Limerick beat Dublin by 18 points on Kyle Hayes return
Dublin’s Sean Currie with Kyle Hayes.
Kyle Hayes returned to the Limerick team and lasted the duration as the National League holders maintained their 100% record this season, beating Dublin by 18 points.
Wing back Hayes made his seasonal return for the All-Ireland champions - he was recently before the courts and is awaiting sentencing following a violent disorder conviction - and contributed a point in the big Croke Park win.
Donnacha O'Dalaigh struck 2-1 and his opening goal after just 13 seconds put John Kiely's crew on the road to the big win.
Tom Morrissey grabbed the other major and finished with 1-4 while free-taker Adam English helped himself to 0-8.
The result leaves Limerick sitting pretty at the head of their group ahead of ties against Tipperary and Galway though Dublin are in real danger now of a bottom three finish, meaning second tier hurling next season.
They have games against Galway and Westmeath to come and with just one win so far, they need to put points on the board quickly.
Cian O'Sullivan and Donal Burke shared 10 points evenly between them and the return of Burke after a long-term hamstring injury was a giant boost while former captain Chris Crummey, who didn't feature in 2023, also lined out.
Dublin were neck and neck with Limerick for the first 30 minutes or so but played second fiddle thereafter as Limerick's quality and experience told.
Limerick went with a much changed lineup from the side that defeated Westmeath in Round 2, retaining just six players from their lineup in Mullingar.
Of the nine that came into the team, four of them - Nickie Quaid, Mike Casey, Hayes and Will O'Donoghue - were making their first starts of the league campaign.
Hayes slotted into the familiar left half-back position and was an influential figure throughout the first-half, scoring a point, blasting another wide and playing a role in a score for Adam English.
Quaid impressed on his return to the team too and pulled off two great saves in the first-half to deny Sean Currie and then Cian O'Sullivan goals for Dublin.
O'Dalaigh was the name on everyone's lips initially with a brilliant goal for Limerick after just 13 seconds.
Limerick worked a move from the throw-in that led to Gearoid Hegarty feeding O Dalaigh on the left and his sniper's shot flew into the far corner.
The fear among Dublin supporters may have been of a rout with a three-point handicap essentially placed on them.
But they rallied brilliantly and trailed by just a point at the half hour mark. Boss Donoghue made sweeping changes to his team too with James Madden, Chris Crummey, Sean Gallagher, Ronan Hayes, Donal Burke and Danny Sutcliffe all returning to the starting team.
Burke jumped onto the frees straight away and converted three in the first-half along with another from a 65.
Interestingly, centre-forward Burke had Cathal O'Neill for company as Limerick opted to deploy their own number 11 as a centre-back. David Reidy was named at number six initially but was replaced by Tom Morrissey who switched into the half-forward line.
Morrissey was excellent in the first-half and finished it with 1-2. His 30th minute goal was a beauty and was struck from a similar angle to O Dalaigh's earlier major. Hegarty did well in the buildup with a clever diagonal pass to pick out Morrissey.
O'Neill surged forward for a couple of points late in the half too and Limerick hit the interval with a 2-13 to 0-11 lead. In all, Limerick closed out the half with an unanswered 1-4 and had nine wides in total in the first-half.
Limerick's third goal, and O Dalaigh's second, in the 39th minute left a whopping 13 points between the teams and Dublin, perhaps, with a sinking feeling.
They weren't playing particularly badly but were powerless to prevent Limerick from creating chance after chance and when the Munster champions' tuned in their radar they pulled decisively clear.
To their credit, Dublin kept up the fight and Sean Currie pulled back a goal while Donal Burke, O'Sullivan and O Dulaing reeled off four points in a row in total for the 2011 league winners.
That was as good as it got for Dublin though as Limerick powered home, outscoring their opponents by 0-12 to 0-3 in the closing 10 minutes or so to win at their ease.
A English 0-8 (0-3f), D O Dalaigh 2-1, T Morrissey 1-4, G Hegarty 0-5, C O'Neill 0-4, D Byrnes 0-2, M Houlihan 0-2, K Hayes 0-1, B Murphy 0-1, F O'Connor 0-1, S O'Brien 0-1.
C O'Sullivan 0-5 (0-3f), D Burke 0-5 (0-4f, 0-1 65), S Currie 1-0, D Sutcliffe 0-3, C Burke 0-2, C Donohoe 0-1, R Hayes 0-1, D O'Dulaing 0-1.
N Quaid; F O'Connor, M Casey, B Nash; D Byrnes, C O'Neill, K Hayes; W O'Donoghue, D O'Donovan; G Hegarty, C Boylan, T Morrissey; D O'Dalaigh, S O'Brien, A English.
G Mulcahy for Morrissey 35-h/t blood, S Flanagan for O'Brien 43, M Houlihan for Boylan 57, D Morrissey for Casey 57, B Murphy for O'Donoghue 57, A Costello for Nash 66.
S Brennan; J Madden, P Smyth, J Bellew; D Gray, C Crummey, C Donohoe; C Burke, S Gallagher; R Hayes, D Burke, B Hayes; D Sutcliffe, C O'Sullivan, S Currie.
D O'Dulaing for B Hayes 49, D Power for Gallagher 52, P Crummey for D Burke 54, D Leavy for R Hayes 65, J Malone for S Currie 65.
K Jordan (Tipperary).
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