Tipp too strong for Limerick’s new blood
Since the turn of the millennium there has only been one team capable of challenging the duopoly of Cork and Kerry in Munster. While they were always the nearly men against the kingpins, Limerick were very much the leaders of the chasing pack.
But on Saturday in the Gaelic Grounds they fielded seven debutants. The old guard gone. Just a few of the big guns remain in Stephen Lucey and John Galvin. And it showed.
It begs the question: are Tipperary the new Limerick of Munster football? An All-Ireland MFC title in 2011 and Munster titles in U21 (2010) and minor (2011 and 2012) suggests this is a new dawn. But what of their ambitions now?
“Most people would say the pick of Limerick and Tipperary wouldn’t keep it kicked out against Cork,” said Tipperary manager and Cork native Peter Creedon.
“The reality is they are 10 to 12 points a better team than us. But it’s championship football and we’ve got to go down and see how close we are to that level.”
For Limerick manager John Brudair the game was frustrating. A series of turnovers in possession put them on the back foot in the first-half and had Tipperary not spurned a series of goal chances the gap would have been wider than 1-7 to 0-6 at the break. He’s not willing to relinquish their ranking position easily though, and called on his younger players to live up to the county’s status in the remainder of the championship.
“Sometimes the debutants work for you and some of them did quite well,” he said.
“Colm Ward handled things fairly well back in the full-back line. Gearóid [Hegarty], when he came in, made an impact. Sean O’Dea did quite well. It didn’t go well for other lads but the pace of it… they know what’s required now for this level and it’s a case of deciding if they’re going to step up to that level or not.
“I wouldn’t say it was the inexperienced players that got caught out on the runners. It was a whole team thing. Once you get one good overlap and fellas are safe with the ball in possession, it’s very hard to stop that.”
And that was the key to this victory. Tipperary’s ability to find space, use their pace and catch the Limerick defence out of position allowed for easy scores.
The game sprung into life when Steven O’Brien sent a high ball into the Limerick full-back line to Conor Sweeney. Donal O’Sullivan tried to command his square but in rushing out he spilled to Barry Grogan for a soft goal.
Suddenly Tipperary were flying. Points by Grogan, Colin O’Riordan, Philip Austin and Peter Acheson followed. After 28 minutes the home team called on John Galvin for a lift off the bench but Tipp’s defence, with Ger Mulhair and Paddy Codd leading the way, were on top.
“It’s just we didn’t get enough quality ball into them [forwards]. Again, we went into contact and got turned over very easily. That’s something we’ll have to look at. We must have got turned over eight or nine times in contact and you can’t do that at this level,” said Brudair.
“The attacks we had, we should have got something out of them but we didn’t because we took the wrong option going into contact, not being careful enough when we had the ball, all small things that make a difference at this level.”
It wasn’t just the small things, though. The big things went against them as well. Tipperary struck for 1-1 within minutes of the throw in, the goal finished by Austin after good work by Michael Quinlivan and Conor Sweeney.
Limerick were finished. But they got a lifeline from referee Anthony Nolan when he awarded the Premier County a penalty after Donal O’Sullivan pulled down Ian Fahey but didn’t black card the Limerick man. O’Sullivan saved it. Darragh Tracey went up the field and kicked a score.
Time for Tipperary to sweat? No. They continued to play with pace and opened up Limerick at ease. With 20minutes to go they were 2-12 to 0-8 clear and coasting.
Again Limerick received a reprieve when Nolan awarded a penalty for a foot block on Codd, which looked dubious. Eoin Hanrahan found the net and followed it up with a free. When Iain Corbett reduced the gap to four Tipperary were thinking about their league loss to Wicklow when they conceded three goals in stoppage time to cough up a seven-point lead.
There would be no repeat, though. Lessons learned, they killed the game off.
“Their graph is on the up,” Brudair said of Tipperary.
“You have to take into account what they’ve done at minor and U21 level. These lads are just waiting for their time to shine and tonight they played very well. We would have taken them very seriously but we would have thought we’d have handled it better.
“If you take away the soft goal in the first-half, things could have been a lot different going in at half-time.
“If you’re only down a point you could have been far more competitive. The score then just after half-time killed the game for us.”
Scorers for Limerick: E Hanrahan 1-4 (0-3f, 1-0 pen), I Ryan 0-4 (3f), S Buckley, I Corbett, D Tracey 0-1 each.
Scorers for Tipperary: B Grogan 1-4 (0-3f), P Austin 1-2, P Acheson 0-2, C Sweeney (f), M Quinlivan, R Kiely, C O’Riordan, G Hannigan, B Fox 0-1 each.
LIMERICK: D O’Sullivan; S O’Dea, C Moran, J McCarthy; I Corbett, S Lucey, P Browne; T Lee, D Tracey; M Brosnan, C Sheehan, S Buckley; E Hanrahan, G Collins, I Ryan.
Subs for Limerick: J Riordan for Sheehan (28), J Galvin for Brosnan (28), P Ranaahan for Browne (39), G Hegarty for Tracey (54).
TIPPERARY: P Fitzgerald; G Mulhair, P Codd, C McDonald; C O’Riordan, R Kiely, P Acheson; S O’Brien, G Hannigan; P Austin, I Fahey, B FOx; C Sweeney, M Quinlivan, B Grogan.
Subs for Tipperary: J Coughlan for McDonald (bc, 10), A Campbell for Mulhair (blood, 30-33), S Grogan for B Grogan (blood, 49-51), S Grogan for O’Brien (61), B Mulvihill for Fahey (61), C Dillon for Austin (68).
Referee: A Nolan (Wicklow)
When Limerick goalkeeper Donal O’Sullivan somehow escaped a black card for pulling Ian Fahey down in the square, he added salt to Tipp’s wounds by saving the penalty, and Darragh Tracey went up field and kicked a score. That brought the gap back to seven and could have rocked Tipp but they responded with three of their own to lead 2-12 to 0-8. Game over.
Tipperary’s first Munster SFC win since 2003 in the Premier County and the end of an era for the great Limerick team from the noughties.
Midway through the second half, there was a one-minute delay as the umpires froze under the spotlight. Tipp’s Barry Grogan’s effort looked close but no flag was raised or signal given. Limerick keeper Donal O’Sullivan had the ball ready to kick out, the crowd was shouting for a call, the referee waiting for an answer but all had to wait until the men finally made contact and decided it was a wide.
Tipp’s Philip Austin and Peter Acheson were in the running but a debutant corner back gets the nod. Ger Mulhair was a late change coming in for John Coghlan and the Arravale Rovers man cleaned up everything Limerick had to throw at their defence.
Ciarán McDonald was given one after 10 minutes for pulling down his man. But several other similar incidents went unpunished.
Both managers operated with a sweeper but Brian Fox seemed more adept and his cover for the full-back line forced Limerick into pumping in 50-50 balls they couldn’t win.
Apart from the black card controversy, the Limerick penalty for a foot block seemed odd, given Paddy Codd looked a foot away from the attacker and didn’t move his legs. Not a game Anthony Nolan will recall fondly.
A date with Cork in the Munster SFC semi-final in Páirc Ui Chaoimh on June 21 for Tipp, a first-round qualifier for Limerick on the same day.
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