Sunday, December 13th

All-Ireland SHC Final
Limerick v Waterford, Croke Park, 3.30pm

Joe MacDonald Cup Final
Antrim V Kerry, Croc Park, 1 p.m.

TV

RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player will have live coverage of both finals. Sky Sports will show Liam McCarthy game.

The full highlights of both matches will be in The Sunday Game on RT ഞായറാഴ്ച2 Sunday at 9.30.

Radio

Live coverage of the All-Ireland Final on Sunday Sport and the Sunday Sport on RTE Radio 1.

Online

Live blogs on RTE.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app, and video highlights on social media.

Weather

It will be wet in Dublin on Sunday morning. The only question is whether the adverse weather will move in time for the operation on Jones Road.

Limerick and Waterford may be lucky, but Antrim and Kerry players may get a little wet before they leave the stadium.

More detailed information about met.ie.

Modern development of Waterford

Waterford has often felt left out of the conversation at Horling’s table above.

For so long this has been a fair case. When a club appeared for Mount Zion in the 1982 All-Ireland final, the Gaelic Games were at their worst in the county for the best part of 40 years.

A few matches in the Munster final usually ended in big defeats. County lost by 50 points to Cork in the early 1980s.

Southeastern Hurling fans need not remember 1993, as their Munster Championship draws to a close. It would be appropriate for people from across the country to be on the undercard on Sunday to be reminded of how far Waterford has come since then.

All-Ireland final prediction by Denal Egg Cossack

Divergent tracks led Dais to his first Munster title in 2002 in 39 years. That was a team full of characters – John Mullen was a clear choice.

Add players like Paul Flynn, Tony Brown, Eon Kelly and Ken McGrath, who led the team to five provincial finals in the 2000s, winning three of them.

A few other big names on the team – Dan Shanahan, ‘Brick’ Walsh, to name a few – had a chance to win the final in 2008, but they met a Kilkenny team and suffered their worst All-Ireland defeat in 65 years at the height of their power.

It was a scar margin, and although those players would be awarded another Monster title in 2010, it was still a downhill team.

A new group led by younger players Tadg de Barca, Jamie Barron and Aussie Gleeson was able to bring Waterford back to the final in 2017. It was a very close thing, but the scoreline failed to delight them by three points.

RTÉ Archives: Waterford success captured in full color

As 2018 and 2019 go their way, and they fail to win even one of their eight championship matches, Dice seems to be slipping into the “worst” category.

But what Liam Cahill has done with them this season is quite remarkable. With the exception of Noel Connors and Maurice Shanahan, he had to make some tough decisions.

Ken McGrath regrets that some Waterford people were half happy after the show against Cork pic.twitter.com/ta447JXA0r

– S TheSundayGame June 9, 2019

In June 2019, Ken McGrath told The Sunday Game that Waterford supporters lost to Cork by 13 points, in which it was very sad to see the players return to a committed victory.

Yet, just 18 months later, they have won three of their next four championship games and have a chance to make amends for the campaign’s only defeat so far against Limerick on Sunday.

This is a rare sight at the game’s showpiece event – their eighth overall – and the county has only collected Liam McCarthy twice before.

Although Claire and Limerick have emerged from behind the shadows of Munster’s traditional forces in Cork and Tipperary, the rising tide has not yet been able to lift Waterford.

Of the game’s elite counties, only Dublin have a long way to go to their last All-Ireland victory, while Opal, Wexford and Galway have joined hands for the trophy in 61 years.

Will Waterford be able to claim a seat at the top table next year? Our RTÉ GAA analysts are divided.

“Unfortunately, Limerick’s performance, which has been a lot of fun this short and happy season, seems to be stronger and more sustainable,” Donald Cossack told RTE ‘s Morning Ireland.

The four-time All-Ireland champion with Wexford Ursula Jacob scored a different take.

“I saw such a difference in this Waterford team this year,” she said.

