Something for everyone in a fiery advert for league hurling

INTENSE: Limerick's Cian Lynch is dragged down. Pic: INPHO/Evan Treacy

Allianz HL Division 1: Cork 2-17 Limerick 0-22 

There wasn’t a single disappointed soul to be found streaming out of the Páirc late on Saturday evening. That was, of course, just before they hit the monstrous tailbacks on both Monahan and Centre Parks Road that didn’t loosen until close to 11pm.

Cork got the win and a copybook full of red marks to correct and improve on. Limerick came with half a team, finished up with around a third of a team, and yet were two in front halfway through injury-time.

As for the crowd of 19,516, they were treated to a rollicking good contest that rose and rose in temperature as the evening wore on.

This was anything but an advert for a supposedly devalued League and its supposedly disinterested participants. This was fiery and warming February fare.

Returning to our opening line, there’s need for a slight amendment. One man not wearing a smile as he left the ground was Robbie O’Flynn. The Cork forward suffered a serious looking ankle injury that caused a lenghty stoppage in the fourth quarter and required him to be stretchered from the field.

With Mark Coleman, Alan Connolly, and Darragh Fitzgibbon already on the treatment table, Cork will be keeping fingers crossed that another marquee name is not added to the medium to long-term injury list. O’Flynn’s vibrancy and directness they’ll miss for however long he’s absent.

That Cork were a point to the good, 2-14 to 0-19, when O’Flynn rolled along the carpet in agony on the hour mark had much to do with the contributions of the now injured party.

He slung in their opening goal from an acute angle on 39 minutes. He laid on the pass for their second, finished by Declan Dalton, on 46 minutes.

The two green flags were part of a 10-point swing. From half-time to a Patrick Horgan ‘65 on 57 minutes, the hosts climbed out of an eight-point hole to go two ahead.

The yellow fuel light was flashing ominously in the Limerick tank. They had been the aggressor in the first half. They had been market leaders in the swarm tackle. A textbook example materialised on 34 minutes when Darragh O’Donovan, Barry Murphy, and Gearoid Hegarty forced Ciarán Joyce to hand over possession for a Colin Coughlan point.

But it was Cork who were now edgier and more energetic. On 47 minutes, the place went electric when David Reidy, hemmed in on the South Stand sideline by Tommy O’Connell, Shane Barrett, and Brian Roche, was called for travelling. That Horgan missed the resulting free didn’t really matter. Cork had planted their flag.

Belying their flagging status, Limerick fired over four on the spin through Reidy (two frees), and subs Ciaran Barry and Donnacha Ó Dalaigh to lead by two halfway through the 10 minutes of injury-time.

But Cork, once again, finished in a blaze of power and purpose. Horgan pitched his tally into double digits, followed by the equaliser from Conor Lehane, followed by the winner from Shane Kingston with the second last puck of the ball.

If Cork’s second half was urgent, their first was substandard.

Their shooting was way below par. They had seven wides tallied by the 15th minute. Their half-time total was nine, along with three more dropped short. Their full-time total came in at 14.

Further back, their failure to stand on the toes of Gearoid Hegarty was punished. By the 21st minute, Hegarty, whose 6’4 frame was popping up unmarked here, there, and everywhere, had helped himself to three points.

The Cork restart was another source of unease. Of the 11 puckouts that went long, nine were devoured by men in green. And we counted at least three puckout interceptions that resulted in Limerick points.

There’s loads there for Pat Ryan to be getting on with.

As for John Kiely, who got minutes into the returning Cian Lynch, his team’s third quarter drop off and the sea of space that opened up in the middle third pointed to the amount of heavy lifting that’s still to be done to get them up to speed with others.

“We have a lot of work to do to improve our fitness levels, our sharpness, our touch, our use of the ball, our energy, our tackling. At least we know that now,” said Kiely.

An early warning to others is that despite all this and despite all the missing personnel, Saturday was a game the All-Ireland champions could easily have taken something from.

Scorers for Cork: P Horgan (0-10, 0-5 frees, 0-1 ‘65); R O’Flynn (1-1); D Dalton (1-0); E Downey, C Joyce, L Meade, B Roche, C Cahalane, S Kingston (0-1 each).

Scorers for Limerick: D Reidy (0-8, 0-7 frees, 0-1 ‘65); G Hegarty (0-3); C Coughlan, A English (0-2 each); D Hannon, D O’Donovan, B Murphy, T Morrissey, S Flanagan, D Ó Dalaigh, C Barry (0-1 each).

CORK: P Collins; S O’Donoghue, E Downey, C O’Callaghan; T O’Connell, C Joyce, D Cahalane; B O’Sullivan, L Meade; B Roche, C Lehane, C Beausang; P Horgan, D Dalton, R O’Flynn.

Subs: N O’Leary for O’Donoghue (30); S Kingston for Beausang (40); S Barrett for O’Sullivan (43); B Hayes for Dalton (55); C Cahalane for O’Flynn (62, inj).

LIMERICK: D McCarthy; A Costelloe, S Finn, R English; D Morrissey, D Hannon, C Coughlan; D O’Donovan, B Murphy; G Hegarty, D Reidy, T Morrissey; A English, S Flanagan, O O’Reilly.

Subs: F O’Connor for Costelloe (3-6 mins, temporary); C Barry for Hannon (48); S O’Brien for O’Reilly (50); G Mulcahy for A English (55); C Lynch for Hegarty (58); D Ó Dalaigh for Flanagan (68).

Referee: F Horgan (Tipperary).