HURLING Munster SHC Semi-final Cork v Limerick: The pace of the Munster championship quickens. Clare are already consigned to the purgatory of the qualifiers. Yesterday Limerick joined them there. Cork walk on.
It was one of those afternoons of raw toughness and hard knocks which left the representatives of both camps asserting gingerly afterwards that Munster hurling is "a man's game." So they gave their lumps and took their lumps and were lucky that the referee Séamus Roche seemed to have a strong stomach for it.
Jonathan O'Callaghan took an off-the-ball smack in the face from a Limerick hurl. TJ Ryan was booked as a result. It would be interesting to know for what offence. Several bouts of shemozzling and faction fighting broke out and, when eventually the game established a rhythm, it was unsatisfactory.
Still Cork did enough to win and that was sufficient on the day. The Gaelic Grounds back as a refurbished championship venue had over 31,000 customers through the gates and the atmosphere was given a little jolt of electricity early on when Seán O'Connor rose to slap a long-range Niall Moran free to the net.
The prospect of a home win chiselled out against the odds drove Limerick on. Smaller physically than their counterparts they hustled and bustled and denied Cork the space in which to breathe.
It was a hot day in May, however, and the game was always going to ebb and flow. Cork began finding the target with Ben O'Connor ruthlessly efficient from frees. Cork pulled back and clawed their way into a lead again before pausing for breath.
So it went. One of those days when scores were hard to come by. Time and time again despite two fine catches from Jonathan O'Callaghan in the right corner the mind wandered to Melbourne, where Setanta Ó hAilpín was watching the game in an Irish club.
Without the wonderkid Cork look solid and workmanlike. No lean hand plucking balls from the cloud. No shirt-tugging passion or theatrics. He's missed generally and yesterday he was missed specifically.
Cork waned and Limerick finished the first half strongly with three Niall Moran points on the trot hauling them back to parity and then giving them a one-point lead to mull over at the break.
Afterwards Cork would claim, accurately given their experience, not to have been surprised by the robust passion of the first half. It would have been foolish to come to the Gaelic Grounds and expect anything else. What they can't have expected was the gifts which would fall their way after the break.
Ben O'Connor did the damage with the sun as his accessory. A 75-yard free dropped short but as it came down out of the sky poor Albert Shanahan lost it in the blinding sun. The ball dropped clean to the net. Cork were ahead. Seconds later a short puck-out was misplaced and returned by O'Connor over the bar for a point. In a game where scores are hard to find, Limerick had just given away 1-1.
After that it was always going to be a struggle for Limerick. Niall Moran and JP Sheahan had points but the tide was against them with a variety of Cork forwards putting figures in brackets after their names.
For Limerick the consolation lay ultimately in the performance they submitted for the last 10 minutes. It was a time when they would have been excused for lying down and rolling over. Instead they plugged and plugged. Seán O'Connor had a second goal. Substitute Pat Tobin had two points. Limerick looked like a team. Somewhere between their spirit and their ability and the few weeks they have to do work they may yet find a way forward, which after just five months under Pad Joe Whelahan's management would be an acceptable outcome.
As for Cork it was day to get a win from. It's not a secret that Setanta is missed like a sheared limb. Nothing they can do about it either.
"It wasn't exactly polished but we're in the Munster final," said Donal O'Grady, the Cork manager, afterwards "There was no special advice going out there. We keep all our advice to ourselves anyway. You just have to be up for it. We were rocked by Limerick early but we had good composure, went ahead, and we sat down again. We struggled up to half-time. Same in the second half, we were coasting, suddenly it was all back in the melting pot. Nothing is going to be easy for us. I was being realistic all week. I knew it would be tough. We were lucky to hang on."
For Whelahan, a refugee from Leinster hurling, it was a first sampling of the fabled Munster championship fare. He could have come away with a list of grievances and hard-luck stories but he knew enough to look to the future and make allowances for the recent past. Limerick, despite the TJ Ryan reprieve, were unhappy with the performance of the referee but in the end it was all unalterable.
"Munster hurling is Munster hurling. It's a man's game. We'll be back. We'll go now and have a crack at the qualifiers. In a way we gave it to them today. I'm not blaming the keeper, it can happen to anyone. To give them a soft goal like that was hard." Another chapter closed. Tipperary and Waterford waiting to be written back into the plot next week. The winners meet Cork in the final. A great game to fill the legend is still owed to us.
