Limerick hit Tipperary for 30 points, Galway put reigning league and All-Ireland champions Clare to the sword, and Davy Fitzgerald wondered about the in-game confidence of his Antrim players – finally the 2025 season produced a weekend when hurling got its chance to flex.
Having been overshadowed by the big-ball code and all the giddiness around Gaelic football’s shiny new enhancements, on the third week of the Allianz Leagues it was hurling’s time to create a fuss.
With a sizeable dollop of jeopardy added to the hurling leagues this year following a restructure, there has been more cut to these early season clashes than had been the case of late.
The brass tacks of the weekend – in Division 1A there were wins for Kilkenny over Wexford, Galway over Clare, and Limerick over Tipp.
In Division 1B Waterford recovered from last week’s loss to Carlow with a victory over Laois, Dublin beat Westmeath, and Offaly hammered Antrim.
Limerick’s 0-30 to 1-23 victory over their neighbours at the Gaelic Grounds sees John Kiely’s men get their first competitive victory of 2025 after playing out a draw against Cork in their opening league fixture.
“It was a good, competitive game,” said Kiely afterwards. “Not a lot between the two sides, I’d be very happy with our performance overall. I thought our energy was good throughout.
“Everybody contributed and for our second outing I’d be happy with it. I thought we used the ball really well.
“We turned over a few balls at times too but when you’re pushing it and trying to speed up the movement you’re going to have mistakes, either handling errors or poor strikes and we’ll get over that.
“The intent was there to move it quicker and on many occasions we did move it quicker. We created more scoring chances than we did last week and conditions were much better.”
If the result marked Limerick’s first victory, it also represented Tipp’s first defeat after the Premier County had posted opening round wins over Galway and Wexford.
But manager Liam Cahill was not too despondent. There have been enough green shoots for him over the three games to suggest the season ahead could be a productive one. In particular, he was pleased by how his side dealt with the physical challenge posed by Limerick on Sunday.
“A lot of teams have laboured in that department, we’re not the first over the last seven, eight, nine years, a lot of teams have struggled in the physical stakes with Limerick,” said Cahill.
“But today we moved that ball a little bit better and tried to avoid contact as much as possible and trust our hurling a bit more.
“Definitely, that’s the route we’ll be really going to concentrate on as the weather gets better and that ball gets drier and faster. But definitely overall where we are at the moment with the conditioning of this team, I’m very happy.
“I think today’s game will stand us in really good stead.”
By the time the Limerick and Tipp players were preparing to leave the Gaelic Grounds, the Antrim hurlers were already on the road back home from Tullamore, tails firmly between legs. The Saffrons lost to Offaly by 15 points in what was a laboured, insipid display.
It was a result, and performance, that had Fitzgerald scratching his head.
“We’re right in relegation now, there’s no point in saying anything else,” conceded the Antrim manager afterwards.
“So, I’m not going to cover over that, that’s where we’re at and we’ve got to f**king try and stay up, end of story.
“I think our touch was way off today and if you look at the last three quarters, were we winning 50-50 balls? Honestly, were we winning it? I don’t think we were, I don’t think we were. The question I’m going to ask them is, why?
“We’re plenty fit enough but it didn’t even seem like that and I don’t know why. I suppose when the confidence drains out of you, you’re in trouble. If that confidence goes out of you outside there [on the pitch], it’s a f**king tough place to be.
“It’s an issue, we’ve got to deal with it and that’s something we have to do ourselves. This was never going to be a quick fix.”
Before he finished, Fitzgerald was asked where he stands on the stance taken by the Antrim footballers on insisting their Ulster SFC game against Armagh is played in Corrigan Park.
“Whatever Antrim County Board decide to do, I’ll back them 110 per cent,” said Fitzgerald.
“But I’ve got enough right now to make sure I stay focused on what I do. We’ll be backing them whatever they decide to do – but I’ve enough trouble.”
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