Rebels go down fighting as hurling reaches new plateau
THERE are many moments from an enthralling, breathtaking weekend of hurling, from Peter Duggan’s equalising point on Saturday to Nickie Quaid’s inch-perfect dispossession of Seamus Harnedy a day later just as he was about to pull the trigger, that will frame these All-Ireland semi-finals for a long, long time.
But for a sense of the game’s sheer relentlessness now the first six minutes of the second half encapsulates it well.
In that space of time there were eight points, Cork’s five to Limerick’s three to take them into a one-point lead, 0-19 to 1-15. There were five Limerick wides too.
Think about it in these terms, 13 opportunities served up at an average of under 28 seconds each.
It may not be reflective of the pace of every segment of the play but it’s a telling snapshot.
Almost every time Quaid or Anthony Nash put the ball back into play from a puck-out, a score threatened, the equivalent of serve and volley in tennis.
Get your hands on one of those puck-outs and the chances were a score, or at least an opportunity was coming soon after.
UNPRECEDENTED
Take your eyes off the action for just a split second and your train of thought threatened to go. Step off the carousel for even a moment and you risked disorientation trying to step back on again as it spun like a fairground ride in front of you.
For a weekend of hurling it was surely unprecedented. When Kilkenny and Waterford went at it in a Saturday night replay in Thurles prior to Tipperary and Galway meeting for the second in their trilogy of epic All-Ireland semi-finals the following day in Croke Park in 2016, peak hurling looked to have been reached.
But this weekend went beyond that again, when four All-Ireland semi-finalists exceed 30 scores we have reached a plateau.
For Cork, the inf lection point for last year’s loss to Waterford was the sending off of Damien Cahalane. No question.
This time? Erosion was much slower. They reached the 62nd minute with a commanding 1-26 to 1-20 lead but hit a fork in the road surely with the loss of the sublime Daniel Kearney through injury – he came back on for 15 minutes of extra-time but by then Limerick were already drawing momentum from their bench.
In all they’d mine 2-6 from their substitutes, Shane Dowling leading the charge with 1-4, Pat Ryan adding the deftest of goals where he shortened the stick so much that, in real time, it looked like he had batted the ball in with his hand before David Reidy and Barry Nash applied late scores.
But that doesn’t reflect the impact of their first man in Peter Casey who set up four of the six points to wipe out that Rebel deficit, either by winning frees for Aaron Gillane or providing the assist for Dowling and Gillane.
Cork? They just couldn’t match that, their manager John Meyler (below) pointing to Limerick’s “more senior younger players, if you know what I mean.”
It was a fair point. Casey is just 21 but has the experience of being a starter in those two All-Ireland U-21 wins behind him.
The deeper Limerick reached the stronger, it seems, they got – it was in stark contrast to Cork.
Meyler acknowledged it was the difference. “We’ve a lot of young fellas in the subs, Robbie (O’Flynn) came on, Jack (O’Connor) came on and Tim (O’Mahony), 21 years of age. They’ve a long way to go and, please God, they’ll win an U-21 All-Ireland which would develop them.”
Too many of them were dead on their feet and in that second period of extra-time Limerick poured down the left wing of their defence where Hill 16 meets the Cusack Stand.
For Cork the hollow feel of coming to Croke Park as Munster champions in three of the last five years and failing to progress will be difficult to set aside. Each time they’ve been eclipsed by a side they left behind in the province.
It’s a recurring theme with nine of the last 12 Munster champions now failing to capitalise on their direct route to an All-Ireland semi-final. Only Tipperary, in 2009, 2011 and 2016, have advanced.
Meyler pointed to the build-up to Cian Lynch’s goal just before half-time and a potential foul on Kearney that caught his eye.
“I don’t know was Kearney going down on the ball, we possibly could have got a foul there.”
And there was a little irritation in the fact that a provincial final draw merits a replay but not an All-Ireland semi-final. “It’s a small bit funny when you draw a Leinster final and there’s a replay. I’m not making excuses, I’ve never made excuses. You draw an All-Ireland semi-final after full-time, you don’t. They are the rules that are there. We just have to play to those.
“We need to be here all the time to learn from our mistakes but you don’t get chances because they (Limerick) are coming.” How many more opportunities will this Cork team need? For players like Nash, Christopher Joyce, Conor Lehane – who stormed into the second half – Harnedy, Daniel Kearney and Patrick Horgan, survivors of 2013 and drivers of this Rebel renewal, the chance for redemption slipped further away.
It will never have felt as close.