A Limerick wake-up call or the bear poked?
FULL FOCUS: Kilkenny’s Eoin Cody, who was among their goalscorers on Saturday, roaming up the pitch in their Allianz League Division 1 semi-final clash with Limerick at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Defeated and disinterested. The latter accounts for the former.
A two-sentence post-mortem seems short. It is. It is also sufficient. Let nobody think there is deeper to be dug. Let nobody tear up their five-in-a-row slips.
Cian Lynch, Aaron Gillane, and Declan Hannon had been withdrawn by the hour mark on Saturday. Gearóid Hegarty joined them in the South Stand on 67 minutes.
It didn’t matter that the captain, the hurler of the year, and two previous winners of that gong were nowhere near their usual influential selves. If Limerick were gung-ho on reeling in their opponents and reaching a League final, then this quartet are left on the field.
Moreover, the men coming in against them, Seamus Flanagan excluded, were neither household names nor noted gunslingers.
It captured the champions’ sideline attitude as much as it did the off-colour application of those inside the white paint.
If nine first half wides and only four points from the fifth minute to half-time were untypical Limerick carry on, their inability to score from play beyond the 47th minute, despite the wind behind them, was a contradiction of everything we have come to know and appreciate about hurling's benchmark side.
Peter Casey’s 56th minute red card swipe aside, none of the above failings brought any bit of vexatiousness to Limerick’s play in the final quarter. Instead, they dawdled down the stretch, and seemed unbothered in doing so.
A first knockout fixture defeat in five years does not all of a sudden make them vulnerable. Who are vulnerable, according to John Kiely, are those who thought they had a championship starting shirt already on their hanger.
The Limerick manager, unlike his team’s laboured endeavours, cut a vexed state post-match.
“There are spaces up for grabs on this team now. And it is the fellas that really want to grab it by the scruff of the neck and lead it are the fellas that are going to be there,” he said of making the April 21 Cusack Park cut.
Kiely spared no one, especially those who dared to argue the point that Limerick having a month to themselves on the run into their Munster opener against Clare is no disadvantageous position.
“I can assure you we’re not happy to be out of the league. It’s not part of any grand plan. This is not us exiting the league on our terms. This is us being kicked out on Kilkenny’s terms. Our performance today was embarrassing at times.”
But amid the chastising and throwing out of words such as “abysmal” and “not acceptable”, there was a moment of softened reflection from the boss.
“For whatever reason today, I don’t know, it just wasn’t there. Now, I’d have to say, how many times in seven or eight seasons has it not been there? Very rarely. So, do they get a pass on this one?
“It’s not the way we operate. We don’t give each other passes. If you give yourself a pass, you’re expecting to get another one the next day. We know there won’t be another pass the next day.”
The next day they will have Mike Casey, Dan Morrissey, Kyle Hayes, Darragh O’Donovan, and Colin Coughlan back available. They will also have four weeks more work in the legs of Declan Hannon and Seán Finn.
Across the 2022 and '23 All-Ireland finals, Kilkenny launched 40 long balls on top of their inside line. Only 15 stuck.
The success rate was significantly higher here. The route one approach delivered three green flags. They could have finished with anything up to seven.
For Kilkenny’s third on 29 minutes to put them 3-5 to 1-5 in front and establish the six-point buffer they carried with them and held onto in the second period, Cian Lynch was too comfortably turned over at midfield. John Donnelly handpassed to Paddy Deegan who had all the time in the world to launch his second green flag assist.
Given the quality of ball going in and the rustiness of those scrambling to repel it, the goal rush was hardly surprising.
Limerick’s centre-back was playing only his second game of the year, the full-back was playing his first game in 10 months, and beside him was a rookie corner-back, whom TJ Reid bullied out of the way for goal number three.
“When you have good quality forwards, what else are they going to do? They are going to nail you. And we got nailed, good and proper,” Kiely continued.
Limerick might well suffer another defeat somewhere along the road in April or May. But they won’t again be nailed. They won’t again be as apathetic as they were here. Whatever minds required refocusing and resharpening, Saturday will have concentrated them. The phoniness goes no further.
TJ Reid (1-8, 0-7 frees, 0-1 ‘65); B Drennan (0-1 free, 0-1 ‘65), A Mullen (0-3 each); E Cody, L Hogan (1-0 each); C Buckley, B Ryan, M Keoghan (0-1 each).
A Gillane (1-5, 0-3 frees); T Morrissey (0-2 frees), D Reidy (free), C O’Neill (0-2 each); D Byrnes (0-1 free), G Hegarty, D Ó Dálaigh, P Casey (0-1 each).
: E Murphy; S Murphy, H Lawlor, T Walsh; D Blanchfield, P Deegan, C Buckley; C Kenny, J Molloy; A Mullen, J Donnelly, B Ryan; L Hogan, TJ Reid, E Cody.
: R Reid for Blanchfield (35-HT temporary); R Reid for Buckley (HT); M Keoghan for Hogan (45); E Wall for Ryan (temporary, 51); D Corcoran for Deegan (56-59, temporary); B Drennan for TJ Reid (59); T Clifford for Donnelly (68); K Blanchfield for Kenny (70).
: N Quaid; B Nash, S Finn, A Costello; D Byrnes, D Hannon, C O’Neill; W O’Donoghue, C Lynch; T Morrissey, A English, G Hegarty; P Casey, A Gillane, D Ó Dálaigh.
: D Reidy for English (HT); C Boylan for Lynch (55); S Flanagan for Gillane (58); M Quinlan for Hannon (60); A O’Connor for Hegarty (67).
: J Owens (Wexford).
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