More to Limerick than fire and brimstone
Superlatives like coolness, poise and talent, you’ll have noticed, aren’t among them. Limerick don’t inspire that type of gushing praise. And never have in most people’s living memory.
Two of hurling’s most well-known analysts, while praising James Ryan’s performance, also made reference to his lack of skill.
With comments like that, is it any wonder their players feel they have been disrespected? So few of us attempt to look beyond the typecast of Limerick as a gutsy team that compensate for aptitude deficiencies with brawn.
There is no doubt they had a physical edge over Tipperary on Sunday and, yes, they exhibited a never-say-die attitude. The players and management spoke of the character shown but to condense their winning credentials to just that is a slight as well as an oversight. Yet our reasoning for the victory is the same as any other Limerick win in the last 10 years. Cyril Farrell spoke of Donal O’Grady taking the game by “the scruff of the neck” and Wayne McNamara’s “good, hard stuff” in his duel with Bonner Maher. Eddie Brennan said: “Credit to Limerick — when heart was needed, they put it in. They fought.”
Later on RTÉ on Sunday, Ger Loughnane was fulsome in his praise of Limerick but it was more of the same: “In the first 20 minutes, they laid down the law. They played on their own terms. They went back to the traditional Limerick style: keep it tight, make it really tough and physical and use their greatest weapon, spirit. When Limerick play with that spirit they are very hard to beat.”
It would be quite disconcerting for any Limerick supporter to read their team returned to traditional tactics when they haven’t served them all that well these past 40 or so years.
The fact is this Limerick group are beginning to outgrow the mould set for them and the language we use to speak of them. They are emboldened by character and an incessant work-rate but they are intelligent too.
Take a look back at Shane Dowling’s movement in taking his second goal. Going away from the goal may have appeared unconventional but on his stronger left side he was making himself a bigger target to strike at instead of hitting on his right from a tighter angle.
Gander at the movement of Richie McCarthy to block Bonner Maher as he struck for goal in the 56th minute — and don’t forget the clearance either. Hail the coolness of substitute Thomas Ryan in taking a majestic first touch before putting Limerick ahead in injury-time.
Limerick weren’t just fire; they were ice too. But when a county goes so long without winning the patronising pitfalls are difficult to avoid.
Andrew O’Shaughnessy spoke in these pages on Friday about the need for a change in how Limerick are perceived inside as well as outside the county. “We never say ‘Jesus, we’ll go out and actually out-hurl them’. We have to have that inner belief and confidence.”
It’s clear they possess it now and they deserve more than rehashed platitudes. They have indicated they are tired of the old, negative cliches about them. The old, positive ones don’t paint them in a particularly flattering light either. Maybe the biggest compliment we can give them is to change the record.
* Email: john.fogarty@examiner.ie
By the time Tipperary play again, it’ll be almost 24 months since their last Championship victory. Eamon O’Shea has yet to pick up a “W” in thecompetition and doubts about whether the excellent coach will make the step up to excellent manager are growing.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to accept O’Shea’s insistent cry thatTipperary’s day is coming, although the new qualifier system will be moreequitable to them this year.
That’s not to say they might not face Kilkenny again — should the Cats lose to Offaly on Saturday evening — but the draw is no longer as unfair as it has been in recent years.
Under the previous structure, losing a Munster quarter-final was far less punitive than a semi-final defeat.
The quarter-finalists were drawn with their three corresponding teams inLeinster for a place in Phase Three.
For the same reward, the beaten semi-finalists, meanwhile, had to face off against one another.
Tipperary may also find solace in the fact that no team has gone onto win an All-Ireland title as Munster champions since Cork in 2005.
Go a year further back for the last time the Munster runners-up, again Cork, went onto win the ultimate prize. That’s all from the inside looking out; if Tipperary are to project themselves on this Championship they will obviously have to focuswithin. They get back on the horse on Sunday with a challenge against Galway but facing the same issues that have dogged them these last couple of years, namely an inability to win primary ball, a lack of controlled aggression and wavering intensity levels.
The merits of two referees operating in football and hurling games have been championed in recent weeks. Most of them with justification. Hurling, in particular, is in urgent need of a second pair of eyes.
But just how feasible is it when there are so few referees deemed good enough by the GAA to make the Championship panels and a grave shortage of them at club level?
The question mark about consistency would also grow as no two referees call a game the same way.
Put the idea in place for the Championship or inter-county only and, similar to Hawk-Eye, the association would run the risk of widening the already concerning divide between the county and club scene.
As for the idea of making referees semi-pro, as proposed by James Horan last week? Again, it’s another intriguing suggestion and one first put forward by Paul Galvin five years ago. However, the problem is it too would further polarise the organisation. Not only that, with the maximum age of referees at inter-county level being set at 50 there could be employment law issues too never mind the GAA’s amateur ethos.
