Maurice Brosnan: A butterfly flaps his wings, a million mad things and then Limerick win

SPIN AND REPEAT: Limerick scoresmith Aaron Gillane rounds Cian Nolan at TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Banner anxiety spreads. 

Fans flood the field and with a principal’s powerful stride, John Kiely marches down the sideline and beckons them off. This game is a pressure cooker. This game couldn’t be closer. This game isn’t over.

The pitch invasion is delayed but it cannot be denied. They thought they heard the final whistle, they thought wrong. Do not gamble. The only certainty here is that the Munster hurling final will deliver. Eventually, a barnstormer comes to a close.

In the meantime, there are significant disputes. Clare are aggrieved. After play resumes there are two contentious tackles that could have offered them a free to equalise. Referee Liam Gordon is escorted off and down the tunnel. Nearby Limerick make space in their trophy cabinet. For seventy sweltering minutes, mere inches separate them. They rested miles apart in different worlds.

Brian Lohan’s outfit were fanatically determined and wrongly scorned a chance to force extra time. Before that they had enough chances to claim the Mick Mackey Cup outright. 48 shots. 23 scores. Damning.

“All the stats are the same. Puckouts, breaking balls, everything is kind of even except for shooting efficiency. Their shooting efficiency was way better than ours,” he would say in summary post-match.

A butterfly flaps its wings and Graeme Mulcahy swipes his hurl. Eibhear Quilligan’s puckout had just picked out John Conlon. The lionhearted centre-back delicately finds Tony Kelly in the centre. The shot is on and it is on his left. Mulcahy does the right thing. It ends all wrong. His trademark harrying forces Kelly to swivel and swing with his right. A margin off. A margin means a post. A post means a rebound. A rebound means a waiting Mark Rodgers. Rodgers means the dexterity to catch the bounce with his left, and immediately unleash with his right.

For the duration of this championship, there has been a strange sort of peril in fixtures involving Limerick. The initial questions pondered were they right and there was a spell in the final round when onlookers were left wondering if they were out.

Here was no different. Their faithful sense it most of all and seize any opportunity to offer a lift. Cian Nolan grapples with Aaron Gillane in front of the Mackey Stand and they snarl with indignation. Gearoid Hegarty sizes up Conlon in the centre, drops a shoulder and strikes his opening point from play. They duly give thanks. 

Kyle Hayes has the dose they need. Quilligan takes a second too long over a puckout as Limerick stay statue-like in their positions and goes long. Hayes thunders like a Shanghai Maglev train for his first and the siren sounds: “Limerick, Limerick, Limerick.” 

Then the goals arrives. The cold hard truth is that Clare needed more. Diarmuid Ryan hits a wide, Ryan Taylor has another and Rodgers forces a smart save from Nickie Quaid. It is more of the same after the turnaround. Kelly miscontrols a pass and snaps a shot too far left. McCarthy misses one from play and one placed ball. He makes way for Shane Meehan, but not before the lead changes hands again.

Limerick have their chink and hammer it. David Reidy fires a ball into Gillane and Nolan loses his stick in desperate pursuit. One green flag sets off a thousand. Goal. Now the corner forward firmly has the upper hand just in the decisive matchup, as all the previews foresaw. Conor Cleary’s absence proves a killer.

What does Kiely’s side do when they have a target? Hit it again. Hit it better. Gillane follows up with his ninth and Nolan’s number is up. A full-length Quilligan save prevents a second goal.

Clare dig deep for a response and just as Rodgers is about to fire an effort skywards Peter Casey executes a perfectly-timed flick. It ends with Kelly standing over a free on the 21 near the sideline. He misses.

Their leader hobbles off. Declan Hannon is met with a wall of appreciation. Afterwards, he returns the favour and singles them out for praise: "We hope you never get tired of these days." He is the last player on the pitch over an hour later. Still limping, now smiling.

Peter Duggan sets Taylor in on goal but Nash dives and denies. Kelly tries to settle for a point and the green giant Hayes rises to block down. It is not so much a block as it is a rejection. Point-blank refusal to yield an inch. An inch is all it takes.

Three-point ballgame. Can Clare make it two? Quaid has the answer. Standard. He rises high to pluck the sliotar from the air moments before it crosses the black spot. Still the brave Banner roar. Fitzgerald finally makes his mark, Aron Shanagher comes off the bench to score and Kelly cuts the margin to one.

A million mad things and then… A million more in the final seconds. Even if the quality is several notches below last year’s thriller the fare is gripping all the same. There will be plenty of talk about the controversial conclusion. But later in the tunnel, Lohan outlines how helpful that is to them when asked if his players were discussing the incident in the dressing room.

“Look, there’s always talk. Yeah, there is always talk…” 

For John Kiely it is 12 finals. 12 wins. This five-in-a-row started in 2019 with a 12-point triumph over Tipperary. Since then, they have won by four, five, three and one. The chasing pack are getting closer.

But for now, Limerick have the edge.