I am writing this more in hope than confidence, however, tomorrow, I believe that Limerick have a good underdogs chance for winning the All-Ireland.

I sat in the Hogan Stand this year to watch Limerick easily beat Clare and it made depressing watching. The most impressive forward of 2007 took us apart and I couldn’t help but admire his brilliance.

I am speaking, of course, about Andrew O’Shaughnessy. Apart from Dan Shannahan, who is also an automatic All-Star, Shaughnessy has made hurling the most exciting sport on the Island this year. I love it when a new raw talent announces his arrival. Apparently he has been an underage star and it was only a matter of time.

He reminds me of a young Niall Gilligan (who is still a magnificent player). Gilligan played as though he had his own rule book. His style was different and he knew that occasionally you just needed to get out and do your own thing. For a couple of years, it was like Gilly was Clare’s only forward capable of scoring.

So, O’Shaughnessy is the hope for Limerick, but in fairness the rest of the team clearly know how good he is. Playing against Clare, they funnelled ball after ball down into his corner and then just let him do his thing. Resistance was futile.

Now, Kilkenny will be different to Clare. Clare might be forgiven for not really clamping down on him, there were leaks springing up all over the field and only Colin Lynch was really firing on all cylinders. So, I expect that they will strengthen that side of the field and be on O’Shaughnessy alert.

So, what to do in this instance?

In the late 1980s Joe Cooney was the best hurler in the country. He was playing centre forward for Galway and was the most intelligent and skillful hurler you could hope to see. He had the ability to cut lanes through any teams defence. And soon, they realised this and realised that all the ball was directed towards him and realised that if they focussed on him, the ball would come towards him, could be cut off and the entire team plan would be upset.

So, while Cooney was the fulchrum for the attack and while he could be cut out, Galway could be beaten.

Therefore, I am now at my tactic for the All-Ireland against Kilkenny. Bring O’Shaughnessy out a little. Have him shouting for ball, making runs and generally worrying the kilkenny defense. This hopefully keeps more than one Kilkenny player occupied and provides space for the others. I think that Kilkenny will know that O’Shaughnessy is worth 10 points if left unattended and so I think the best use of O’Shaughnessy will be to keep two Kilkenny defenders busy, thereby creating space for the other Limerick forwards.

I felt 20 years ago that if Galway did this, they would have won more than the two All-Irelands that they won then.

So, I think that Limerick have a good chance of winning tomorrow, though Kilkenny are clear favourites. I think that the munster championship has hardened Limerick in a way that Kilkenny didn’t get hardened this year. I think that this Limerick team have a habit of winning underage and they won’t be as intimidated as you might think and I think that Richie Bennis
will have told them that everybody expects them to loose. Hell, he may even quote Yamamoto Tsunetomo to them and tell them they are already dead, so they may as well go out and fight like that are already dead.