Limerick 2-24; Galway 1-18
Reports all last week of the impending demise of the injury-ravaged Limerick team appear to be greatly exaggerated, judging by how John Kiely's men performed in the final 40 minutes of this ultimately one-sided All Ireland semi-final in front of almost 60,000 fans at Croke Park on Saturday evening.
They used the early part of the game to see what the opposition had to offer and then just put their foot on the jugular and drained the Galway challenge of oxygen in the remainder of the day.
True, for the first 25 minutes, Galway had their measure and looked like the team that had done their homework to undo the men in green's hope of four Liam MacCarthy's in succession.
By that stage the Connacht men led by six points and were also leading their opponents on something of a merry dance throughout the pitch.
As the big crowd wondered if they were witnessing a changing of the guard, the dial moved from maroon into green and suddenly, it was all Limerick, just like it has been whenever they appear to be in trouble.
By half-time, they were only one in arrears and once the unmarkable Aaron Gillane got his second goal four minutes into the second moiety, the writing was on the wall about the outcome.
Statistics don't lie as with Gillane's 2-6 but more pertinently was the 1-18 Limerick scored in the final 40 minutes of the game to Galway's party return of six white flags which tells the real story of the game.
Galway had shown they were betters and not just equals of Kiely's crew in that opening 25 minutes when a Cathal Mannion goal had given them every reason to believe they could go one better than last year's close semi-final defeat.
After that they looked like a car that ran out of fuel, they had little to offer - a fact that wasn't lost on former Kilkenny great and current Tribesmen boss Henry Shefflin.
"We are very disappointed. We scored 1-13 after 25 minutes but from then on, Limerick took over the game. We will have to look back at the tape to see what happened but there is no doubt that we didn't play to that level thereafter. You can't play for 25 minutes in an All-Ireland hurling semi-final. It was difficult for ourselves to get into the game,” he explained.
He went on: "Some of our guys tired as well, Limerick are so physical. We were putting out fires all over the place. It doesn't feel like progress . The last 40 minutes were poor, we scored about six points so it doesn't feel like progress today. Today wasn't good enough.”
Shefflin knew what he wanted to do to force Limerick into uncomfortable areas where they might have vulnerable moments.
"We started very well and were playing on our terms. As Limerick do, they wrestled the game back to their terms. The big moment was their second goal. After that they kicked on and looked like overall winners. They were exceptional," he said as he paid tribute to the green juggernaut.
Limerick manager Kiely acknowledged that his side were troubled by Shefflin's early door tactics to run at his defense and outwork his players by pressing in twos and threes. “We were playing second fiddle at that point. Galway were setting the terms of the game at that particular point. They were very strong on their own puck-out in particular, but they were getting to breaking ball as well. It wasn’t just all clean, primary possession, they were winning the secondary possession as well and they were that bit more efficient as well.
“I think we hit a few poor wides there during that phase as well. That would have kept us a little bit closer. We managed to close in on their puckout a little bit, we managed to get a few more possessions into our players in the middle third. Cian Lynch, David Reidy, Darragh O’Donovan, Gearoid Hegarty, Tom Morrissey, they came into it at that stage. Our half-back line became very solid and stopped the ball going in behind them and it was a good platform for us coming into the last 10 minutes and we closed out the first half very strong.
”I think we didn’t realize it at the time, but I think the game was in a pattern at that stage that we didn’t realize it was in, we were in ascendancy, and we stayed there for the rest of the game," he emphasized.
Gillane had done his best to settle his teammates with a great goal after five minutes after he was fed by Tom Morriseey. that seemed to wake Galway up and they put over the next four scores, three from Evan Niland placed balls and a fine score from play by Conor Whelan.
Peter Casey restored Limerick's lead before Galway gained the ascendency again with Mannion's goal which he struck past Nickie Quaid from the tightest of angles.
Limerick had switched around their team from the 1-15 on the match programme with Gearóid Hegarty starting at wing-forward rather than as a wing-back with the versatile Will O'Donoghue slotting in at No 6 for the injured skipper Declan Hannon.
