Limerick don't find top gear but stay on road to final

Limerick's Shane O'Brien is challenged by Sam Bourke of Offaly. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom Maher

Allianz HL Division 1A: Offaly 0-17 Limerick 2-19 

A game that always had the potential to fall between the cracks with Limerick, fresh off a scorching of Tipperary’s All-Ireland champions last week, welcoming Cork to the TUS Gaelic Grounds next week for the first time since their epic Munster final last year.

Offaly in Tullamore? As meat in a sandwich goes, it didn’t look all that filling. The hosts were zero for four coming in. They were without a number of key players in a panel light on depth and already on a one-way ticket to Division 1B.

Fair play to John Kiely, the Limerick manager shot down all that talk as “disrespectful” to their hosts afterwards, but his lads were every bit as sloppy here as they had been sublime in turning Tipp over in Thurles last time out.

It’s not hard to figure out why. Human nature is human nature.

Offaly's Sam Bourke. Pic ©INPHO/Tom Maher

If the two points were never in doubt then it still took a rat-tat of two goals early in the fourth quarter from Shane O’Brien and Cathal O’Neill to put any doubt about the result to bed. Offaly, to give them their due, were limited but sticky.

For Limerick this is, remarkably, their first time to win three games in a row since February of 2024 when they were putting together a run four times that long. And something approaching a contest was infinitely better for the fans than a pummelling.

“Listen, we were definitely a little bit off today,” said Kiely. “We definitely didn’t get on top anywhere near the level we would have expected to and we didn’t control the game for very long periods. In particular the first 15-20 minutes I thought we really struggled on the ball. Second quarter we got on top of it.

“We got more structure, more energy. Then again in the second half we had a slow start out of the blocks. Got on top for 10-15 minutes then and got those two goals. Just gave ourselves some breathing space the last ten, but you would have to say that Offaly put in a very strong performance today.”

The loss “for the foreseeable future” of Darragh O’Donovan to an AC injury in the first half will probably stand as the most meaningful action in it all given a collective turn from the visitors that was ponderous on the ball at times and wasteful in front of the posts.

Aidan O’Connor continued to cement his reputation by slotting the early points that woke them up. He finished with ten in all, eight from frees. Kyle Hayes lined out at centre-back a week after making his return from injury on the wing.

Little crumbs to feed on ahead of the Championship banquet. No more.

There is, though, the not-so-small matter before that of Limerick’s first league or championship encounter with Cork since that provincial decider last June when they combined for a score of 3-57 before Cork took it on penalties.

Even if Kiely wasn’t taking that bait.

“What happened last year is truly in the rearview mirror, there is no doubt about that whatsoever. We are all very much insular in our focus at the moment. We are certainly not looking at the oppositions in any great focus.

“For us it is really all about ourselves and it is a about getting a really significant bounce from today’s performance. Our energy levels weren’t good enough today, our accuracy and what we were trying to do wasn’t good enough today.

“We are going to have to do much better next weekend and we all know that.” 

Scorers for Offaly: A Screeney (0-9, 8 frees); T Guinan (0-2); B Conneely, K Sampson, D Shirley, B Duignan, L Nolan and D Bourke (all 0-1).

Scorers for Limerick: A O’Connor (0-10, 7 frees); S O’Brien and C O’Neill (both 1-1); A English (0-2); D Byrnes (0-2, 1 free); C Coughlan, C Lynch and D Reidy (all 0-1).

OFFALY: L Hoare; P Taaffe, B Conneely, S Bourke; J Clancy, K Sampson, D Shirley; C Spain, R Ravenhill; D Bourke, O Kelly, T Guinan; L Nolan, B Duignan, A Screeney.

Subs: L Watkins for Clancy (59); E Kelly for Spain (61); C Burke for Nolan (63); B Kavanagh for Taaffe (67); C Doyle for Bourke (71).

LIMERICK: N Quaid; M Casey, D Morrissey, S Finn; D Byrnes, K Hayes, C Coughlan; C O’Neill, D O’Donovan; A O’Connor, C Lynch, T Morrissey; A Gillane, S O’Brien, A English.

Subs: D Reidy for D O’Donovan (22); G Hegarty for T Morrissey (55); M Fitzgerald for Coughlan (56); F Fitzgerald for English (60); E Hurley for O’Connor (60).

Referee: L Gordon (Galway).