Munster SHC Quarter-final/ Tipperary 0-22 Limerick 2-12: Yesterday at Semple Stadium, Thurles, the dial clocked up another year since Limerick's last championship victory, as Tipperary - their challenge galvanised by a sensational display from Eoin Kelly - overcame an atrocious opening to upset expectations and qualify for next month's Guinness Munster hurling semi-final against Waterford.
It was the third successive year Tipp had defeated their neighbours but this will count as the most traumatic for Limerick. After a good year, suffering just one competitive defeat, all their dual players on board and a sense of purpose restored, Joe McKenna's team were favourites to record a first championship win since 2001.
Adding to the despair of the losers will be the fact they started so strongly, with two goals in the first seven minutes. Tipperary looked out on their feet - at times literally so as rain had made the surface treacherous and the home defenders seemed to have more difficulty staying upright.
But nursed along by Kelly's prodigious scoring - 0-14, nine from play - Tipp gradually rebuilt their challenge, posing increasing problems up front and coming to terms with their task at the back.
Overall, the standard of the match was mediocre. The slippery surface caused constant problems. After all the agonising about the impact of the Munster rugby team on GAA support it was disconcerting to see the apparent effect on the hurling with frequent rucks, resulting in what felt like endless throw-ins.
It was a surprise that Damien Reale, who had coped well for a while marking Kelly last year and was one of the best man-markers in the league, wasn't detailed to follow his man when the latter was switched before the start. Kelly was too lively for Mark Foley and, when moved to full forward, for TJ Ryan.
For a while it was a one-man show of defiance. The other Tipp forwards were at odds with their game. Micheál Webster worked hard but didn't pull down the hoped-for harvest of high ball and when his ball winning improved in the second half on the wing, his use of possession was erratic.
Named in the corner, Diarmaid Fitzgerald played conventionally from the start but made the greatest impact out the field, particularly in the final quarter when his acquisitive hand plucked a succession of ball out of the air to slow Limerick's momentum as they desperately tried to get back into contention.
Goals by Brian Begley and Andrew O'Shaughnessy in the fourth and seventh minutes got Limerick off to an explosive start. Both were down to sloppy defending, with Begley stepping inside too easily after winning a high ball and O'Shaughnessy pouncing on a lost possession.
Kelly, with help from Webster and John O'Brien, got the scoreboard moving and from the second Limerick goal on, Tipp outscored their opponents by 0-10 to 0-4 to go in at the break level, 0-11 to 2-5.
In addition to Kelly's eight first-half points, reliable from frees and irresistible from play, he had two goal chances, one saved well by Brian Murray, the other blocked but pointed on the rebound.
In the 29th minute he also had a goal disallowed after Ger "Redser" O'Grady - whose hard work persevered all afternoon undeterred by a sequence of five wides - was deemed to have fouled the ball in starting the move. But Kelly had done enough to build the winning platform.
Limerick's half forwards had been quickly overpowered once the match settled. Eamonn Corcoran gave a firm reminder he wasn't going to endure another below-par performance, having been replaced in this fixture last year and dominated Conor Fitzgerald.
Stephen Lucey discovered some form in the second half and scored two good points and O'Shaughnessy came out to see some more ball but his menace inside was missed.
Centrefield was a bit of a twilight zone for both teams. Tipp lost Colin Morrissey after eight minutes to injury and shortly into the second half McKenna removed both Donal and Paul O'Grady. The only survivor of the starting quartet, debutant Shane McGrath, hurled well but is prone to being knocked about physically and had to survive one seismic hit.
As a result of their fading challenge around the middle, Limerick weren't able to ensure a supply of ball into the full forwards whereas Tipperary were able to work good ball into their attack. O'Grady, captaining Tipperary on his home ground, kept plugging away despite his errant shooting and was finally rewarded for his good work in breaking a path down the middle of the Limerick defence with a point and a late substitution in order to milk the appreciation of the by now jubilant crowd.
Darragh Egan came in for Tipperary and played well, clipping over a well-taken score. Although always well within range after falling behind at the start of the second half, Limerick never looked convincing - or convinced - in pursuit and were always liable to get hit on the break.
There were two vivid examples. In the 45th minute Mark Keane looked to have summed up a day to forget when missing a free, only for the impressive Ken Dunne to flash over a point straight from the puck-out. Television pictures suggested Keane's free had, in fact, been over.
Deep in injury-time Limerick had a goal disallowed for a straightforward square-ball infringement by Begley. Again from the puck-out Tipp scored - Kelly adding to an afternoon of wonderful scores by shrugging out of a tackle and sweeping the ball over from out on the sideline.
It was a fitting postscript. Tipperary might be overly dependent on him but on that form, what team wouldn't be?
TIPPERARY: 1 B Cummins; 2 D Fanning, 3 P Maher, 4 P Curran; 5 E Corcoran, 6 C O'Mahoney, 7 H Moloney; 8 C Morrissey, 9 S McGrath; 10 J Carroll (0-1), 11 G O'Grady (capt; 0-1), 12 J O'Brien (0-2); 13 D Fitzgerald, 14 M Webster (0-1), 15 E Kelly (0-14, four frees, one 65). Subs: 22 K Dunne (0-2) for Morrissey (8 mins); 23 D Egan (0-1) for Carroll (59 mins); 18 S Butler for O'Brien (66 mins); 28 W Ryan for O'Grady (75 mins).
LIMERICK: 1 B Murray; 2 D Reale, 3 TJ Ryan (capt.), 4 M Foley; 5 O Moran, 6 B Geary, 7 D Moloney; 8 P O'Grady, 9 D O'Grady; 10 D Ryan, 11 S Lucey (0-2), 12 C Fitzgerald (0-1); 13 A O'Shaughnessy (1-1), 14 B Begley (1-1), 15 M Keane (0-5, frees). Subs: 20 S Hickey for Moloney (19 mins); 17 M O'Brien for D O'Grady (42 mins); 19 N Moran for P O'Grady (42 mins); 18 B Foley (0-2, frees) for Keane (56 mins); 23 M Fitzgerald for C Fitzgerald (62 mins).
Attendance: 26,494
Referee: M Haverty (Galway).