Morrissey and Kyle Hayes got trademark scores but untypically, the Treaty rearguard coughed up a lot of easy frees which Niland punished time after time. Seamus Flanagan was denied by a brilliant Padraic Mannion block and at the other end Brian Concannon goal-bound shot hit Mike Casey’s hurley. He made amends by scoring three points in the half with Whelan's brace helping to stretch the losing Leinster finalist's lead to six.
That was as good as it got for Shefflin's team as Diarmaid Byrnes’s free in the 29th minute signaled the comeback was under way. They hit five of the last half dozen scores in the half from Cian Lynch, Gillane, Flanagan with Byrnes second placed ball making it a one-point game at the break.
Once Flanagan leveled inside the first minute of the restart, it was ominous for the men in maroon, something that was underlined with Gillane's goal at the second attempt after his first flick came back off the crossbar so early in the second-half.
That made it 2-16 to 1-15 and despite the fact that there was the guts of half an hour's play remaining, the clock had already struck for a Limerick win. In the end it was a nine-point margin but it could have been much more had they needed to press the foot more on the gas.
Limerick: N Quaid; M Casey, D Morrissey, B Nash; D Byrnes (0-3f), W O'Donoghue, K Hayes (0-2); D O'Donovan (0-1) Cian Lynch (0-1); G Hegarty (0-2), D Reidy (0-1), T Morrissey (0-2); A Gillane (2-6, 0-5f), S Flanagan (0-2), P Casey (0-3) Subs: C O'Neill (0-01) for T Morrissey (55 mins), C Boylan for Hegarty (67), G Mulcahy (0-1) for Lynch (67), A English for O’Donovan (72), O O'Reilly for Flanagan (72).
Galway: É Murphy; J Grealish, D Burke, D Morrissey; P Mannion, G McInerney, J Cooney; S Linnane, C Mannion (1-1); R Glennon, C Fahy, K Cooney; C Whelan (0-3), B Concannon (0-3), E Niland (0-9f) Subs: T Monaghan (0-1) for Glennon (50), C Cooney for Linnane (53), L Collins for Concannon (63), F Burke for Fahy (67).
Ref: J Owens (Wexford)
Kilkenny 1-25; Clare 1-22
They may be called the “Cats” but Kilkenny were the old dogs for the hard road in this All-Ireland semi-final joust with Clare at Croke Park on Sunday.
The black and amber brigade were the better team in the first half and were well worth their five-point lead at the interval. However Clare ditched their negative decision to play a sweeper and went man on man and were immediately rewarded in the first 17 minutes of the changeover where they outscored their rivals by 0-9 to 0-2 to lead by two. At this stage, Kilkenny were at sea and unable to cope with the slicker Banner movement but typical Cats they hung in there hoping for a lucky break.
And they got it courtesy of a terrible mix-up in the Clare defense in the 55th minute when goalkeeper Eibhear Quilligan elected to give a short pass to Rory Hayes instead of launching a clearance. The corner-back had time but dallied and was dispossessed with the bass breaking to Kilkenny talisman TJ Reid. He immediately headed for goal, drew the defence before offering a precise hand pass to skipper Eoin Cody, the man of the match, who got his shot off despite a desperate attempt to intercept by John Conlon for the ball to fly into the back of the net.
Even then, although the tide had turned somewhat with the introduction of subs Cian Kenny, Walter Walsh, Richie Hogan, Cillian Buckley and Padraig Walsh, Clare showed a rare moment of defiance when one of their two best players Shane O'Donnell (Peter Duggan was the other) used his power to upend his marker Tommy Walsh and despatch an unstoppable drive past Eoin Murphy in the Cats goal to level the game.
Kilkenny regrouped and it was the old hands such as Reid, Hogan, Buckley and Walsh who held their nerve to give their side a three point lead going into injury time.
And still the drama wasn't over as Clare opted for high balls into the square in search of a goal. They thought they had one when Duggan volleyed expertly from 13 meters with the ball looking destined to dance in the back of the net. However Murphy threw himself spectacularly at the sliotar and got his hurley and used enough upward momentum on the stick to divert the goal bound ball onto the crossbar and out of the danger area. While Clare got a point from the ensuing possession, Kilkenny negatived that score from the puck out to keep the margin at three - a lead they held until the end.
The game showcased the immense talent of TJ Reid who claimed the all-time scoring record with 12 placed balls, including a sideline cut near the end needlessly given away by Hayes, who had a nightmare day in the claret and blue colors.
