Munster SHC: Limerick 2-27 Tipperary 0-18
Limerick can – and do – win this sort of game in their sleep. There was no blood, no thunder, just an entirely rudimentary case of exerting their will. They never had to remotely hit full stride to ease clear of a Tipperary team that brought very little to their first championship encounter of the season.
Goals from Aaron Gillane and Peter Casey spiced up the scoreline but weren’t strictly necessary. They’d have happily given Casey’s goal back in return for him avoiding the serious leg injury he picked up in scoring it. John Kiely confirmed afterwards that he went straight to hospital after being stretchered off, his season over.
“Obviously it is a significant injury,” Kiely said afterwards. “We will look after him the very best we can and make sure he gets the best of treatment. Listen, he’s come back from a serious injury before and come back very strong. I have no doubt Peter has the capacity to do that again. We would rather he doesn’t have to do that. It hurts. It hurts the group very much to see that has happened.”
The game was well put away by the time Casey struck on 57 minutes. A quick scoring burst in the 10 minutes before half-time turned a level game into one in which Limerick built a lead they never came close to relinquishing. They have a fortnight’s break before heading to Cork. They will surely find a sterner test waiting for them than they got here.
For Tipperary, this was all a little embarrassing. Limerick were better than they’d been against Clare but they still didn’t click into anything like their best form. And still it took very little for Tipperary to be put away. The suspicions of the Tipp public were confirmed – it was noticeable that only small pockets of the 33,475 crowd came to support them.
For long spells, this felt like we all went to the wrong party. As news of relentless drama filtered in from the early games around the country, this was an altogether more sedate affair. Everywhere you looked, mistakes were the order of the day.
Jason Forde missed a couple of 65s and a free in the first half. Diarmaid Byrnes put two frees wide and seemed as surprised as anyone when his third was carried over the bar on the wind. Three Tipp efforts at points got blocked down, six different Limerick players pucked wides inside the opening half hour.
Champagne hurling, this was not. By the 25th minute, the sides were level on 0-6 apiece and no animals had been harmed in the making of this production. Tipp had a goal chance saved when Nickie Quaid rushed out to smother a Seán Hayes shot but even that didn’t seem get the crowd going.
Limerick knew it was a let-off though and they made sure to cash in their voucher between there and half-time. Gillane reeled off three frees in a row and whistled over one from play after Craig Morgan was dispossessed on his way out of defence. When Casey latched onto a long Declan Hannon clearance just before half-time, it had only taken 10 minutes to put clear water between the sides.
Limerick led by 0-12 to 0-7 at the break and proceeded to put the game away in the quarter-hour after the restart. David Reidy whipped a point, Tom Morrissey and Will O’Donoghue followed suit. Bonner Maher and Noel McGrath came off the bench to snatch a point apiece but Tipp were on borrowed time. And just like last week, it was a mishit free from Byrnes that bought Limerick the breakthrough goal.
David Reidy broke it down and Gillane pounced, making space for himself and sending a bullet to the roof of Barry Hogan’s net. Soon after, any mystery left in the day was demolished when Casey buried his first championship goal in five years past Hogan to make it 2-22 to 0-13. Tipp were sunk and now they have six days to save their season against Waterford.
“It’s a game we just have to throw off the shackles and have a good think about our personnel for the week,” said Liam Cahill afterwards. “There’ll have to be consequences after today. Some players, it just didn’t run for them and they’re going to have to make way for the next fella to give them a chance.
“There was a lot of talk during the week about Tipp not having a settled team. That doesn’t really concern me. We felt we had a very settled team coming in today with the way we trained. We loaded up our team as best we could to tackle Limerick in the areas that we knew they’d give us concern and put legs and speed into our team. That’s what we’ll try and do again now for six days’ time.”
LIMERICK: Nickie Quaid; Seán Finn, Dan Morrissey, Barry Nash; Diarmaid Byrnes (0-2, 0-2f), Declan Hannon, Kyle Hayes (0-1); Will O’Donoghue (0-1), Cathal O’Neill (0-3); Gearóid Hegarty, David Reidy (0-2), Tom Morrissey (0-3); Aaron Gillane (1-8, 7f), Peter Casey (1-2), Cian Lynch.
Subs: Donncha Ó Dálaigh (0-1) for Hegarty (52 mins), Graeme Mulcahy for Casey (58), Adam English (0-4) for Lynch (61), Colin Coughlan for Hayes (65), Conor Boyland for Reidy (70).
TIPPERARY: Barry Hogan; Johnny Ryan (0-1), Ronan Maher, Craig Morgan; Mikey Breen, Bryan O’Mara, Conor Bowe; Willie Connors, Eoghan Connolly (0-1); Alan Tynan (0-1), Gearóid O’Connor (0-2, 1f), Jason Forde (0-9, 8f); Jake Morris, Mark Kehoe (0-2), Seán Hayes.
Subs: Noel McGrath (0-1) for Hayes (h-t), Patrick Maher (0-1) for Kehoe (42), Andrew Ormond for Connors (51), Darragh Stakelum for Morris (60), Seánie Kenneally for Forde (69).
Referee: Liam Gordon (Galway)
