Powerful UL have luxury of stars on the bench

University of Limerick 2-23 Cork Institute of Technology 0-16: That Bobby Duggan, Barry Nash and Ronan Lynch were among the UL substitutes yesterday tells you a great deal about the strength of Brian Lohan’s team.

The latter pair won All- Ireland U-21 medals with Limerick in 2015 and made the transition to senior level last year. Duggan, from up the road in Clarecastle, saw game-time for the Banner under Davy Fitzgerald. All three had to be content with cameo roles in the second-half of this one-sided Fitzgibbon Cup group B encounter, while Limerick’s Pat Ryan, also listed among the UL reserves, did not see any action at all.

From the UL team which fell to Mary I in the 2016 decider, seven started here. Tony Kelly missed last year’s Fitzgibbon Cup weekend through injury, but showed well here, hitting two points a week and a half out from Ballyea’s All-Ireland Club semi-final. It was with this in mind that he was withdrawn by Lohan before the finish.