Real job starts now for Allen
What can anyone say after a scoreline like that?
In truth, they should have scored even more, as it looked at one stage like the game would end with Limerick scoring 26-8 rather than the 8-26 with which they finished.
Limerick had two goals on the board by seventh minute (Graeme Mulcahy and Shane Dowling), four by the 10th (Niall Moran and Dowling again).
They had their fifth in the 16th minute (Seanie Tobin), and all this while playing into the teeth of the gale. Had they had a mind to they could easily have ended up going into double figures in goals. As it was they relaxed for the rest of the first half, satisfied with a nine-point half-time lead, (5-7 to 0-13). They added just three goals with the wind (Dowling completing his hat-trick, Moran and Tobin each with their second), and a volley of points.
“A devastating loss for us,” admitted Antrim manager Jim Nelson after a very poor performance from his side. “We can’t gloss over that. Eight goals conceded, that tells its own story.”
What then does the winning manager learn about his team after two non-contests such as Limerick have had over the last two weekends?
“That’s a very negative way of looking at it!” said John Allen. “I have to be positive and we did score 8-26. Look, we had two games to win, we’ve won them. We saw a number of players again today that we didn’t see the last day — Declan Hannon and Seamus Hickey got game time, we had a new midfielder in Thomas O’Brien, Sean O’Brien came on as did Shane O’Neill.
“All in all we as selectors are getting an idea of our best 15 and of the subs who can come on if needed — what every team needs to have.”
Even after such a dominant performance, however, Allen still found aspects to criticise.
“We were very good for the first 15 minutes but I wasn’t happy at all with the way we finished that half. I think maybe they felt they had enough scores to rest on their laurels and that’s not good enough. We weren’t pleased with the way the midfield and half-forward line relaxed but they came back out and scored three quick points and ran away with the game.”
Three quick points? Within six minutes of the restart Limerick had another 1-5 on the board and from there to the end contented themselves, for the most part, with taking long-range points. Even allowing for the weakness of the opposition it was an impressive display.
They won’t get it so easy next time out, however, as they await the winners of either Cork-Offaly or Clare-Dublin — back among the big boys.
“We are, and that’s where we wanted to be,” Allen added. “You have to win these games and if we were winning them by only a few points we’d be getting criticised.
“I’m very pleased that we’re making progress — the main thing is building a squad and the training, the atmosphere and all of that is very good, we’re in a good place as far as preparations are going. We won our two games comprehensively, I don’t think any team will relish playing us, though we’ll probably be underdogs no matter who we’re playing.”
Perhaps, but much will depend on how next weekend’s games go and who Limerick face. One thing is certain, however, as Allen says, Limerick now have a very impressive panel with cover for every position. Hannon and Hickey are both back in harness and on song while Kevin Downes is getting closer and closer to full fitness — watch this space.
Scorers for Limerick: S Dowling 3-9 (5f, 1 65), S Tobin 2-4, N Moran 2-0, G Mulcahy 1-3, D Hannon 0-6, S O’Brien 0-2, T O’Brien, R McCarthy 0-1 each.
Scorers for Antrim: L Watson 0-7 (5f, 1p), N McManus 1-1, S McNaughton 0-3, B McAuley 0-2, N McAuley, E McCloskey 0-1 each.
Subs for Limerick: D Hannon (Breen inj, 13); S O’Brien (Gavin 50); S O’Neill (Condon 52); S Hickey (McNamara 54).
Subs for Antrim: J Kerr (O’Connell inj, 21); M Herron (Gettens 46).
Referee: J Ryan (Tipperary).
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