Liam Cahill accepts Déise didn't quite do enough to upset the champs

Munster GAA Senior Hurling Championship Round 2, TUS Gaelic Grounds, Limerick 23/4/2022

Waterford manager Liam Cahill believes his team wouldn’t have deserved a victory against Limerick in their Munster SHC Round 2 game this evening.

Goals from Stephen Bennett and Jack Prendergast brought Waterford within a point before Limerick sent over a couple of insurance points.

However, Cahill, experiencing a fourth straight SHC defeat to Limerick as manager, sensed his men hadn’t done enough to earn the win.

“Sure, it was heart-stopping at times and riddled with errors at others. It was what Munster championship hurling is – it was hard-hitting and fast. You can sense I’m disappointed we didn’t get something out of the game although we did struggle at certain periods.

"Look, you could say we did (deserve to sneak it) but did we really deserve to over the hour? I’m not 100% sure. My initial feeling is we didn’t if we did have to sneak something. This Limerick team, it’s going to be very hard to try and unlock them as to what the strategy is to beat them. They’re a real decent outfit.

“You can’t afford to be butchering chances the way we are doing. Against top-class opposition, you just can’t afford to be doing that. When you bring the ball into contact with this Limerick team, they just dominate you and we did that on a couple of vital occasions where we brought the ball into contact, lost it and those turnovers were big with a massive Limerick crowd.” 

At least Waterford broke their championship goal duck going back four games against Limerick but Cahill was more mindful of the opportunities that were spurned.

“Yeah, it is a positive but you have to be rattling that net every day you go out but especially against Limerick when they are able to pick off scores from long range and they’re always going to be well into the 23, 24-point mark so you have to be putting a goal or two on the scoreboard to be counteracting that.

“Chances are chances where you have to be taking them. I know you’re not going to get them all but there was a couple of them, especially a couple of goal chances in the first half had they gone... look, Limerick were minus Cian Lynch after whatever few minutes, minus Kyle Hayes, Peter Casey, Seamus Flanagan so all them come back and it’s another headache again. 

"That’s if we do get the opportunity to meet them again. We have to try and park it as quickly as we can and see can we get ready for Cork in three weeks’ time.”