probably a target on our back,” explains hurling star Sean Finn as Limerick continue on their Liam MacCarthy Cup title defence.

The key corner back was speaking with media at this Tuesday’s GAA launch of the national series of the All-Ireland SHC and acknowledges that all other county teams and players want to dethrone the reigning champions.

“The nature of teams that we play against is that they are going to be well up for games against us. There is probably a target on our back,” said Finn ahead of the August 7 All-Ireland semi final in Croke Park.

“They are coming into that first 15-17 minutes with a lot of emotion and adrenaline in their body and there is going to be a kick out of them but it has been shown that isn’t consistent and that adrenaline and high can’t last and won’t last for 70-minutes - well very rarely.”

Finn explained: “We know teams are going to come at us all guns blazing in the first 17-minutes but we know we are process driven and if we maintain that it will be more consistent that emotionally driven teams”.

“You are going to expect a kick out of them in the first 15-minutes and also see a kick out of them after half time when they are hyped up again after coming out of the dressing room but we have seen its inconsistent and hard to maintain that adrenaline and high for 70-minutes and we would be hoping to tip away.”

Limerick will know their semi final opponents after next Saturday’s quarter finals – John Kiely’s side will play Waterford, Dublin or Cork

“We are in a really good place and back training with heads down and focused on game three,” said Finn.

“If we got the performance that we would be proud of and expect of ourselves then we would consider ourselves a really difficult team to beat,” stressed the Bruff man.

“We don’t necessarily focus on who we are playing - of course there will be some element of analysis from the management set-up in terms of how they play the game and how they set-up or if they carry it or deliver it long and stuff. We typically focus on ourselves and that was the case against Cork and Tipp,” outlined the All-Star.

“We were hoping to get that bit better again the next day and build on what we have worked on over the last couple of weeks. It’s been a nice run in and we are really looking forward to the semi final now.”

Finn is adamant there is room for improvement.

“Always room for improvement - we showed patches of really good play and parts of play that we would be proud of and would expect of ourselves but we are yet to do it for 70-minutes or even 60-minutes. We have yet to perform over 70-minutes to a level that we would be really proud of and we would be hoping to do that the next day,” he stressed.

Limerick had a slow start to the 2021 season - winning two of five league games but Finn insists all were working to a well thought out plan.

"There would have been question marks asked of us in the first game but as the weeks went by we just got better and we knew that ourselves and the performances reflect that. Teams had that bit more work done than us going into the first game of the league and we got the draw against Tipperary. The stats that we looked at as the league progressed evidently showed that we were getting better and that was a good sign. If we were stagnant and not really improving as the weeks went on, you would be worried but the stats showed that we were getting better and better and we knew we would be in a good place come championship if that continued."

He continued: "Look at Galway who were flying it in the league campaign and look at where they are now so we knew ourselves internally once we looked at the stats that we were improving and that gave us confidence that we were in a good place, albeit some might have thought we were under performing. We trust everything that the management do and from a strength and conditioning point of view and also from a coaching perspective and we also have a good stats team as well. We knew we were working hard in training and we were building and trying to improve every week."

"There is massive trust between the management and players and that’s important to help recognise that ok we might not be going as well as we want to go but we are improving and we will be in a good place and now we are in a good place a week out from the next game."