Gearóid Hegarty on crucial Limerick goal: 'I probably couldn't have mishit it any worse'

MISHIT: Limerick's Gearóid Hegarty celebrates after scoring his side's second goal against Waterford. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Gearóid Hegarty has admitted he couldn’t have hit the ball “any worse” for his crucial goal in Limerick’s win over Waterford on Sunday.

The 62nd minute score was enough to put off goalkeeper Billy Nolan who was anticipating a stronger strike.

"Sometimes you can nail the strike perfectly and the goalie will pull off a brilliant save,” said Hegarty. “But sometimes the bad ones are the ones that go in because they don't expect it.

“I probably couldn't have mishit it any worse but, as I said, sometimes they're the ones that end up finding their way into the back of the net."

Limerick’s Munster SHC scheduling has proven tricky for them, Hegarty said. “It's tough starting with two away games and we had one win and one loss. But I knew we were looking towards the end of the Munster championship with two home games.

“We've taken care of the first one but we need to do the same (v Tipperary) next Sunday to guarantee getting into a Munster final. I always want to be playing in Munster finals. We lost one last year so we'd love another crack at it this year."

The Round 2 defeat to Cork still rankles with Hegarty but he would have taken this position had you asked him at the outset of the championship.

“Two wins out of three, four points from six. We were probably a bit unlucky not to win the first day out. We just didn't do enough in the last five minutes when the game was there to be won.

“But the reality is that we're guaranteed to be in a Munster final if we win on Sunday. If you told us going into our last round-robin game that a win would get us into a Munster final, we'd have bitten your hand off for it.

“We're in a good position but we have a lot to improve on as well. There were at least 15, 20 minutes where Waterford dominated us. A lot to work on but that's a good position to be in too."

The five-time All-Ireland SHC winner takes a lot of comfort from Limerick’s strength in depth, which was illustrated with six points coming from the bench on Sunday.

"You're sitting in the dressing room before a Munster championship game and it's not the easiest place in the world to be because you're looking forward to getting going, but there's a lot of anticipation and nerves there as well.

“But you just take a quick look around the dressing room and you see the lads that are wearing numbers 16 to 26. That gives you massive confidence and a massive lift. You need to have that nowadays so we're in a very fortunate position to have that in our group."