Will Limerick be singing in September?
First, though, the sending-off.
Cork forward Patrick Horgan’s dismissal before half-time in yesterday’s Munster final was the game’s major talking-point. It wasn’t a competition that’ll jostle for a place in the pantheon, though Limerick will hardly complain about the manner in which they annexed their first provincial title since 1996.
In fact, you could argue that the method in which they closed the game out . . .
Sorry. Back to the business at hand.
Just before the break referee James McGrath sent Horgan off for striking Limerick wing-back Paudie O’Brien on the back of the helmet.
Tom Kenny of Cork was unequivocal about the red card shown to his teammate.
“My initial thought was that the ball hit the helmet but I wasn’t sure then with the height of the sun.
“The players said that Pa (Horgan) didn’t touch him so it was probably the wrong decision on the ref’s part. I know we were down to 14 men but Limerick finished a lot stronger than us. If we had 15 maybe we would have finished out the game stronger too and as winners too.
“Obviously it contributed to the final result. We will have to look at our own failings and try and move on from there.”
Declan Hannon of Limerick was further away from the incident.
“I was at the other end of the field — I didn’t even see him getting sent off, when I heard the roar I thought someone had gotten a belt off the ball. It didn’t affect our focus, we kept to the game plan, we’ve seen enough of teams winning games with 14 players, but there’s massive drive in the team.
“We didn’t say, ‘We’ve an extra man now, great, we’ll enjoy the second half’. We kept going with the same workrate, and the subs that came in added to that.”
Could Cork argue with the red card? From the television replay Horgan’s lazy swing certainly didn’t do him any favours; it forced the referee to fish in his pocket, though spectators who’d been in Thurles the previous evening — the large Waterford contingent supporting their minors in the curtain-raiser, for instance — might have compared James McGrath’s swift judgment yesterday with Saturday evening’s entanglement between Aidan Fogarty of Kilkenny and Waterford’s Noel Connors, an incident which might yet feature in any appeal Cork lodge on Horgan’s behalf.
As it was, the red card removed one of Cork’s main aces and the second half proved a long one for the supporters in red. Once the clock turned to 60 Limerick manager John Allen had some of his impact substitutes beginning to turn the screw — Shane Dowling and Kevin Downes found their range and began to stretch Limerick’s lead. In that Allen was following the template that put paid to Tipperary in the provincial semi-final.
“I think most people outside of the management and the set-up we have initially were surprised that we’d left out Shane Dowling and Kevin Downes, Niall Moran,” he said.
“Keeping them in reserve says a lot about the fellas that are starting. It’s not that we’re finishing with our best 15, we’re finishing with a different 15. Maybe the players we bring in have a different set of skills from the 15 that are starting the game, and there are other players in the panel who are certainly touch and go for starting positions.
“And come the next day we’ll have 21, 22, 23 players who’ll give us the same problem because there’s at least that many of them good enough to be starting.”
It’s a strategy that’s been serving Limerick well – as Hannon pointed out: “David Breen and Seamus Hickey ran themselves into the ground and then (Kevin) Downesie came in and got a point with his first touch, Shane Dowling came in and scored, it’s a 20-man game.”
Its simplicity — and the honesty with which Breen and Hickey carry out their assigned roles — make it difficult to counteract.
Once Limerick are within touching distance, or ahead, in the last quarter, they’re able to spring players who are fresh and accurate: a lethal combination.
Limerick You’re A Lady: will it make the set list for a September gig?
