Limerick call on the cavalry to survive Galway gut-check

BIG IMPACT: David Reidy of Limerick celebrates after scoring a late point during the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Limerick and Galway at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

So Limerick’s unbeaten championship run extends to 15 games - perhaps, they also are being stretched.

The same aggregate scoreline as the 2020 All-Ireland semi-final between the counties, Limerick were clearly playing within themselves on that eerie foggy November day as they just about had enough to see off a Galway side who pegged them back going into additional time.

However, to make the same claim about this latest last-four win over Galway wouldn’t ring true. Unlike that game six in this great odyssey of theirs 19 months ago, they didn’t go behind in the second half. In contrast to that clash, there wasn’t a score that spooked them like Brian Concannon’s 38th minute goal yesterday.

But once more they prevailed and if semi-finals are simply for winning consider the mission accomplished. For that, substitute David Reidy’s accuracy in firing over three of Limerick’s last five scores has to be mentioned as does his colleague's composure under pressure.

Henry Shefflin accepted his Galway team’s wide count of 19 had its part to play but the one difference he underlined was Limerick’s reserves.

“I think on reflection their bench fitted in more seamlessly and didn’t seem to change things a little bit. They’re farther down the line – Reidy, Cian Lynch and all these lads coming in but they knew what they were doing and the way they were going to go about it. I think that played a part but our shooting needed to be really on the money and it was a little off.” 

John Kiely complimented his cavalry but wondered if they might have been required as much if Limerick’s starters had put in more effort. “To be honest, I don’t think we worked quite hard enough today. When we look back on it during the week our work rate will be just down a notch or two, and it’s something we’ll be disappointed with.

“We turned over too many balls in the tackle, and that’s our fault. The tackle is the opposition’s responsibility but holding onto the ball is ours when we have it, and we coughed up too many balls in the tackle.” 

Level nine times in the second half, the 52,215 attendance were treated to a thriller. Concannon’s sensational finish to the top corner after collecting a David Burke delivery squared them for the first time after the break. For the remainder, Limerick went ahead six times to Galway’s three but the All-Ireland champions’ agitation was showing.

By the 63rd minute, Limerick’s bulwarks on the flanks, Tom Morrissey and Gearóid Hegarty, were called ashore, another indication Kiely doesn’t entertain sacred cows. Reidy was introduced two minutes earlier and was scoring his opener a minute after his introduction.

Limerick noses would stay in front after he sent over his second point in the 68th minute. He followed it with another after Declan Hannon showed great composure in defence to initiate the attack and then Diarmuid Byrnes, almost impeccable from frees, converted his sixth placed ball of the afternoon.

Limerick appeared to be making life easier for themselves when they opened a 0-6 to 0-1 advantage after eight minutes. Kiely suggested after perhaps it was too good a start in the sense it alerted Galway to fill their half-back line to cut off the supply to Seamus Flanagan and Aaron Gillane who had been thriving. “Maybe tactically we'll see that Galway did something, maybe after 12 minutes or 13 minutes, because obviously we were finding our men with quality ball on the inside line and there was space there.

“That space seemed to, they moved back I think Cathal Mannion on a more permanent basis if I remember on my side of the pitch underneath the Hogan Stand. That closes out space, which makes it more difficult, you know. We still managed to get some good quality ball in, we still managed to get some good quality scores and we threatened. We were prepared for that, we understood that was going to be a possibility.” Galway’s work on Nickie Quaid’s puck-out in the second quarter will have been noted by Brian Cody. Tom Monaghan seemed to be everywhere as Galway picked up the breaks and settled into the game. A Cathal Mannion brace brought them to win a point of Limerick in the 31st minute but Gillane provided two of the last points of the half, Declan Hannon the other.

Winning the first half 0-16 to 0-12 but going on to lose the second, Kiely doesn’t need to prepare any speech for the days ahead. Some might say Kilkenny have already done that. From a long way out, it’s been said they, the only county to knock Kiely’s Limerick out of the championship, are the team the men in green want. Limerick must be careful what they wish for, though, and Kiely wasn’t going to be admitting to a revenge mission.

“The game that you're referring to was three years ago,” he said of the counties’ last Championship meeting, the 2019 semi-final. “We can't change the past, by God we can influence the future.” 

Scorers for Limerick: A. Gillane (0-8, 2 frees); D. Byrnes (0-6, frees); K. Hayes, D. Reidy (0-3 each); S. Flanagan (0-2); W. O’Donoghue, G. Hegarty, B. Nash, D. Hannon, T. Morrissey (0-1 each).

Scorers for Galway: C. Cooney (0-5, 4 frees); C. Mannion (0-4); T. Monaghan (0-4); B. Concannon (1-0); P. Mannion (1 free), R. Glennon, C. Whelan (0-2 each); J. Cooney, F. Burke (0-1 each).

LIMERICK: N. Quaid; S. Finn, B. Nash, M. Casey; D. Byrnes, D. Hannon (c), Dan Morrissey; W. O’Donoghue, D. O’Donovan; T. Morrissey, K. Hayes, G. Hegarty; A. Gillane, S. Flanagan, G. Mulcahy.

Subs for Limerick: P. Casey for G. Mulcahy (55); C. Lynch for T. Morrissey (57); D. Reidy for D. O’Donovan (61); C. O’Neill for G. Hegarty (63); C. Boylan for S. Flanagan (67).

GALWAY: É. Murphy; Darren Morrissey, Daithí Burke (c), J. Grealish; J. Cooney, P. Mannion, F. Burke; R. Glennon, David Burke; T. Monaghan, C. Cooney, J. Flynn; C. Whelan, B. Concannon, C. Mannion.

Subs for Galway: C. Fahy for J. Flynn (53); J. Coen for R. Glennon (64); E. Niland for David Burke (67); K. Cooney for J. Cooney (70+5).

Referee: T. Walsh (Waterford).