Shane McGrath's Allianz Hurling League semi-final previews

I have already outlined my opinion that the league winners should be just that, whoever is top of the table after all the games, and then you open up an extra two or three weeks.

It's not that teams want to avoid to getting to a national final, but with championship only two weeks away, if you do get to the league final, preparation-wise and trying to get the group together, it is hard.

Limerick have named a very strong team. Maybe 12 or 13 guys that will be there or thereabouts as championship starters.

A good welcome back for Sean Finn is that he’s down to mark TJ Reid. That will be a serious battle. He’s in at full-back, you would normally see him corner-back but the guy has the physicality, he has the hurling.

In the Limerick full-back line alone, Mike Casey and Dan Morrissey are not featuring, so if you’re Sean Finn, what a quality player he is but he’s nearly under pressure to try and keep his place there with everyone around him going so well.

Cathal O’Neill is down to play wing-back alongside Diarmaid Byrnes and Declan Hannon, two-thirds of the half-back line we have seen for a number of years. He has probably been Limerick’s best player of the league so far and again is probably under pressure to make championship. The same with Adam English.

Limerick and Kilkenny have both gone really strong so there is good intent there to see.

It’s hard to see anything other than Limerick coming through it. I’ve seen them three times this year and they have been getting stronger week by week. This could be the year that they are at their strongest.

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