Ryan hails ‘character’ of his never-say-die Shannonsiders

TJ Ryan wasn’t hard pressed for an answer when he was asked what made the difference for Limerick yesterday: character.

Just as he was aware of the vagaries of the game and but for those fantastic few final minutes, he could have been forced to play a different tune, he recognised that defiant attribute in the team.

“When you win, everything you did looks like the right decision but in fairness to the lads, they showed tremendous character. We were maybe going on about it for the last couple of weeks, the fact that we were still Munster champions, and that crown was still with us.

“Maybe people had dismissed it, even some of ye (media) here — I’m talking about Tipp and Clare Munster finals and stuff.

“The lads took that in. Defending champions in all sports are usually hard to beat. We brought that to the table. Winning takes talent, which the lads showed last year. Repeating it takes character.”

Even as Munster champions, Limerick were as high as 7/2 with some bookmakers.

Donal O’Grady’s departure as co-manager after a Division 1B campaign when they failed again to earn promotion had convinced the majority of people that they were the poorer side.

“When the shenanigans started a number of weeks ago, it was easy to say it was a kind of a Limerick thing.

“But in fairness to the lads they kept their powder dry, they didn’t say anything and they gave me a great response, and I’ll be forever indebted to them for that.

“Training over the last number of weeks has been very good. The thing to remember is that we only won a Munster semi-final today.

“We’re back in a Munster final, it’s what we set out at the start of the day to achieve. We did it and it’s great.”

Ryan opted not to make his first of two substitutes until the 61st minute and admitted he would have found it difficult to replace any more of the starters.

“It would have been harsh to move any of them because they were giving us everything they had. There might have been one or two aspects of the second half where Tipp had an overlap there and a guy inside, which I wouldn’t have been happy about. There are definitely areas to work on for us.”

The Garryspillane man felt Shane Dowling had fouled Padraic Maher just before Graeme Mulcahy’s goal had been disallowed. “Once or twice it looked like the game was gone and even when we got the goal, there was a foul. From where I was standing, the referee appeared to get it right. To me, it looked like a little nudge on the back. You were kind of hoping one of those 50-50s would go your way. It looked like it was gone but what a finish, what a goal and what a couple of scores. I suppose it was to be our day.”