Hurling Nation: Cats and champions can set up rematch

We have two huge games this weekend. Two All-Ireland semi-finals. Anticipation building to fever pitch in Hurling Nation.

We wonder how much of the game has already been won or lost in the minds of the players and in the minds of the managers.

Everybody lives in the shadow of the green mountain that John Kiely and Paul Kinnerk have built.

Davy Fitzgerald and Henry Shefflin, who resigned from Waterford and Galway this week, always knew that standing in a dressing room saying “Lads, we’re going to beat Limerick this year” could leave a man looking like a dreamer lost in a harsh reality.

Every year, Limerick come to Croke Park and don’t do much different, they just do it better. They do it better whether you like it or not.

Clare play Kilkenny on Saturday. Brian Lohan, in his fifth season of managing Clare, has seen his journey overshadowed by other teams.

Limerick always in the way in Munster. And two years now, Lohan’s team have lost All-Ireland semi-finals to Kilkenny.

This summer, Clare have often resembled their manager. Hard-working, at times brilliant, always honest. But they haven’t been hugely creative and are still no closer to Limerick.

It’s hard to measure if they have progressed or regressed. Either way, the movement is marginal.

But Lohan must stand in the dressing room tomorrow and convince his warriors that they can take Kilkenny and then take Limerick.

The warriors looking back at him know that at this level, the game comes down to inches, and the key elements that move them: Luck, free-taking, goalkeepers and coaches.

Derek Lyng hasn’t had a multitude of generational stars and a conveyer belt of high quality extras like his predecessor, but they still have the mentality.

Kilkenny are maybe the only county who see Limerick’s excellence as something to be put right before it burns itself out.

They won’t be afraid of Clare tomorrow but they will be afraid of losing. In a year when they drew with Carlow, the verdict on their progress hinges on this weekend.

The stripey ones feel that their five consecutive Leinsters and their own history form a currency that deserves respect. It does, and a team with the Ballyhale trio of TJ Reid, Eoin Cody and Adrian Mullen should have just about enough to survive.

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To the other semi, there is a myth that lightning never strikes twice in one place. It often does.

Maybe Cork will look back on the summer and the best of it will be the day they beat Limerick in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Cork celebrated like it was an All-Ireland. That’s where Cork are at, and where Limerick are at.

Pat Ryan has been very good this season, putting together a young team that has woken up the county again.

The Rebel mindset coming to Croke Park this weekend should be one of seizing opportunity.

We all know that Limerick don’t lose semi-finals. They were ambushed in 2019 but they haven’t been caught napping since.

The core of that team from 2018-19 is still almost wholly intact. Yes, the add-ons have been getting better and better. They started a fully formed teenager at the edge of the square in the Munster final.

Can Cork come to Croke Park and play with freedom? Not overthink things? Focus on Cork first and foremost? Can they enjoy the space, let their pace work for them? Can they smell blood like the Galway footballers did last week?

They can but Limerick will have thought of all this too.

There is a feeling that the Treaty are on the doorstep of history but not near the end of their era.

Hurling Nation predicts another Limerick-Kilkenny final.

With more confidence, Hurling Nation predicts two great semi-finals, full of drama, delight and despair.

Enjoy every moment. Iománaíocht go deo.

Dónal Óg Cusack was speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland

Watch the All-Ireland Hurling Championship semi-finals, Kilkenny v Clare (3pm on Saturday on RTÉ One) and Limerick v Cork (4pm on Sunday on RTÉ2). Both games available on RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1