“I saw them for the first time in Croke Park and the semi-final performance was one of the best second half performances I have personally seen.

“I want to surprise my neighbors. I supported Waterford in the semi-finals and I support them to end the famine on Sunday afternoon.”

Last 5 Championship Meetings

2020 Munster Final: Limerick 0-25 Waterford 0-21
2019 Monster Round Robin: Limerick 2-24 Waterford 0-10
2018 Monster Round Robin: Limerick 2-26 Waterford 1-16
2011 Munster Semi Final: Waterford 3-15 Limerick 3-14
2009 Munster Semi-Final Replay: Waterford 0-25 Limerick 0-17

Limerick’s chance to make history

Limerick reached the final with the opportunity to become one of the best teams from Kandy in the history of the GAA.

Treaty County has never made back-to-back titles, but they won two in three years in the 1930s under Bob McConaughey. In addition, the team that ended the 2018 drought is spraying titles here and there that include many of the current crops.

No team has won all of their league and championship games since Tipperary in 1961, but Limerick can do just that with Sunday’s victory.

Many on the current panel were born in the 1990s – many of them years left – and if Sunday wins, they have the potential to become the “” “team of the time”.

Their semi-final defeat to Kilkenny last year was a real disappointment for the group, who were denied the chance at the end of 65 and forced to work extra time.

After a slow start they beat that Kilkenny team, who had a great win over Tipperary in last year’s Munster final that would have robbed them of their chances of retaining their All-Ireland title.

None of their performances so far this fall and winter indicate that there are any scars from this failure. They were able to come up with answers in every game.

It was a comfortable ride through Munster by any modern standards. In the semi-finals, Galway asked questions without hesitation, but when the fat burned out, Limerick found the answers within the second half.

Is Waterford a better team than Galway? Can they present a strong challenge? We will find out on Sunday, but there was some discussion in the circles that the second semi-final two weeks ago was the real decision maker.

John Kaylee is well aware of the fact that Sunday’s defeat itself will somehow make things strategic. The man who won the All-Ireland title four decades later may be the one who failed to lead Shannonsiderus to two titles.

Will it put him under a little pressure? Maybe, but it’s still a long way off.

“You don’t go to All-Ireland every year, so you have to make grass,” Limerick captain Declan Hanan told RTE Sport last week.

“Who knows what’s going to happen next year or the year after.”

Of course, for the neutrals, this is a good final. Among them, Limerick and Waterford have just 10 All-Ireland titles. No matter who wins, there will be no begging from the majority of spectators on Sunday.

No supporters, a winter final, but Sunday afternoon promises to be a great opportunity.

Leinster won the championship

Everything is going well and we can look forward to the return of the round robin series at the Munster and Leinster Championships next summer.

The Eastern Province has already reached an “outside” city, Galway is coming from Connaught, but they will expand from five to six, and all is well, by 2021.

The Joe MacDonald winner entered the Leinster Championship next year after the last two campaigns. But the inclusion of the sixth continent would mean a proper fight to avoid deportation from the province next year.

It could also mean a multi-provincial Leinster championship in 2021, with either Kerry or Antrim set to join the current five-tier teams.

This is a repeat of the Round 3 game between the counties when saffron was a great success in Corrigan Park. Antrim also won the Division 2A Alliance League final by three points in October in Thullamore.

This will be the first match for both counties in the Joe McDonald’s final, as they are ahead of the Carlo and Westmeath teams.

Based on the recent encounters between the pair, Ulsterman goes on to become a favorite in the game. You can find out if that tag is justified in RTÉ 2 this Sunday.

Watch the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final between Limerick and Waterford and the Joe McDonag Cup Final between Antrim and Kerry live on RTÉ2 from 12.30pm on Sunday, listen to the live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 or follow RTÉ Sport online on our RTÉ SportBlog online. News app. Highlights of the Sunday game (9.30pm RTÉ2).