Galvin provided platform, says Kearns

“LIMERICK football, not an oxymoron anymore, and make sure you print that!.”

Just as he’d been for the full 70-plus minutes on the field, Limerick midfielder John Galvin was a commanding presence immediately after his team’s big win over Clare in Ennis yesterday.

In a stunning team display, Galvin’s towering performance in the middle of the field, especially after Limerick were reduced to 14 men following the second yellow card dismissal of corner-back Mark O’Riordan, was what Limerick manager Liam Kearns credited as setting the platform for this win.

“The key to playing with 14 men is that you don’t panic, but when you’re winning midfield the way we were when John Galvin is taking them out of the clouds, there isn’t a lot the extra man can do about it.

"He gave us that platform all day. The forwards too worked very hard, I felt they kicked some great scores as well, took on their men. That helped ease the burden on the rest of the team, but midfield gave us the platform.”

None worked harder in that forward division than blonde wing-forward Stephen Kelly.

Though his performance was marred by a few theatrical dives, Kelly’s end to end running, his constant showing for the ball, his finishing, passing, support play, typified a hugely-impressive Limerick performance:

“We knew we had to put up a show. People in the papers were writing us off, saying we were a flash-in-the-pan against Cork. Coming here, Clare fancied their chances, but we had a game-plan and we stuck to it, especially when we went a man down.

"We regrouped, pulled together as a team, drove it home from there. But when you’re winning midfield you look like you’re winning in every position, and that’s what was happening. We dominated midfield from start to finish through Quane and Galvin. The rest of us were just gathering up the breaks.”

Back to that man Galvin again Mind you the man himself wasn’t totally satisfied with his own performance:

“We had a slow start, missed some great chances, I missed two goal chances myself which would have really killed the game, but they came back at us.

"When Mark O’Riordan was sent off it really gave us a kick up the arse. We were only a point up, but we got going then and suddenly we were four points up, five up at the break. We got a great start to the second half as well, went into a ten-point lead, and it went a bit dead after that.”

It wasn’t all one-way traffic however, as Kearns was quick to point out.

“It was level when we had the man sent off (Limerick were actually a point ahead, but not playing like that), and it’s always a test when you have a man sent off.

"We did cope, but we had to work very hard, and I don’t think it’s fair to Clare to say we weren’t tested."

Even when the experienced John Quane was forced to come off with a recurrence of an old ankle injury, it said much that Limerick were able to bring on a player of the calibre of Jason Stokes, later again had the luxury of being able to replace last-minute starter Johnny Murphy (just after he’d scored Limerick’s second goal, incidentally, in an impressive showing) with Brian Begley.

That back up makes the job of Liam Kearns just a little easier. In what had been a bad weekend for fans in this GAA-mad county, with the one-point defeat of the hurlers in the All-Ireland qualifier series on Saturday, John Kennedy (another Kerryman) was the second Clare manager in two days left bemoaning the fate of his team.

Unlike Cyril Lyons, however, Kennedy didn’t have the consolation of a decent performance from his side:

“It was disappointing, yes. We knew how good Limerick were, they played to their strengths today. The sending-off was crucial. Limerick reacted positively to it, our lads reacted negatively.

"It took us time to adjust, even though we’d gone through all those scenarios in training. When it happened we seemed to lose our shape, whereas Limerick started coming at us in waves.

“We made mistakes, were punished and our inexperience showed at times. But Limerick are a big strong physical team, played some great football and got some great scores.

"We’ve no complaints. We were beaten by a better team, but we’re disappointed, we could have played better but weren’t allowed. It’s a learning process, and I hope we learned from today“.

Perhaps those who will have learned most were in Tralee.