Dark horses Limerick off and running in Munster
Pressure is rising for Ryan as Tipp’s world begins to crumble
WHEN the Tipperary team was announced on Friday, the hurling world wondered whether Michael Ryan had taken a leaf out of the book on modern management and put out a ‘dummy’ selection.
All-Ireland winning half-back Seamus Kennedy at number three? Team captain Pádraic Maher at six instead of his favoured wing-back spot, while his younger brother Ronan — a 2016 All-Star at centre-back — positioned on the wing?
A rookie midfield pairing of Willie Connors and Billy McCarthy?
In the end, as Tipperary slipped to the county’s biggest defeat by Limerick in Championship in 38 years, the fault-lines went a lot deeper than quibbles over personnel and position.
All of the doubts raised by the brittle National League final loss against Kilkenny were on show at the Gaelic Grounds again in what was a historic first match in the new-look Munster round-robin.
This was a serious statement of intent from Limerick, the province’s dark horses. Backboned by the youthful swagger of a core group of players who have enjoyed All-Ireland Under 21 success, this felt like the start of something.
Tipperary sniped goals against the head from Dan McCormack in the first half and Jason Forde the second but were always swimming hard just to stay above water against a Limerick team with far more shape and fluency to their play.
Highlights for the winners? Graeme Mulcahy jinking his way to four neat points from play in the first half and exposing the lack of pace in an embattled Tipperary full-back line.
Declan Hannon sitting deep at centre-back and hoovering up ball when needed. Diarmuid Byrnes slinging over a couple of important 65s and a long-range free in the second half. Cian Lynch directing traffic around the middle and linking the play expertly.
Gearoid Hegarty providing a superb ball-winning outlet in the half-forward line and Aaron Gillane slotting frees and winning plenty of primary possession.
An out-of-sorts Tipperary only managed five points from play and looked bereft of confidence.
A home match against Cork at Semple Stadium suddenly takes on a do-or-die appearance, with the bottom two teams in this fiveteam Munster group exiting the Championship completely.
Michael Ryan’s decision not to speak to the media afterwards — until the end of the Munster campaign apparently — is the action of a man feeling the pressure.
Limerick set up with Kyle Hayes sitting deep off centre-forward, with midfielder Cian Lynch dropping back to screen the half-back line and link the play. For their part, Tipperary were leaving Jason Forde and John McGrath as the two strike men inside with John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer floating out from the corner. Problem was, he was getting clogged with Limerick’s deep-lying half-back line. The home side had a clear structure, defensive and offensive, which Tipperary badly lacked.
A litany of bad wides took the sting out of the game, particularly from Limerick. Aaron Gillane missed a free from roughly 35 metres and shook his head in disbelief as it screwed wide; Gearoid Heagarty hit two after galloping into good positions; Tom Morrissey then added to the malaise with a brace of misses.
It was left to Graeme Mulcahy with his dancing feet and elusive running at top of the left to show the way. Four neat points he slung over in a half that went tit-forthat, the Tipperary full-back line unable to get a hold on him.
Limerick almost goaled midway through the half. Seamus Flanagan’s angled ball inside found Hegarty drifting in behind and the rangy St Patrick’s player batted it first time to force an acrobatic save from Brian Hogan.
On the 20-minute mark, Tipperary took the one goal chance that
dropped their way. Billy McCarthy showed real strength to bulldoze his way down the line and clear a space to play the ball towards the far post. Nicky Quaid stayed on his line allowing John McGrath to sneak in and pull one-handed on the dropping ball. It looked in only to kick back off the post for the inrushing Dan McCormack to pull on it first time to the net.
That left Tipperary 1-4 to 0-3 up and was the signal for both teams to find their scoring range. Tipp were sniping around the fringes, picking off points off limited ball. Mulcahy’s scoring, though, showed how much pressure their full-back line was under.
Donagh Maher was yellowcarded early on for persistent fouling and Alan Flynn was finding his first Championship start a tricky one.
On the whole, Limerick were playing with more cohesion, allied to a tighter defensive structure — Tipperary had too many gaps at the back and were second to too many balls, Gillane and Mulcahy causing all sorts of trouble.
So even when Forde goaled for Tipperary to level, it always looked to be tipping Limerick’s way.
That score came on the 50minute mark when Billy McCarthy again used his physical edge to clear a path and launch a ball into the full-forward line.
It broke to Forde who slotted it to the corner. From three down, Tipperary were right back in it and level, 0-18 to 2-12.
Ronan Maher was really beginning to impose himself on the game after switching to centre-back and Seamus Callanan’s introduction added a further scoring edge but Limerick were playing with more fluency and purpose.
A scoring burst from the 61st to 67th minute of 1-4 wrapped things up, Barry Murphy racing through to bat the ball cleverly to the net and set his team up nicely for a trip to Cork on Saturday week.