TRIBE & THRIVE
Dan: Win over Galway spurred us
LIMERICK defender Dan Morrissey believes their League win over Galway was the launch pad needed to help them reach an All-ireland semi-final.
The Treaty will play Cork at Croke Park on July 29 in the final four of the Championship after Sunday’s thrilling 0-27 to 1-22 defeat of Kilkenny.
The 25-year-old Ahane clubman picked up man of the match as his side fought back late on following the concession of a Richie Hogan goal in the 65th minute.
It’s a first All-ireland semi earned by Limerick since 2014 and Morrissey believes a 2-18 to 1-19 win over the Tribe in Salthill back in March laid the foundations for a successful year.
“Galway in the League was a huge game for us in that it gave us the belief we could compete with the very best,” said Morrissey.
“Since then we’ve been looking for incremental improvements each time. Some people said the Clare defeat was due to playing for a third week in a row but that’s more of a mental thing than a physical thing.
“We looked back on the video and we felt that we didn’t play well but we were still very much in that game with 10, 12 minutes to go even though they got the last seven points of the game.
“There were things in that game that we usually wouldn’t do, silly mistakes. Thankfully we got those out of our system and rectified it.
“Hopefully there won’t be a repeat of that for the semi-final.”
Limerick haven’t won an All-ireland since 1973 and that was also the last time they defeated Kilkenny in the Championship before Sunday.
But Morrissey says the hype needs to be tempered ahead of a clash against a team they have already drawn with this year.
“Limerick fans are great but maybe we have a habit sometimes of getting ahead of ourselves,” said Morrissey.
“Before the Clare game people were talking about All-ireland finals and we hadn’t even got to a Munster final at that stage. Cork will be red-hot favourites.”