O'Donoghue relishing Limerick's hectic hurling schedule

Limerick hurler, William O'Donoghue, believes the GAA’s decision to condense the inter-county season into the first seven months of the year is a positive move for a variety of reasons.

It ensures a hectic programme of fixtures during the Allianz Hurling League and provincial championships, but O'Donoghue is adamant that more matches is exactly what players and supporters alike want.

“Yeah, whoever gets to the provincial finals it’s obviously a tough enough slog but I imagine all management have marked out blocks or phases,” he says.

“As a whole, isn’t it positive to have more games? If it wasn’t games, you’d be training three times a week for the same fixture. Supporters want to see games, players want to be involved in them and maybe it’s a positive thing that there’s that much games and there is more exposure and stuff like that.

“It’s a tough slog but under the old structure teams could have come back in November for a July championship. It’s what you make of it. It will obviously be tough and demanding - the round-robin is back and you saw how difficult it was for teams to win when they had three games on the bounce.

“I’m sure it will throw up all sorts of scenarios but it’s exciting, it’s brilliant and it’s what everyone wants, all the teams competing against one another and we’re going to see it.