Mickey Ned O'Sullivan believes Limerick can push Cork all the way.

The sides meet at the Gaelic Grounds tomorrow night in the opening match of the 2013 Munster SFC and former Treaty mentor O'Sullivan is expecting an even contest:

"This will be closer than people think," the current Kerry minor boss tells The Irish Examiner. "These Limerick lads believe in themselves. They believe they're as good as Cork and that's half the battle.

"The year Cork won the All-Ireland, we met them in the back door. We drew and the game went to extra time. They beat us by a point and went on to win the All-Ireland. We had been beaten by Kerry in the Munster final by three points.

"In my second year involved we were beaten well. I felt we played naive football. We didn't play defensive enough. But after that we got very close.

"We were getting nearer and nearer to them. I think if Limerick had a full team, they could pull it off but Ian Ryan is a loss.

"Mickey McGeehan would have brought another edge to this Limerick team. I started some of those current Limerick players when they were 18 but those lads have grown up now.

"These guys have a disadvantage playing in Division Four. If they were playing in Division One, or even Division Two, they would expect to win because they would be used to playing Sunday after Sunday, and at a high level." Tweet

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