So for the second year in a row, Kilkenny silenced their critics and carried the torch for Leinster hurling by showing aggression and agility and ability which quite frankly Brian Lohan's side could not find a sustained answer to.
They could well argue that the referee, Colm Lyons, had one of those games where he appeared to ref both sides differently, allowing for the most a lot of heft with the Kilkenny tackles while blowing Clare for lesser demeanors, particularly if Reid was the player involved.
It is hard to know what the watching Limerick manager John Kiely thought of the fare. While his side has dealt with both teams, he is probably a little happier that the fierce rivalry of a Clare-Limerick final is something his players will not have to contend with in the run up to Sunday week's final.
Kilkenny will provide him with a totally different type of test as they will not be found wanting for giving 100 per cent or in the scoring department where Reid and Cody are as good a pairing as there is in an inside line. My guess is that while they were pushed to the pin of their collar before winning last year's All Ireland final, there is a lot more to come from his team who have blown hot and cold in all their matches so far this year.
Kiely will see this as the ideal opportunity for the team to come as one to win their fourth title in a row and fifth in six years. Indeed but for that glitch against Kilkenny in 2018, they could be eyeing a record breaking six-timer. But that is for this history books and now the Treaty men will concentrate on beating Derek Lyng's formidable foe - a team that has nothing like the class of previous Kilkenny teams but have the guts and the never say die spirit which carries groups a long way in the hurling game. As Limerick will be motivated by that four timer, Kilkenny will also want to avoid the moniker of three time final losers since their last win in ’15.
Afterwards Kilkenny manager Derek Lyng praised his subs for changing the course of the game when the team was struggling to regain control of the game. "Clare came strong in the second half. It looked like we were under pressure. We made a few changes. That brought a bit of composure on the pitch, we started to work the ball up the pitch, and worked our way back into the game. It was a really gusty performance. Momentum was against us. We settled the tide and got a few scores. We just about got there," he stated.
He went on: "They had a good start to the second half. They have very skillful forwards and lots of pace all over the pitch. The goal was a big change for us and got us back into the game. We saw it out then.”
"We have a really competitive squad. It's very hard to pick the XV. We have lads ready to come on. The effort we're asking the lads to put in, some lads will tire and go out of the game. That's natural. We bring on the subs, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. Today they did. We're delighted, we know what is ahead. It's a big, big challenge but we're delighted to be there.”
A deflated Banner boss Brian felt a number of little things went against his players on the day. "I'm disappointed, disappointed to lose the game against a really good opponent. They're a tough team and a very accurate one. In these games, you try a number of things. At half-time, we were five points down so it didn't work as well as we would have liked it to work. We decided to push up. The players played great in the second half and we were a little bit unlucky.
"Kilkenny found that little bit more energy, got scores a little bit easier and probably got frees a little bit handier than we got them. It was disappointing from our perspective. Everyone has tough jobs to do up here, it's a tough place to be for a referee, but maybe he didn't have his best day today."
Kilkenny: E Murphy; M Butler, H Lawlor (0-1), T Walsh; D Blanchfield, R Reid, P Deegan (0-1); C Fogarty, A Mullen (0-2); T Phelan (0-1), M Keoghan, J Donnelly; B Ryan (0-1), TJ Reid (0-12, 0-1f, 0-1 ‘65’ 0-1 s-l), E Cody (1-5) Subs: Walter Walsh for Keoghan (44), Cian Kenny (0-01) for Donnelly (54), Cillian Buckley for Fogarty (56 mins), Pádraig Walsh (0-01) for Ryan (60), Richie Hogan for Phelan (60).
Clare: E Quilligan; A Hogan, C Cleary, R Hayes; D Ryan (0-1), J Conlon, D McInerney (0-1); C Malone (0-1), D Fitzgerald (0-3); P Duggan (0-1), T Kelly (0-1), R Taylor (0-1); S Morey, S O'Donnell (1-1), M Rodgers (0-10, 0-5f ,0-3 ‘65s’) Subs: D Reidy (0-1) for Taylor (33), I Galvin (0-1) for Morey (ht), A Shanagher for Reidy (71).
Ref: C Lyons (Cork).
