Limerick left to rue Galvin’s absence

COMING out of the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday, John Galvin could have been forgiven for thinking the match scoreline was his fault.

He would have been told that but for a cruciate injury it might never happened. His leadership in the middle would have been enough to at the very least limit the majority of the damage.

Munster chairman Sean Walsh inadvertently lent his voice to the chorus. In his programme notes, he referred to Galvin’s totemic performance in last year’s provincial final. “The midfield performance of John Galvin that day was superb. His commitment, skill and leadership was exceptional. That performance and his performances in all his games in the championship certainly merited an All Star award.”

When quizzed afterwards, Limerick manager Maurice Horan didn’t exactly bat away the impact of Galvin and Stephen Lucey’s absences from the team.

“They would have steadied the ship, they would have won possession, driven on, brought the forwards into play.”

But to burden Galvin, or the loss of him, with the responsibility for this defeat would be unfair.

Sitting in front of the press box in the Mackey Stand was dual player James Ryan who is concentrating solely on hurling this year. In last year’s Munster final, he scored a brace of points in a fine display at centre-forward. How Horan would loved to have had him tearing at Eoin Brosnan.

Ryan certainly would have done a better job than James Kelly who looked out of his depth before being called ashore two minutes before the break.

Paul Browne, another dual player who’s had his head turned by Donal O’Grady, deprived Horan of another quality forward.

Even before Horan revealed afterwards that Stephen Kelly and Mark O’Riordan hadn’t trained for three weeks with injuries, the Limerick team had a makeshift look about it.

Johnny McCarthy, known for the majority of his inter-county career as a full-back, was stationed at No 6 and didn’t look comfortable. But then few of his fellow defenders did either. Shane Gallagher wore feet of lead every time the ball was directed towards his marker Kieran Donaghy.

“One of the four things we talked about before the match was putting pressure on the ball, push up on the ball the whole time, try and get them facing back towards their own goal but we couldn’t do it,” said Horan.

“We were stuck to the ground for some reason. We weren’t sharp at all and once they created an overlap that was it. We were really on the back foot and trying to find a foothold in the game was very difficult for us.

“One of the positives was towards the end of the first half we did get a foothold, we got 1-3 or 1-4 in the last 10 minutes but it’s small consolation really.”

Indeed. Seanie Buckley’s 28th minute goal, set up by Ian Ryan — who was for the most part marshalled superbly by Marc Ó Sé — was Limerick’s second score of the game.

They finished out the half with three unanswered points to leave it 1-11 to 1-4 at the break but the portents of doom for them loomed large.

With Brosnan being given the freedom to spray kick-passes across his forward line and the Kerry midfield, perhaps surprisingly, dominating, the visitors’ venerated attack was well-stocked. They looked so in sync too, running diagonally off each other’s shoulders and creating a multitude of options.

Gallagher was caught out when Kieran Donaghy showed for a ball on the wing in the 13th minute. With a simple hand-pass, the full-forward set up Darran O’Sullivan and he darted for goal, first shrugging off Gallagher before rounding Pa Ranahan to kick a ground shot to the net.

Apart from another Darran O’Sullivan shot in the 25th minute and a Colm Cooper effort early in the second-half (both created by Donaghy), Kerry were more than satisfied to take their points.

Three scores in the space of two minutes (in the 42nd and 43rd) from Donaghy, Killian Young and an outstanding Declan O’Sullivan shot made it 1-16 to 1-5 and curtains were being drawn.

The tireless Donnchadh Walsh turned out to be the only forward not to get his name on the score-sheet. Even the Kerry auxiliaries got in on the act with Micheal Quirke the one replacement not to find the posts.

A Ger Collins goal in the 54th minute and another from Seamus O’Carroll three minutes from the end of normal time only served to give Limerick a more flattering return on what will be seen in the record books.

Any of the 6,800 at the game or watching on TV knew the score.

“If we had ducks today they would have drowned on us,” uttered Horan.

Scorers for Limerick: G Collins 1-4 (one free); S Buckley, S O’Carroll 1-0; J O’Donovan, J McCarthy, S Kelly (free), S Gallagher, M Sheehan 0-1 each.

Subs: E Joy for O’Donovan (inj 28); M Sheehan for Joy (inj 31); E O’Connor for J Kelly (33); J Riordan for Fitzpatrick (45); S O’Carroll for S Kelly (58).

Scorers for Kerry: C Cooper 0-7 (one free); Darran O’Sullivan 1-3; Declan O’Sullivan 0-4; B Sheehan (one 45), K Donaghy, K O’Leary 0-2 each; K Young, P Galvin, BJ Keane, D Geaney, E Brosnan, D Bohan 0-1 each.

Subs for Kerry: P Galvin for Darran O’Sullivan (inj 51); BJ Keane for Walsh, M Quirke for Sheehan, D Bohan for O’Mahony (all 58); D Geaney for O’Leary (61); K Young (inj 70, no subs left).

Referee: R Hickey (Clare)