Semi-final tactics: How were Galway sucked into the Limerick warzone?

LAYING DOWN THE LAW: Tempers flare between Galway's Jack Grealish and Seamus Flanagan of Limerick. Pic: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Terms of engagement. The subject got a fair hearing during the winning introspection and western post-mortem.

“We spoke beforehand about playing the game on our terms,” Henry Shefflin opened. “We went like that for the first 22-23 minutes.” John Kiely couldn’t but concur. How could he argue with a 1-12 to 1-6 scoreline that wasn’t in their favour.

“Galway were setting the terms at that particular point. They were very strong on their own puckout, but they were getting to the breaking ball as well. They were more efficient,” the Limerick boss explained.

Kiely’s men were back within the minimum at the break. The interval breather offered a clean slate to both. A chance to reset. To rethink and redesign, if necessary. The terms had to be claimed all over again.

Within 18 seconds of the restart, the terms had been set and claimed. Said Limerick to Galway, we are going to bully you and let’s see what you’ll do about it.

Joseph Cooney won the throw-in. His attempted delivery was blocked by David Reidy. Cooney regathered the breaking ball. He turned to go forward only to be met by Darragh O’Donovan. Shunted sideways, his attempted handpass to Ronan Glennon was intercepted by Reidy.

Five passes later and Seamus Flanagan had turned a potential Galway attack into a levelling Limerick score.

Our word count doesn’t allow us to spell out every example of controlled Limerick aggression in the second period. The hunts were many, and mostly successful.

Will O’Donoghue and Mike Casey harassing the less imposing Evan Niland into giving up possession on 41 minutes was a microcosm of the difference in physical ferocity tabled.

That turnover didn’t end with a Limerick score. But the turnover five minutes later when Hegarty and Peter Casey cornered Sean Linnane ended with Aaron Gillane’s second goal. That essentially ended any chance of Limerick being toppled.

Not that that sated their appetite. The power plays continued all the way to the line. Sub Cathal O’Neill applied enough pressure that Thomas Monaghan hit his pass to Conor Cooney out over the sideline. Three minutes into injury-time, O’Neill was on his own 20-metre line dispossessing Liam Collins.

Limerick thrive on such combat. Galway knew as much, their first-half approach was specifically constructed to avoid such, and yet they walked right down a blind alley after the restart. Mugged and made to look like mugs.

The westerners went from stretching the champions and avoiding middle-third confrontation to engaging Kiely’s men in this very warzone. Their puckout malfunction contributed heavily to this change of terms.

Of Galway’s 20 second-half puckouts, Éanna Murphy found a maroon shirt with only nine of them. Of the 10 sent long, only three were won. It was a horror show on loop.

Murphy was routinely presented with Jack Grealish, Gearóid McInerney, and Darren Morrissey as short restart options. And while the ‘keeper did often feed one of the three, possession was quickly sent back to Murphy before being aimlessly dumped on top of a ravenous Limerick half-back line.

Where was the instruction from the sideline to attempt to work the ball out from the back?

Shefflin was clever in positioning Cathal Mannion far higher up the field than he had operated in recent games. It unsettled their opponents. But where was the sideline response to Limerick’s third-quarter suffocation act?

Mannion disappearing out of the game was further evidence of the changed terms. He went from nine first-half possessions, yielding 1-1, to just three in the second. And one of the three was a handpass intercepted by Seamus Flanagan.

Brian Concannon sniped three points from five first-half shots. He was also fouled for two converted Niland frees. He was so effective in the playmaking half-back role typically carried out by Mannion. But Concannon had only two second half touches before being whipped off on 63 minutes.

The greatest vanishing act of all was Conor Whelan. Two first-half points. Trouble caused while watched by Mike Casey, Dan Morrissey, and Barry Nash.

He had two possessions inside a minute of the restart. The second of those delivered his third point. He didn’t see the sliotar again until the 73rd minute.

The fault, of course, was not of his making. The few deliveries that made it past the Berlin wall of a Limerick half-back line were of the poorest quality.

“We were probably dependent on set play and movement to win the ball and when Limerick snuffed that out and it became a man-on-man battle, they were the ones dominating,” said Shefflin.

“They are so powerful around that middle. If your half-back line is dominating that zone, it is very hard to get a foothold. We just couldn’t. To be fair to Cianan [Fahy] and Brian [Concannon], they really troubled them. Thereafter, they closed those gaps. They were ravenous for work.” 

They always are.