“We’ve turned the corner,” says Keane

Limerick 2-21

They didn’t just defeat the Munster champions on a day when wind and rain spoiled things for players and fans alike. The truth is that they annihilated them and weren’t flattered by their 16-point winning margin.

Waterford may point to the absence of several key players as some kind of explanation for a display that was the poorest since Justin McCarthy took over the managerial reins. However, it runs much deeper than that, and

McCarthy will know that his charges were made to look pedestrian, and at times even inept, against a high-flying opposition that went about its task in a businesslike and impressive manner from the start.

“We’ve finally turned the corner,” manager Dave Keane told his players after the game. Difficult to argue with that assessment, given the manner of their almost contemptuous dismissal of the feeble Waterford challenge.

In the miserable conditions, Limerick had many five-star performers, but none could match teenage sensation Andrew O’Shaughnessy at corner forward.

Playing on his home patch, the St Colman’s College student was a revelation and his magnificent personal tally of two goals and three points was no less than his virtuoso display deserved.

Both goals were clinically finished and bore all the trademarks of a master craftsman. The first in the 28th came after Donncha Sheehan’s effort was parried with O’Shaughnessy smashing the breaking ball past Stephen Brenner.

The second, 15 minutes from time, was all down to the sheer genius of the teenager himself as he sidestepped two defenders before coolly planting the ball in the back of the Waterford net.

Game well and truly over.

If O’Shaughnessy stole the show, however, wing-forward Colin Fitzgerald also enjoyed something of a field day, as did Peter Lawlor in the middle of the field, together with a well nigh unbeatable half-back trio of Eoin Foley, Ciaran Carey and Mark Foley until the latter was replaced late in the game with a shoulder injury.

In stark contrast few Waterford reputations were enhanced, but most disconcerting of all for management will be the ease with which they ultimately capitulated.

Limerick opted to have first use of the howling wind, the strength of which was to be seen in the puck-outs of goalkeeper Timmy Houlihan which invariably landed inside the Waterford 20-metre defensive line.

Ironically, however, it was Waterford who took the lead with a Dan Shanahan point inside 60 seconds, the one and only time they were to enjoy the luxury of being in front. Fitzgerald levelled from a free.

O’Shaughnessy pointed from play and the Limerick juggernaut was on its way.

Virtually every attack yielded a score off a creaky Deise defence, and Waterford’s lone goal threat came in the final seconds of the half when keeper Timmy Houlihan denied Eoin Kelly at the expense of a 65 which Dave Bennett sent wide.

Things had gradually gone from bad to worse for Waterford in that opening half and, to compound their problems, they lost Tony Browne and Andy Moloney to injuries that could sideline them for the foreseeable future.

Retiring with a commanding 1-16 to 0-3 interval advantage there was never going to be any way back for Waterford.

Territorially they enjoyed plenty of wind assisted possession but they never seriously threatened to prise open the home defence for the goals they so badly needed.

It was Limerick, and the brilliant O’Shaughnessy, who grabbed the only other goal with a super individual effort in the 55th minute.

That extended their advantage to a whopping 18 points, and a late flurry of Waterford scores had nothing more than a consolation value for the outclassed Decies.

Scorers: Limerick - A. O’Shaughnessy(2-3); C. Fitzgerald(0-8, 0-3 frees, 0-2 65s); D. Sheehan(0-2); B.Begley(0-2); B. Foley(0-2); P. Kirby(0-2); P. Lawlor, E. Foley(0-1) each. Waterford; D. Bennett(0-4, 0-3 frees, 0-1 65) E. Kelly(0-3); D. Shanahan(0-2); P. Flynn, M. Walsh(0-1) each. Limerick; T. Houlihan; D. Reale. T. J. Ryan. E. Mulcahy; E. Foley. C. Carey. M. Foley; P. Lawlor. C. Smith; C. Fitzgerald. O. Moran. B. Foley; A. O’Shaughnessy. B. Begley. D. Sheehan; Subs; N. Moran for Begley; P. Kirby for B. Foley; P. Dwyer for Carey; M. O’Brien for M. Foley(inj); R. Hayes for Lawlor.

Waterford: S. Brenner; D. O’Brien. T. Feeney. B.Flannery; E. Murphy. D. Prendergast. T. Browne; J. Murray. P. Queally; D. Shanahan. M. Walsh. D. Bennett; E. Kelly. A. Moloney. P. Flynn; Subs; P. Fitzgerald for Browne(inj); J. Kennedy for Moloney(inj); N. Power for Flannery; S. Walsh for M. Walsh; P. O’Brien for Queally.

Referee; Ger Harrington, Cork.