Kirby hoping Limerick’s character will re-surface

IF YOU were in Limerick last Sunday you heard one of those rare summer championship sounds — the hiss of thousands inhaling as they anticipated where Pat Tobin of Limerick’s late, late strike on goal was going to land.

When the sliotar flew into the corner of the net for an equalising goal the ensuing roar was no doubt audible on O’Connell Street.

Limerick selector Gary Kirby is quick to point out, however, that the men in green and white don’t consider the job completed. “Not one bit. We were in Monday night, we got the whole squad together and we sat down and discussed the game in detail. We talked about what went wrong, we talked about what we did right, but as the players said themselves, we’ve nothing done yet — won no match yet. We’ll have to try twice as hard tonight — and we know that.”

Still, you take your positives where you can get them. Limerick saw captain Damien Reale get a red card after 20 minutes, and Kirby is quick to praise the team’s resilience in fighting back from that kind of blow.

“Without doubt, it definitely shows the character that’s in the team, but at the end of the day we went out to win the match, and we haven’t achieved that yet.”

After the game manager Richie Bennis said the players didn’t need motivation at half-time last Sunday. Kirby agrees.

“Damien (Reale) said a few words at half-time, and Richie (Bennis) spoke, but we left it to the players. They were definitely focused, but while it’s grand being focused, you still have to do it out on the field! A lot of the lads who don’t talk that much produced it on the field — Seamus Hickey, for instance, wouldn’t be a big talker, but he did the business out on the field.”

Hickey was switched in on Tipp star Eoin Kelly after Reale’s dismissal, and his shackling of the Mullinahone man was many people’s highlight of the game. “We didn’t have any problem with either Seamus or Damien marking Eoin, we just felt that because Damien was more experienced we’d put him on Eoin. We weren’t worried because Seamus marked Ben O’Connor last summer in Thurles, and we’d consider Ben every bit as good as Eoin Kelly. We didn’t have any fears about putting Seamus in on Eoin, and in fairness to him, he did very well.”

It was also noticeable that Limerick’s switches seemed to work out better than Tipperary’s. No accident, says Kirby. “That’s what we worked on specifically during the league. We tried 32 players in the course of the league and we learned a lot. I know we lost a few games, but what was important for us was that we learned about our players. Our aim at the start of the year was to get — in as far as we could — two options for each position, and we have that now.

“Now, our fitness levels are very high as well, thanks to our trainer, but we were able to say to the lads at the start of the game, ‘give it your all, even if you last only 20 minutes, because we have the subs to come on’.”

Of course, this weekend the environment is a little different. The advantage of playing at home in the championship is hard to quantify, but Kirby says Limerick won’t be intimidated by Semple Stadium this evening.

“It doesn’t bother us what field we’re playing on. Thankfully the Gaelic Grounds was in great condition last Sunday and we know Thurles will be the same way this evening. You can’t beat going up to Thurles for a championship match. The fact that it’s Tipperary we’re playing makes no difference to us, we’re just happy to be playing there.”