O’Sullivan: proving media wrong not our aim

LIMERICK manager Mickey Ned O’Sullivan was happy with his side’s win yesterday but also had a word for media commentators who had criticised the Shannonsiders in recent months.

“Being a manager, that’s part of it. You guys have a job to do and you won’t sell papers praising us. You have to be controversial. We take that as part and parcel of management, but we don’t have anything to prove to the media. We have to prove it to ourselves.

“We knew we weren’t doing ourselves justice, and maybe the media were right to point that out, but we don’t go out to prove the media wrong. That’s irrelevant, because none of you guys are out on the field.

“The players are out there, and they know what they’re capable of. You win games, the media is with you, you lose games and they’re against you. That’s part and parcel of it.”

Regarding the game itself, O’Sullivan was happy his side rallied after the break.

“The way we took control against the breeze after half-time, we had to impose ourselves on the game. Eoin Hogan did well when he came on, he used his pace and did well.

“We knew it was going to be tough. If we hadn’t respected Clare we would have lost that game. We had a lot of work done on them, we knew they were good and had some very strong players. We knew we had a bad second half against Tipp the last day and we knew we could turn that around, and we did that. We dug deep.”

O’Sullivan feels Limerick are stronger this year than in previous seasons.

“We have options this year. Two years ago we didn’t have options and last year we had injuries, but we have plenty of options this year. With more summer football these lads will get a chance, and they’ll be fighting for their places.

“We didn’t put an emphasis on the league. We felt we slipped up last year in not getting to a Munster final – that was our All-Ireland.

“We knew the draw favoured us, and we’re there now. It’s a victory for the football people of Limerick, for the players, who believe in themselves and for the management team, the coach and selectors. It’s a victory for the underdog to get to the final and who knows what’ll happen.”

Understandably, Clare skipper David Russell was disappointed.

“We went 15 or 20 minutes without scoring in the second half, and you can’t do that in championship football. You have to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

“Giving them a head start didn’t help either, we had to put in awful hard work to get back into it. But you can’t let a team get six points up, there’s desperate hard work in getting level after that.”