Everyone’s glad to have another go at this one
Well, we didn’t get that. We had Waterford failing to collect their car passes for a Munster final, and then Limerick rubbing their bosoms on the finishing tape but declining to break through.
On a wet, miserable day, the game never rose above league vintage, and a victory for either side would have been more democratic handover than coup d’etat. Electors of Iran please copy.
With the managers – and their supposedly differing approaches to preparation – occupying acres of newsprint in the last week, much attention yesterday was focused on whether trace elements of those management philosophies would show up on field.
However, Limerick showed little of the quantum leap in touch and skill expected under Justin McCarthy’s tutelage. If any side displayed elegance in distribution, and accuracy in shot selection, it was Waterford – who, of course, had almost seven full seasons of instruction from the Cork man.
In contrast, Waterford had supposedly been run ragged under Davy Fitzgerald’s punishing training regime, yet the men in white had a variety in delivery to their inside forwards that kept Limerick guessing early on: John Mullane prospered with four points.
For their part, the Shannonsiders began with Ollie Moran stationed near goal, a long way from the action for their lionhearted game-breaker. As the game wore on, he moved outfield, but he wasn’t the only unhappy number 11 on display. Brian Geary dominated Ken McGrath from start to finish, and the Limerick man was central to his side’s second-half revival.
A six-point lead didn’t flatter Waterford at half-time – on three occasions a goal seemed only a side-step or handpass away, but it didn’t come. When a goal arrived it was Limerick who scored it: on the resumption James Ryan galloped through and placed David Breen, who finished coolly.
The men in the green jerseys have never lacked guts, and with Seamus Hickey and Geary driving them forward, they whittled away at Waterford’s lead until Andrew O’Shaughnessy equalised with six minutes left.
Eoin Kelly and Ryan swapped scores before the end, and a draw was a fair result, if only to give both sides a chance to redeem themselves. They’ve given magnificent entertainment on many occasions in the past. Yesterday wasn’t one of them. Limerick managed three points in the first half; Waterford scored two in the second.
“Games like that are so tight, there’s so much tension, there’s so much hype about the whole thing,” said Limerick boss Justin McCarthy afterwards. “Overall it wasn’t a great championship (match) by any standards. We’re glad enough to get a draw – six points down after the first half, when we played poorly.
“We needed a game, I felt. We missed a few chances here and there, with slippery hurleys and so on, but I felt we were in with a chance.”
Waterford manager Davy Fitzgerald wasn’t raving about the quality either. “Glad to get another chance,” said Fitzgerald. “We played a great first half and we were totally in control, I thought we could have been further ahead.
“But when a team gets momentum on you like that, it’s hard to stop it. Our second half performance was not acceptable, not good enough. Limerick should have won in the end, to be honest.”
Waterford’s first half went to schedule, but they faded completely after the break, and Davy Fitzgerald faces a dilemma regarding Ken McGrath in particular, who looked out of sorts from the off.
McCarthy has his own challenges. Niall Moran didn’t go well from frees and his full-back line looked far from watertight in that first half.
Neutrals will be hoping for an improvement all round: Limerick came out for the second half but took shelter when it began to rain. With both teams off the field it looked like a game that nobody wanted to win.
That kind of day. That kind of game. The kind that needed a couple of scorpions.
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