LISTEN: John Tuohy – “Kilkenny is a huge task but we love these challenges”

The Limerick camogie side face Kilkenny this Sunday in the Littlewoods National League.

Hosts Kilkenny will be favourites after reaching the All Ireland final last year where they were beaten by Cork. Limerick manager John Tuohy is well aware of the task and we caught up with him prior to the game to get some of his thoughts.

“Limerick camogie have never beaten Kilkenny in Championship or League. It’s a huge task but we love these challenges.”

“We’re looking forward to a tough game against Kilkenny, one of the top four sides, national league champions the last two years in a row and a formidable side at home so we’re looking forward to a good clash on Sunday.”

“It’s a fantastic barometer to be gauged against Kilkenny, themselves and Cork are the two best teams in the country by far.”

Limerick have had a mixed bag results so far in the League. from their three games so far they have picked up a solitary win, loss and draw. Last weekends loss to Clare was preceeded by a draw with Dublin and a win over Meath. With a number of injuries and new players involved in the panel, Tuohy is excited to see how new players will stake their claim for a championship starting spot.

“It gives some opportunities to some. We have some girls out injured. So it will make it competitive, girls will see there’s places abegging.”

“It keeps interest alive, players competitive and players competing for their place in the team and that’s what we want and that’s what makes things tick with Limerick.

Tuohy has done his research on Kilkenny and knows they like to play a defensive game with a sweeper. However, the cats have shown that they have plenty of firepower up front during the campaign and in previous years. Despite Kilkenny being strong favourites, Tuohy is quietly confident his side can put it up to the Leinster ladies.

“They play a kind of defensive role… They play eight or nine in the backline. They play a diagonal ball out of the backs into the half-forward line”

“A lot of their games have been low scoring, but in saying that they scored 2-6 against Dublin in the last 10 minutes so they have obviously changed their tactics for the league so we must be mindful of that.”

Sunday will be a tough game, no two ways about it, but we are looking forward to the challenge and hopefully we give a good account of ourselves.”

Listen to the interview in full on the link below.