Limerick SHC: Kilmallock dig deep to see off South Liberties
Kilmallock's Paudie O'Brien under pressure from Shane O'Neill, South Liberties in the Limerick SHC quarter-final at the LIT Gaelic Grounds on Sunday. Picture: Brendan Gleeson
A Graeme Mulcahy goal in the second half of extra-time sealed Kilmallock’s 10th consecutive Limerick SHC semi-final appearance.
A rousing encounter was extended to extra-time by a point from South Liberties substitute Tom Ryan after Mulcahy’s second point of the game seemed to have confirmed the south Limerick side’s progress.
It was a fitting end to the normal time proceedings given the underdogs had led for most of it largely thanks to their four goals. However, their opponents reaction to each of those setbacks was impressive and despite racking up 20 wides they were the formidable team and will now face Doon.
Between them, Micheál Houlihan and Oisín O’Reilly hit 13 points from play while the nous of Mulcahy and Gavin O’Mahony came to the fore in the extra-time. Kilmallock led by two at half-time in extra-time, 0-29 to 4-15, and sprinted away following Mulcahy’s goal. Barry Nash hit his second goal with a late free but the result was in no doubt.
With a decent breeze behind them, South Liberties had gone into a three-point lead after five minutes, the opening couple of them Brian Ryan frees. Houlihan was also accurate with his first couple of deadball efforts and the margin was two points in the ninth minute when South Liberties picked off the first goal.
From Anthony Nash’s puck-out, his cousin Barry Nash gathered and he fed the ball inside to Ken Byrnes who misjudged the hand-pass initially but found the net with the second opportunity.
Registering the next three scores, Kilmallock’s reaction was impressive, Kevin O’Donnell and Houlihan finding their range from play prior to Barry Hennessy landing a long-range free to leave it 1-5 to 0-6 at the first waterbreak
The second quarter commenced with Ryan and Hennessy exchanging frees before Houlihan scored almost directly after Hennessy’s effort. With a point, David O’Neill gave South Liberties some breathing space in the 21st minute and he then restored the four-point difference two minutes later when he pushed in a goal as Barry Nash again supplied the final ball.
Again, Kilmallock recovered, this time with the next four points, a couple of them from O’Reilly whose dynamism was beginning to make a major difference around the middle third.
Anthony Nash ended the scoring in the first half as he commenced the second half’s account but Kilmallock now had the wind at their backs. Once more, they scored in a quick burst, four unanswered points coming in less than three minutes, the latter two from O’Reilly who was exploiting a ragged-looking South Liberties back-line.
Having set up the previous two, Nash turned goalscorer with a rasping low drive in the 40th minute to put South Liberties ahead once more. In typical fashion, however, Kilmallock were next on the scoreboard via O’Reilly and Houlihan.
Following good work by Ryan, South Liberties raised a fourth green flag and O’Neill a second in the 42nd minute but they weren’t able to tag on anything to it. Kilmallock, inspired by Houlihan and O’Reilly, rallied with the next four scores to square up matters at the second break, 0-22 to 4-10.
Two Brian Ryan frees were cancelled out by O’Reilly and David Woulfe points with two minutes of normal time remaining. Mulcahy’s second point gave Kilmallock the advantage going into additional time but Ryan then boomed the equaliser and the scoreline read 4-14 to 0-26.
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