Limerick's resolve in retrieving Mick Mackey goes unmatched
REBEL RAID: Limerick players, Dan Morrissey, Sean Finn, Diarmaid Byrnes, Peter Casey and Ethan Hurley Gearóid Hegarty and Mike Casey celebrate in the Páirc Uí Chaoimh dressing room with the Mick Mackey Cup. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
No classic Munster final here but a classic case of the haves and the have-nots.
At the death, Limerick performed like a team chasing something lost. Cork played like a team trying to hide it from them.
Limerick have been members of the hunting party for over two seasons now, but they haven’t chased like this in quite some time.
In the post-match press conference, John Kiely drew comparisons with 2018 when this era of winning finals began. They weren’t inaccurate.
How Darragh O’Donovan, Cian Lynch and Kyle Hayes bust a gut to win or spoil ball in the closing stages was the sign of a team with a real cause.
It’s not as if Cork don’t have one. This was their patch, as they stated, and they were hoping to extend their winning run to 13 games. But they couldn’t match Limerick’s resolve in retrieving the Mick Mackey Cup from them.
Just as the ball in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh was greasy, it’s a slippy venture to make any grand declarations following a one-point game. Beforehand, it felt like this relationship will endure and that remains.
Nevertheless, any team that goes from the 38th minute to full-time without scoring from play doesn’t deserve to win a Munster final. Questions about refereeing decisions aside, to be held to 1-6 outside placed balls was also unCork-like.
A gaping Darragh Fitzgibbon hole was missing from the Cork team. They can do nothing about Ciarán Joyce’s 2026 season ending in April but their captain would likely have made a difference here and could be the missing link in six weeks' time.
Cork manager Ben O’Connor had gripes with some of James Owens’ judgements but then he spelt out the truth too. They have faced Limerick in two finals this year and lost.
Under Kiely, Limerick are the ultimate final team and if Cork are to beat them at the ultimate stage then that proud record of having never lost a decider in normal or extra-time will have to be broken.
At the final whistle, the contrast in reaction was extraordinary. Limerick ran to the significant support at the City End just as The Cranberries’ “Dreams” bellowed from the PA.
It was slightly drowned out by the Cork boos that greeted Owens’ departure from the field.
Cork players felt there was a failure to communicate from the Wexford match official as they attempted a last-gasp attempt to force extra-time. O’Connor shepherded some of them away but he articulated their frustrations afterwards.
In a game of one fine margin, it was understandable, especially one they had led from the eighth minute up to the 68th.
They had the more efficient – one wide to Limerick’s 10. They had threatened Nickie Quaid’s net more than Limerick did Patrick Collins’ but they were caught.
From the 58th minute to the finish, they were outscored 0-6 to 0-2 and both of their points were Alan Connolly frees.
Had Quaid not been level to a Mark Coleman strike in the 54th minute, it could have played out differently yet Limerick’s finish was close to relentless.
Peter Casey scored the match-winner in the third minute of additional time but after it David Reidy sent a shot wide and Gearóid Hegarty’s shot came back off the post and into play.
“It was tough going out there and we just had to keep battling and trying to win enough ball to get enough shots,” said Kiely. “We probably needed to be six points better than them to win by one. That's the facts of it.”
Kiely referenced Cork’s last-gasp defeat of Limerick here in the 2024 game. The result and performance that convinced Cork not only that they could emerge from Munster but slay their much-vaunted neighbours.
He felt they were the better team on that evening and they were, but they were punished for not putting the game to bed.
Kyle Hayes’ penalty concession was the turning point and again at the Blackrock End he gave away another when he was all over his namesake Brian as he tried to collect a Coleman sideline cut.
Captain for the day Coleman sent the ball past Quaid in the eighth minute.
Just as the Blackrock End were mocking Diarmaid Byrnes’ long-range attempt falling short in the 16th minute, the long left arm of Hegarty rose highest and he found enough space to bounce the ball beyond Collins.
Two points split the sides in the 24th minute when Cork went on a scoring spree.
O’Mahony sent over his third 65 and either side of a Connolly free William Buckley and Rob Downey pistoled points.
O’Mahony’s score was the compensation for an outrageous Quaid save from Diarmuid Healy after he was teed up by Hayes.
Cork didn’t register their one wide until the half-hour mark just before Downey’s electric point after sending the ball back over Quaid’s head.
But the conclusion of the half was Limerick’s.
A third O’Connor point was backed by a Cathal O’Neill score just before he had to retire injured. O’Brien brought Limerick within three after Hegarty assisted and O’Connor saw out the half with his second converted free.
Brian Hayes’ audacious 38th-minute goal was Cork’s last from play. With his backside on the ground, Hayes was able to fashion a ridiculous goal. Limerick cancelled it out with three points in four minutes. O’Connor also had a shot kept out by Collins.
Four frees in a tit-for-tat pattern followed before Quaid was called on once more to pull off that spectacular denial of Coleman.
After missing his third free, O’Connor was alone in space to bring Limerick to within a point in the 63rd minute.
Connolly doubled Cork’s lead once more but Limerick hit them with a hat-trick of points: a Diarmaid Byrnes 65 after Hegarty had been denied a score by Collins, a Hegarty point and Peter Casey’s second.
Connolly squared the game in the second minute of additional time but Casey was on hand to win the battle. The war continues.
A. Connolly (0-7, frees); T. O’Mahony (0-4, 3 65s, 1 free); M. Coleman (pen), B. Hayes (1-0 each); D. Healy, W. Buckley (0-2 each); B. Hayes, R. Downey (0-1 each).
A. O’Connor (0-8, 4 frees, 2 65s); G. Hegarty (1-1); D. Byrnes (2 frees, 1 65), P. Casey (0-3 each); T. Morrissey (0-2); C. Lynch, B. Nash, C. O’Neill, S. O’Brien (0-1 each).
P. Collins; D. Cahalane, N. O’Leary, S. O’Donoghue; M. Coleman (c), R. Downey, E. Downey; T. O’Mahony, T. O’Connell; B. Walsh, S. Barrett, D. Healy; A. Connolly, B. Hayes, W. Buckley.
C. O’Brien for S. O’Donoghue (42); S. Harnedy for B. Walsh (66); H. O’Connor for T. O’Connell (70+2).
N. Quaid; S. Finn, D. Morrissey, B. Nash; D. Byrnes, W. O’Donoghue, K. Hayes; D. O’Donovan, C. Lynch (c); G. Hegarty, A. O’Connor, C. O’Neill; A. Gillane, S. O’Brien, P. Casey.
T. Morrissey for C. O’Neill (inj 35); A. English for A. Gillane (49); M. Casey for B. Nash (temp, 66-69); D. Reidy for S. O’Brien (66).
J. Owens (Wexford).
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