MUNSTER SFC FINAL: Seán Moranon how Limerick hope to bridge a 114-year gap in Killarney tomorrow when they face Kerry

AS A snapshot of Limerick football it was a good likeness. Fifty one weeks ago, after an agonising one-point defeat by Cork in a Munster final they had dominated for long periods, John Galvin spoke to reporters.

In that wheedling tone we adopt with disappointed players for fear they’ll crack up and attack us, there was muted cooing over how close the county had come to breaking a sequence going back to 1896. That close, John! “To tell you the truth 113 years doesn’t bother me,” replied Galvin. “All I know is I’m playing 11 years and I haven’t one won. This is the third year going into it (a Munster final). In 2004 we should have beaten Kerry. In 2009 I’ll always look back and think we should have taken Cork when we had our chances.”

During those 11 years the county has been through its most sustained period of competitiveness since the first two decades of the GAA’s existence. Four Munster finals: that’s the same total as for the intervening years, which account for virtually all of the 20th century (1905 onwards).

Eamon Cregan, one of Limerick’s most famous hurling sons, has a back story as a dual player and lined out with the county team that reached the 1965 Munster final, which they lost to Kerry, and for another six years before concentrating on the small ball. “The interest in football has always been there. There’s been a particular tradition in primary schools and that’s why so many well-known Limerick sportsmen have played Gaelic games.”

As Galvin was indicating, however, the current team have been battling away in the real world, outside the pages of dusty record books, and squaring up to the Munster caste at a time when Kerry have rarely been as powerful and Cork in recent years not far behind.

Six years ago when Kerry were on the road to the All-Ireland the hardest test they had was the 2004 Munster final when Limerick should have beaten them the first day and went down in extra-time of the Killarney replay.

To the casual observer the question is how have Limerick improved their status so historically but the players just want to win the provincial title, as recognition of that improvement. The intensity of that focus is such that faced with the qualifiers and the opportunity to advance farther in the All-Ireland, Limerick have responded wanly once their shot at Munster has failed.

Even the league hasn’t commanded their full attention since the middle of the last decade when they reached a semi-final and in the campaign just gone they were engaged in extracting themselves from Division Four of the National League, a rating quite at odds with their proven championship credentials.

Although it was Kerry’s John O’Keeffe who brought Limerick to the county’s first Munster final in modern times back in 1991 (when tomorrow’s Limerick manager Mickey O’Sullivan was in charge of his native Kerry), the big impetus for the current team came from the under-21s of 10 years ago, coached by another Kerry man, Liam Kearns, who brought them to senior provincial finals in 2003 and ’04.

“Compare hurling and football at the moment in the county,” says Cregan. “The footballers won one under-21 Munster title in 2000 and have progressed since. The hurlers won three under-21 All-Irelands and regressed. The hurlers thought they had it all done but the footballers knew that they hadn’t.”

There is also undoubted quality in the players who have come through. Galvin himself is one of the most highly regarded centrefielders of the past decade. Ian Ryan’s scoring exploits have attracted the interest of AFL scouts and Johnny McCarthy has been acknowledged as an outstanding defender, going back to his Sigerson Cup days in UCD.

“He’s as good a back as there is,” according to former Dublin selector Dave Billings, McCarthy’s college coach, “athletic with a great stretch, always gets the hand in. He’s a modern footballing full back.”

One man who’s watched them as closely as anyone is John Owens, manager of the Waterford team that made history by securing promotion from Division Four along with Limerick. He has watched his team play Limerick three times already this year, losing the divisional final and last month’s Munster semi-final but winning the regulation league match.

He sees a team that has strengthened as summer has approached.

“They have a very good midfield and an excellent understanding between all of the players in the middle right of the field, which helps tie down possession.

“John Galvin will win plenty of ball. He would have won it against Darragh Ó Sé as well but Darragh would have kept coming back at him. With his retirement Limerick have an opportunity to do really well at midfield. Jim O’Donovan is very good at disappearing and linking with the forwards – he gets away nice and quickly.

“Ian Ryan is one of the best forwards in Munster and getting better. We planned to contain him but even we were surprised by his ability, strength and directness. He has great pace but brings others into the game very well.

“If two players did us serious damage it was him and Ger Collins and their ability to combine. They’re very comfortable on the ball and towards the end they were able to bring in Conor Fitzgerald, another good scoring forward.

“In the league final Limerick were great at going forward but they were the ones to finish. It ended there with them.”

Tomorrow in Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney, the quest continues for the Limerick footballers. In a year when administrative bungling and rancour have combined to stop the county fielding a competitive hurling team, the footballers carry all the championship hopes for 2010.

The task is daunting. Kerry are All-Ireland champions but haven’t won Munster for three years. For all the departures after last season, the team has proved itself sufficiently durable to deal a stinging blow to Cork morale by beating them at home in the replayed semi-final.

“I think they’re a team that will do themselves justice and not be overawed,” says Owens. “They have hunger and ability and Kerry are missing so many fellas.

“The replacements can’t be of the same experience and ability. Paul Galvin is missing and he’s the current footballer of the year, an incredible performer who can’t be replaced.”

Limerick have had more than one shot at their grand ambition but if they could just get one more clear sight.