Sheedy: that wasn’t the real Limerick

FOR the second week in a row, we have had the winning manager in the All-Ireland hurling semi-final almost having to justify his team’s superiority, except in this case Liam Sheedy was openly sympathetic to the plight of the Limerick players, genuinely believing that a 24-point hammering wasn’t an accurate reflection of their ability.

And, unlike Brian Cody – who hasn’t had to endure too many calamities over the course of his 10 years in charge of Kilkenny – yesterday was something of a role reversal for the popular Tipperary boss.

Acclaiming their success (their biggest against the Shannonsiders, incidentally since they won 10-9 to 2-1 at the Cork Athletic Grounds in 1962) as “mission accomplished”, he commented: “There was a lot of hurt in our dressing room this time last year (after going under to Waterford). The 17th of August was anything but a nice day and it hurt a lot of us. We waited a year to get back up here and redeem ourselves.”