Hurling 2025: Can Limerick emulate previous five-in-a-row fallers? First Clare back-to-back?
The Leinster Championship has rarely felt more incidental to the All-Ireland race, but can exciting Offaly talent Adam Screeney light it up as he is exposed to top tier hurling for the first time?
As another hurling season looms, we take a look at what might be in store for 2025.
Can Limerick bounce back?
The sample size is small for how vanquished five-in-a-row hopefuls fared after the fact, but the portents are positive for Limerick heading into 2025. Hurling’s first four-in-a-row team, Cork 1941-44, saw their drive for five ended by Tipperary in the 1945 Munster semi-final, but they roared back to win the title the following year and reached another final in ‘47, losing by a point.
Kilkenny were more emphatic after Tipp swamped the four-in-a-row champions in 2010 as they returned to winning ways in 2011 and ‘12 before adding two further All-Irelands in ‘14 and ‘15.
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And, while Limerick dipped this year, losing twice to Cork, there’s nothing to suggest that they are likely to slip into obscurity, albeit getting out of the Munster group isn’t necessarily a given, even for them.
Albeit some key players have slipped the wrong side of 30, their age profile is still reasonably healthy. Their injury profile, however, is not so encouraging. They managed to get away with it up to this year, when they were without Barry Nash, Peter Casey and Darragh O’Donovan for the All-Ireland semi-final and while all three will be fit for next year and there have been no retirements, they’re already down All Star goalkeeper Nickie Quaid.
It’s impossible to dress that up as anything but a significant loss, and John Kiely has been creative by recalling retired forward Shane Dowling, now keeping goal for Na Piarsaigh, to create competition between the posts. It remains to be seen how Limerick cope without Quaid, but if they can keep the rest of their main men fit and firing, they’ll still be the team to beat next year. History tells us that.
What are Clare’s two-in-a-row prospects?
Banner boss Brian Lohan won’t need to be reminded of Clare’s difficulties in backing up an All-Ireland the year after. In 1996 they fell at the first hurdle and though they made a better fist of it two years later, they ran out of road after a draining season at the All-Ireland semi-final stage.
Again, in 2014, they made the earliest possible exit while way back in 1915 they didn’t get out of Munster.
They’ve developed a consistent streak under Lohan having reached three successive All-Ireland semi-finals, however, and you’d expect that they’ll get to another next year. And, from there, anything is possible.
They’ve lost Seadna Morey and Paul Flanagan to retirement in the close season but that doesn’t weaken their starting team, while there is emerging talent from strong underage teams in recent years.
The question remains as to whether they can beat Limerick when it matters most, something they ultimately got by without having to do this year. To retain their title, you’d imagine they’ll have to pass that particular examination.
Leinster has off-Broadway feel
As a competition in itself, there is plenty to recommend the Leinster Championship.
Three of the teams will have new managers, two of them All-Ireland winners, as Davy Fitzgerald takes on the Antrim job and Micheal Donoghue returns to Galway, while Niall Ó Ceallacháin, who is on the brink of a historic All-Ireland club success with Na Fianna next month, succeeds him in Dublin.
Offaly will compete in Leinster for the first time since 2018 having won the Joe McDonagh Cup this year and produced some exciting underage sides.
Kilkenny have dominated, winning the last five titles, yet they don’t feel out of reach, while Wexford are maddeningly unpredictable.
At a push, you could make a case for any of the six securing a top three spot; four of them have a reasonable chance of winning the title; four of them could be in a relegation dogfight.
All of this speaks to a healthy level of competition yet, on recent evidence, you could only really push Kilkenny as All-Ireland contenders, albeit certainly not heading the queue.
Of course, this will all change in time, but probably not in 2025.
Can Adam Screeney light up the 2025 Championship?
Screeney is one of those rare talents, like David Clifford and Joe Canning, that already had a reputation before even graduating to senior level given his, at times, jaw-dropping exploits on Offaly underage teams in recent years.
He made his senior bow this year but, after lighting up the minor and under-20 grades in recent years, 2025 will see his first exposure to top level hurling as Offaly return to the Leinster Championship after winning the Joe McDonagh Cup this year.
He won’t turn 20 until next month and though his skill level is off the charts, Screeney isn’t physically imposing and almost certainly never will be, even though he will make gains in that respect through nature and nurture. Indeed, he is doing so already.
It would be a sad reflection on the modern game if a player of Screeney’s talent can’t shine at the highest level, but such is his ability that it’s hard to imagine that he won’t at some stage.
It will certainly be interesting to observe how he performs as he takes to the main stage for the first time in 2025.
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