Limerick youngsters come good

Munster SHC Semi-finals: Waterford 4-13 Limerick 4-13 A great bonfire of a match in Thurles ended with this Guinness Munster…

Munster SHC Semi-finals: Waterford 4-13 Limerick 4-13 A great bonfire of a match in Thurles ended with this Guinness Munster hurling semi-final still ablaze until next Saturday at least. Virtually everything was heaped into the flames yesterday: goals, great scores, shifting fortunes and abundant controversy.

There's little doubt that defending champions Waterford were the more downcast team at the end. They had excellent chances to help themselves to a greater total but left themselves open at the end to Eoin Foley's equalising point - bitterly disputed as wide by Waterford players.

There were strong parallels with the counties' meeting two years ago in that Waterford took off like a jump jet. Early goals from Paul Flynn and John Mullane propelled them to a nine-point lead, 2-4 to 0-1, within 15 minutes. Limerick's comeback on this occasion was more phased and by half-time the match was back in the melting pot.

Ultimately this was a good result for Limerick's young team and manager Dave Keane's decision to put his trust in the under-21 players with whom he won three All-Ireland titles at the grade. By the end of the match the team had fielded two teenagers and, all told, 12 players who had played underage for Keane in the past three years.

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The fact that they survived a disastrous start and slugged it out until the end with the champions will be a massive encouragement for the replay.

Before the throw-in Waterford made the usual plethora of changes, principally bringing Eoin Kelly to centrefield and putting Flynn and Mullane, just returned from suspension, into the corners. In the seventh minute Flynn rose predatorily to a Tony Browne ball and batted it one-handed to the net.

Eight minutes later Mullane latched on to Fergal Hartley's deep ball, wriggled free of the cover and shot the team's second goal. Limerick were all over the place in defence. Waterford's scoring facility began to run down after the first quarter and Limerick planed a few points off the deficit, chiefly through frees.

By now problems with the officiating were beginning to manifest themselves with referee Pat Aherne twice over-ruling his umpires, once to disallow a point from Clem Smith and then to rule in an effort from Conor Fitzgerald.

Some of the post-match talk about referees from non-hurling counties missed the point but the fact that, yet again, an official in a big match let go so much foul play and dithered so much over straightforward decisions must have been as dispiriting for the GAA authorities as it was unsettling for players.

Limerick players were reluctant to identify any earlier turning point than their injury-time equaliser but in the 27th minute Andrew O'Shaughnessy struck a significant blow. The young corner forward sits his Leaving Cert this week and after a hesitant start passed this test with honours.

His goal came off an end-line run. Initially his attempted hand pass was cut out but he managed to get onto the rebound and, in a patch of ground the size of a handkerchief, side-stepped the converging defence and whipped the ball into the net.

That brought the score to 1-5 to 2-6 and the challenge had been met. That it was one of the younger players who had made the incision was a further lift for the team.

Ken McGrath - who despite three points from play, had one of his quieter matches - responded briskly but by half-time the margin was down to a point, 2-7 to 2-8, after O'Shaughnessy was brought down for a penalty, which Mark Foley slammed into the net for goal number two.

Limerick made changes that steadied centrefield with the introduction of Eoin Foley for Ciaran Carey and eventually dealt with Eugene Mulcahy's discomfort on Mullane by bringing in Steve McDonagh, who - once he had been shown a yellow card within seconds of arriving - shut up shop.

Of all the regrets that Waterford surely harbour, from defensive mistakes to refereeing decisions, the most haunting had to be Mullane's contribution two minutes into the second half. Declan Prendergast's inch-perfect through ball allowed Mullane in and he rounded the goalkeeper only to foul the ball by hand-passing into an empty net.

As he came to terms with the scale of his error, few in the multitude could even hazard a guess at what he had been attempting to do - given that he was hardly born when hurlers were last allowed hand-pass goals.

A three-minute spell from the 44th was indicative of the frenzied second-half exchanges, which saw Waterford frequently edge in front but never quite manage to pull away.

Tony Browne's solo run ended in a penalty, which Flynn dispatched for a four-point lead. Within a minute second-half replacement Eoin Foley - an expert striker for the under-21s last year - took over the penalty duties from his namesake Mark but had his indifferent effort blocked by Stephen Brenner.

Two minutes later Patrick Kirby, Limerick's other teenage prodigy, slipped a ball into Fitzgerald for the team's third goal and the margin was back to a point, 3-8 to 3-9.

Waterford's next goal, Flynn pouncing for a hat trick when Houlihan (who minutes later redeemed himself by stopping a fourth for Flynn) failed to hold a harmless shot from Bennett, gave them better value in that it lasted a whole seven minutes.

If attacking errors denied Waterford a better lead, the emphasis was on defence in the closing minutes. Alan Kirwan's failure to clear let Niall Moran in for an equalising goal whereas Andy Moloney's loss of possession would later gift Limerick full back TJ Ryan the lead point with five minutes left.

Even in that small amount of time there was a season's incident. Bennett was denied a penalty, Flynn a close-in free before the latter boomed over an injury-time point from a 100-metre free.

Still the match blazed. Ken McGrath missed a gilt-edged chance to extend the lead before Eoin Foley clipped the equaliser.

WATERFORD: S Brenner; A Kirwan, T Feeney, B Greene; D Prendergast, F Hartley, J Murray; T Browne, E Kelly (0-3); A Moloney (0-1), K McGrath (0-3), D Bennett (0-3, 0-1 65); J Mullane (1-0); S Prendergast, P Flynn (3-3, 1-0 pen, 0-2f). Subs: E McGrath for Prendergast (half-time), E Murphy for Kirwan (62 mins), D Shanahan for E McGrath (62 mins), M Walsh for Moloney (65 mins).

LIMERICK: T Houlihan; D Reale, TJ Ryan (0-1), E Mulcahy; P Lawlor, B Geary, M Foley (1-1, 1-0 pen, 0-1f); T Browne, C Smith; C Fitzgerald (1-4, 0-2f), N Moran (1-1), B Foley; A O'Shaughnessy (1-1), B Begley (0-2), D Sheehan (0-1). Subs: P Kirby (0-1) for B Foley (half-time), E Foley (0-1) for Carey (half-time), S McDonagh for Mulcahy (35 mins), P O'Dwyer for Geary (56 mins), O Moran for Sheehan (67 mins).

Referee: P Aherne (Carlow).

Semple Stadium

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