Risk-taker Richie reaps the rewards
NHL winners for the first time since 1963, felling Tipp, Cork and Kilkenny on successive Sundays; Munster champions after disposing of Cork and Limerick and winners over the Rebels again after two outstanding games over the last two weekends.
And all that time Limerick were coming up on the blind side, their progress almost unnoticed, certainly unmeasured. Oh, what a superb job of preparation has Richie Bennis and his management team done this year. What a recovery from their defeat to this same opposition in the Munster final.
“Unbelievable,” he said, the smile broad across those cherubic cheeks, the eyes sparkling. “This was what we dreamed of and believe you me lads, we set out at the beginning of the year to get to the All-Ireland semi-final. When we got here, we got a small bit greedy — we wanted to go a bit further. And we’re still going to be greedy.”
What’s truly uplifting about this result yesterday was that while any hurling supporter with even an ounce of heart has to feel disappointed for Waterford, Limerick too have energised this championship. They have lifted it with the spirit of their play in Munster, against Clare in their quarter-final win, invigorated it with the passion of their play.
Yesterday that spirit, that passion, reflecting so well the personality of their upbeat manager, was all there in abundance. But yesterday there was more. Yesterday there was a real cutting edge, five body-crushing goals.
“I’m involved with Limerick all my life, I’m 62 years of age, and I’ve never met a more honest bunch. You can’t ask for any more than that,” he said.
Often, you hear reports coming from training camps — ‘God you should have seen them tonight, they were flying’. Such reports were doing the rounds in Limerick earlier this year, before the trilogy against Tipp, before the Munster final against Waterford. Never on any of those occasions, however, did Limerick produce a full performance.
Against Tipperary, in all three games, many chances went a-begging; against Waterford in Thurles, two clear goal chances in the first five minutes were squandered.
It was not the case yesterday. It wasn’t perfection, but this was more like what the manager was seeing in training, this was what had coach Gary Kirby, selectors Anthony O’Riordan, Bernie Hartigan, Tony Hickey and trainer Dave Moriarty believing they had something special on their hands.
Most crucial of all, this was what had the players themselves believing. “We had a training session last Friday night week and you wouldn’t like to be refereeing it,” laughed Richie. “And when I called out the team this week, Niall Moran was the first man over to Seán O’Connor, put his arms around him, and that was the man who was replacing him. As I said in the last few weeks, we lost the Munster final in the first five minutes and Waterford won it in the last five.
“Today we won it in the first five minutes, and we held onto it.”
How? A half-time talk by O’Riordan after Limerick had let a ten-point lead slip back to four. “Anthony stood up and said he was glad we were only four points up, because if we were more than four up, we’d have sat back on our arses and let the thing slip. Four points up we had to start all over again.”
Those first five minutes were crucial, because this time Limerick took the two goal chances they created, the first of those from Donie Ryan, super-sub against Clare. There were those who opined that in starting Donie, Limerick were taking a risk, losing their impact man off the bench.
Humbug, snorted Richie. “We’re taking risks all the year, and we’ll take more risks when we get to the final. Hopefully they’ll all work out.”
And the man himself, how’s he taking it? “Grand,” he said.
Wasn’t he getting a bit excited there with the ref for a while in the second half, no free awarded to Limerick for 20 minutes?
“I wasn’t,” he laughed. “The referee was getting excited with me."
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