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Tipp pile on agony for Limerick

Tipperary 2-24 Limerick 0-8
By Diarmuid O'Flynn - Monday, March 22, 2010

If you’re an absolutely diehard Limerick hurling supporter, one of the dwindling few who were at the Gaelic Grounds yesterday for this NHL round four match, or if you were a Limerick county board official, or a member of the under-pressure management team, you could take the view that this defeat is actually a two-point improvement on the result of last August’s 24-point All-Ireland semi-final hammering by the same opposition, and you could suggest that Limerick hurling is still heading in the right direction.

That wouldn’t just be the optimistic view, it would be sheer, wilful blindness. For the three opening games of this year’s league this young and vastly understrength Limerick team has been truly heroic; against Galway, Cork then Waterford, they gave everything they had to keep their losses to a minimum, battled against overwhelming odds, fought to the finish every time and kept the final margin in each instance in and around the ten-point mark.

Always, however, with the ground quickening, with the opposition becoming sharper and more needful of points, a result like this was on the horizon. Yesterday, and though the Limerick youngsters again battled to the end, it materialised.

Limerick did have a man sent off, midfielder Dean Madden getting his marching orders in the 13th minute after two fully deserved yellow cards for two very wild pulls, and that was a factor.

"It came very early in the game and it was always going to be tough on Limerick after that," said Tipp manager Liam Sheedy.

Limerick manager Justin McCarthy was more emphatic, however – "The extra man made a huge difference," he reckoned, "It upset the thread of the whole game and after that we were fighting a losing battle."

Not so – that’s simply clutching at straws. Every game this Limerick has played has been a losing battle from the first whistle, that’s simple fact.

Already in this one the writing had been on the wall, and three times in those opening 13 minutes Tipp had breached the outer lines of the Limerick defence only to be denied by desperate last-ditch interventions by an overworked inside line, in which Shane O’Neill was superb.

The reality is this; other teams adapt to having had a man sent off – Kilkenny did it last week, against Cork, played their part in a great game. Limerick weren’t walloped yesterday because they had a man sent off, they were simply overpowered by a vastly superior force.

Two points was all they managed in the first half, both of those by Graeme Mulcahy, against 1-10 for Tipp; a further 1-5 was conceded in the opening nine minutes after the interval, a vast gulf in class between the teams.

As for the final deficit – had Liam Sheedy not gone to his bench after Tipp’s second goal, an absolute pile-driver by John O’Brien in the 44th minute that put them 2-15 to 0-2 ahead, that 22 point difference at the end could easily have been 32.

No, there is no joy to be taken from this result, not for any kind of Limerick supporter; in truth, there is no joy to be had by anyone in hurling from this mismatch.

Certainly Liam Sheedy wasn’t for gloating. "It was a tricky fixture for us," he said; "Everyone is expecting you to come here and win well, so you’re on a hiding to nothing. We just wanted to come in, get the two points, get out; it puts us back in the league again, six points from four games, gives us a fighting chance with three games to go."

As for Justin McCarthy? Pleased again he was with the efforts of his young charges, and rightly so – "Our backs were outstanding. They battled very hard, it’s a big baptism of fire for those lads but they stuck to their task and I was happy with how they went about their business."

As for his own prospects this Tuesday night, when his position will be debated by the club delegates at a specially convened county board meeting, a neat sidestep: "Ah no, no, I’m not talking about Tuesday night – that’s another night!"

Scorers for Tipperary: T. Hammersley 1-4 (0-1 free); S. Hennessey 0-6; E. Kelly 0-5 (0-3 frees, 0-1 65); J. O’Brien 1-2; G. Ryan 0-2; M. Webster 0-2; J. Devane 0-2; M. Heffernan 0-1.

Scorers for Limerick: G. Mulcahy 0-2; P. McNamara 0-2 (frees); B. O’Sullivan, P. Browne, A. Owens, R. McKeogh, 0-1 each.

Subs for Tipperary: J. O’Brien (Callanan 35); J. Devane (S. McGrath inj. 44); P. Kelly (E. Kelly 45); M. Heffernan (B. Maher 51); T. Stapleton (Webster 55).

Subs for Limerick: P. Harty (Mullane 35); A. Owens (O’Connor 43); R. McKeogh (Harty 55); K. O’Rourke (Lynch 59); P. Russell (O’Brien inj. 65).

Referee: M. Wadding (Waterford).

IrishExaminer.com - Monday, February 13, 2012

Tipp pile on agony for Limerick