Kirby lauds Limerick’s ‘magnificent character’

LIMERICK selector Gary Kirby was understandably pleased with his side’s epic win over Tipperary on Sunday — and the character displayed by the players in particular.

“I said all along, and now the supporters have learned — that these players want to do it for the county,” said Kirby.

“There had been question marks over them — and rightly so — but these boys have put in so much for the last six months. All they wanted to do was to win this match.

“People questioned us about the wisdom of our approach to the league, moves like putting Brian Geary centre-back, putting Ollie Moran up to centre-forward.

“But we had a method, we knew what we wanted and the players stood by us in that — and you saw the fruits of that out on the field yesterday. We all stuck together — that’s how we won.”

Last Sunday Limerick were tuned in from the start, and didn’t have to overturn a ten-point half-time deficit, as happened in Thurles in the second game.

“Sunday it was tit for tat compared to the other games. Tipperary had to come back and equalise with us this time, which was great to see.

“The character of our team was magnificent. The character is in the team, the hurling is in the team, the leadership is in the team. We worked on bringing Kevin Tobin to midfield.

“That was the area where we were caught for the last two games and we persevered with it today. He broke his heart out there and in the end, when he had no more to give, we had to bring him off. That’s the kind of players we have — they’ll give one hundred per cent, and when there’s no more we have lads to bring on.”

Two of those lads, in particular, stood out.

Centre-back Brian Geary was the man who drove upfield in extra time to score an inspirational point for Limerick; centre-forward Ollie Moran, the hero of the previous two games, worked selflessly all through.

“Brian Geary scored, he delivered ball to the forwards, he blocked lads going through — people have said he’s slow, but he’s always on the ball, and that’s the sign of a great hurler.

“Ollie’s workrate out there today was huge.

“He mightn’t have got the scores he got other days, but he made scores for other fellas. They were two massive players for us and they’ll lead us a long way.’’

Other players also stood up and were counted: “Take Shaughs (Andrew O’Shaughnessy). I asked him at the start of extra time did he want us to take him off the frees. ‘No,’ says he, ‘I’ll take them’. That shows the confidence he has in himself, and he took two or three that were 60, 65 metres out. He scored great points to lift us when we were two points down, and that shows his character.”

Of course, their reward for the Tipp marathon is a meeting with Waterford.

Kirby doesn’t imagine Limerick will be running many laps in the next couple of weeks.

“Do you think they need fitness after those three matches? It’s all about keeping the lads fresh at this stage. Okay, the Tipp game was a great game to win, but the team have won nothing yet. We’re in a Munster final, we’re in an All-Ireland quarter-final, we’ll take it from there.

“We enjoyed Sunday night but now we’re thinking of Waterford.”