Anthony Daly: Limerick hunger is back alright, but what were Cork at?
I was walking out of the Gaelic Grounds Sunday evening when I met a Limerick supporter. "Well done, ye won the shield anyway Dalo," he said. "Thanks," I replied, "it was all we could win. We’re happy enough going home. The shadow boxing is over now."
It is after yesterday. Limerick were right on the money. Clare only really were for the first half, and in sporadic bursts in the second half. Dublin only took flight in the second half.
Cork? It was hard to know what they were at. Shadow boxing? Their supporters will hope that’s what it was.
Limerick wanted a national league title. Cork didn’t look like they were too bothered, that they’d take it if it was going, but if the going got too tough, they could leave it. Cork may have only been three points down at half-time and six behind at the final whistle, but there only looked like being one winner from the first whistle.
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I was at a championship preview night for Clerihan GAA club in south Tipperary on Friday evening and Ciarán Carey was there. He spoke about the hunger being back in the Limerick squad and yesterday provided firm proof that it is.
This victory was fully merited. Limerick had all the big performers whereas most of Cork’s big names were anonymous, especially up front. Darragh Fitzgibbon had his quietest game in an age. So had Shane Barrett. Alan Connolly hardly touched the ball. Brian Hayes did well in the first half, while William Buckley, their youngest player, was nearly the best of their attack. I was surprised when he was taken off.
Ciarán Joyce in fairness did well at full-back but Seán O’Donoghue didn’t work on Aaron Gillane. Again. Ger Millerick didn’t do any better on Gillane but the Patrickswell man was outstanding and was a fully deserving winner of the TG4 man-of-the-match.
William O’Donoghue was excellent. Diarmaid Byrnes got caught for Hayes’ goal but his distribution was outstanding throughout. The Limerick full-back line was brilliant throughout. Cork just couldn’t make any headway up front.
The soft goal in the first half gave Cork a foothold that they didn’t deserve. They got scores from a handful of frees that probably wouldn’t be given in the championship. They were only one score behind at the break but Cork were played off the field in the first half and spent the second half chasing a match that was always going away from them, but that’s just the madness of hurling.
Cork might have shaded midfield. Tommy O’Connell started well and worked hard throughout. Cian Lynch and Tim O’Mahony probably cancelled each other out but neither of them had any real impact on the game. Adam English has had better games but you know that he will be right at it come the championship.
Aidan O’Connor has had a brilliant spring but he’ll be a little bit concerned after yesterday. I don’t want to be critical of him – and I’m not – because he is such a talented hurler, but he had a poor day on the frees and this was his poorest game of the campaign.
Every player is entitled to an off-day but freetakers don’t have that luxury. He missed five placed balls, with the two before half-time unsettling him. Then again, it can’t be easy to be hitting frees when one of the best freetakers Limerick have ever produced – Gillane - is on the same field.
That has to be hanging over Aidan. Maybe John Kiely just needs to hand that duty back to Gillane now, and tell Aidan that he’s on the team on merit and that he doesn’t need to worry about hitting frees.
It's just little stuff like that which Limerick need to iron out now because they have done so much right during this spring. The fact that they have three weeks now before the championship is a real plus – especially after such a positive result as this. They can sit back now and watch Clare, Cork, Tipp and Waterford go hammer and tongs in two weeks. And then get ready to go war with Cork again on April 26th. And Cork better be ready for war that day. Because they certainly were not yesterday.
I won’t get into a debate about double headers again here – I’ve said enough about it – but I can’t avoid it again after yesterday. It was hard for the Dublin and Clare players to be able to perform at the kind of intensity required when it was clear to them that most of the people in the ground – outside of their own supporters - had no real interest in what they were doing.
Clare did play well in the first half yesterday but you couldn’t say that they were totally on fire either. The full-forward line of Shane O’Donnell, Mark Rodgers and Shane Meehan were, but plenty of other lads weren’t. And Clare still had 2-15 on the board and were ahead by ten points at half-time.
The wind was a factor. Dublin had six points scored in the first six minutes of the second half. It looked like Clare might be in trouble but they just continued to find a way for the remainder of the game to make sure that they did enough.
Clare conceded the puckouts but it was hard to blame them when they had so many bodies back but I’d have preferred if the went full court press with the wind. O’Donnell’s form was a real positive because he was unmarkable. Dublin tried every member of the full-back line on him and none of them could do anything to get a handle on him.
To be honest, I spent most of the match anyway looking at the game through my fingers worrying about lads getting injured. Rodgers and O’Donnell went off with knocks. When Peter Duggan went down at one stage in the second half, I was nearly tempted to take out the rosary beeds and start into a novena. That was almost the mood of the game.
I got a text yesterday morning from Alan Cawley, the former soccer player and soccer pundit now for RTÉ, asking me if I had a spare ticket. I said I had. He drove down and sat beside me.
Caw had never been in the Gaelic Grounds before and he was amazed at the size of the crowd. Near the end of the 1B final, Caw asked me why the Dublin players were passing the ball around at the back when they had just got 1-1 from hitting the ball long into the square. "Look,’" I said, "that’s the way hurling is now. But also, this doesn’t really matter."
A league title did matter to Limerick yesterday. They were impressive. They look like a side that mean business, but they also know that it will matter very little if they don’t get it done when it really matters , but I think they’ll be way better in two weeks. That sums up the league.
And it summed up yesterday.
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