So near and yet so far, says McKenna

FOR ten minutes during the first-half of yesterday’s second game, the spectre of Kilkenny’s annihilation of Offaly hung over proceedings at Croke Park.

With the first quarter done and dusted, Limerick had already picked up a couple of flesh wounds without the damage ever threatening to prove fatal.

Then Joe McKenna’s side suddenly found the ground shifting under their feet with Kilkenny plundering seven unanswered points.

And yet. And yet. With 20 minutes to play they were back to within two points of their supposed betters. “So near and yet so far,” sighed McKenna.

“The first-half left us with a lot to do. We didn’t get into the game and I think the occasion got to the lads in the first-half.

“Half our team had never been in Croke Park before, never mind played there. That showed in the first-half. We were a bit tentative.”

TJ Ryan and Andrew O’Shaughnessy’s brace of points in first-half injury time stemmed the tide somewhat but, by then, Croke Park was haemorrhaging spectators as quickly as Limerick were scores.

Though the general mood was sombre, McKenna was able to peer through the gloom and pick out faint flickerings of optimism.

“We got those two points before the break and we were in the game. It was only six points at half-time and Kilkenny never got away from us. They scored a lot of their points in that half from play, so they weren’t setting the world alight either.”

Rather than cash in their chips as most of us feared, Limerick went for broke.

TJ Ryan found his compass during the interval, Paul O’Grady dissected the posts from under the Hogan Stand and the sublime Peter Lawlor launched a Hail Mary from a dead ball. Suddenly, Limerick were landing body blows with every swing.

“At the break we said, ‘throw caution to the wind and just go out and hurl’.

“They were half-afraid but we were six points down and we just said, what have we got to lose? Just tear into Kilkenny and see what happens. I just wanted the lads to do themselves justice.

“We got stuck in, in the second half. We hurled very well and did ourselves proud. I just felt that, at times, we could have taken more scores but that little lack of experience went against us and that’s where Kilkenny came out on top.”

When the dust settles, it may still only rank as a moral victory, another defeat for a county depressingly familiar with the trauma of dealing with loss.

But Limerick have come a long way from last February when they were hammered by Cork in their first league game.

“I said to the lads when we came up to Croke Park last Sunday (for a familiarisation session) that this is where you have to be, this is where you’ve gotta learn. It will be huge for the confidence now and that will stand to them.”