In the year of Covid and a delayed, truncated season without fans, the 2020 All Ireland Hurling Final will be remembered no matter what.

But with red-hot Limerick facing a Waterford team with unshakeable belief and a growing momentum behind them, Sunday’s Croke Park showdown looks set to be a classic on the pitch, no matter what’s been going on off the field.

Can Waterford finally end their pain of sixty-one years and bring back Liam MacCarthy for the first time since 1959?

One of the Throw-In’s regular guests, Waterford legend, John Mullane, certainly thinks so and he has been bullish on the show about the Déise’s chances saying it will be the best Christmas yet for Waterford fans.

However, the Irish Independent’s Vincent Hogan, joins Will Slattery and Michael Verney for a special Throw-In hurling final preview show and reckons, despite Waterford’s perfect storm in terms of aggression and tactical strategy, that Limerick will have the edge.

“There is a kind of been there-done that feeling to this Limerick team,” he tells Will and Michael. “I think Waterford will throw the kitchen sink at them and what's interesting about this is we saw how Limerick went after Éanna Murphy's puck-outs in the semi-final. I think Galway won only eight out of fifteen of their own long puck-outs; Kilkenny had the same problem against Waterford, in the second half particularly when Waterford scored an astonishing 2-16 from play. They went after Eoin Murphy's puck-outs. So there's a self-sufficiency in both teams. It's making for a classic, they're the two in-form teams. You just have to give Limerick the edge in terms of their big game experience.”

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www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-throw-in/

The Throw-In’s All Ireland Championship series is in association with Bord Gáis Energy.

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