Treaty men won’t fear anyone after weekend sees hurling soar to Alpine heights
I’VE been a hurling obsessive all my life, and I’ve simply never witnessed a weekend like it. Two fantastic games, four teams playing in the ideal spirit of the game: hard knocks, not a bad word between them, and every time players got hit, they got up and drove on – hurling as it was meant to be played, and a true thing of beauty.
Only stakes this high can produce quality so magnificent, and yesterday afternoon this Limerick side proved – as if there was any doubt – that they are a team which doesn’t care about the past.
It looks like it could be their year.
All season, ever since I watched them in the Munster League, they were my dark horses. Even back then, I liked the way they played and when the results weren’t coming, they kept playing the same system, trying to perfect it for high summer.
But as much as you make your own luck in hurling, All-Irelands can still be won and lost on the flick of a wrist, a fraction of a second, one little strike of a ball.
Yesterday afternoon Limerick’s season was saved by one moment of defensive magic from Nickie Quaid: scores level at 1-26 apiece, 72 minutes on the clock, Seamus Harnedy bearing down on goal, ready to land the haymaker to end the game in an instant.
But Quaid dived in, put his body on the line and got his hurl in the way. That was a huge turning point. If that ball went in, it was lights out for Limerick.
When it went to extra-time, what won it for Limerick was the depth of their panel.
They came back from an impossible position with 10 minutes left and that was thanks
to the subs introduced by John Kiely: Shane Dowling, Peter Casey and Pat Ryan (pictured) – they all made a huge contribution and Dowling in particular gave them that extra edge in attack.
From the full-back line out, Limerick went from strength to strength with every minute. Even when things went wrong, they were trying to do the right thing and when they got to extra-time they went into overdrive.
With the lads they brought on, it looked like they could play at that level for another half hour if needed.
Cork will be sick. They’ll wonder how they couldn’t close it out but the truth is, their bench just wasn’t up to matching what Limerick had. When they lost key men, they didn’t have the same quality to bring on.
Limerick won’t fear anyone now, but who they meet is another story, and we’re no closer to knowing that after Saturday’s classic.
For me, Galway could have killed off Clare in the first half but inaccurate shooting cost them. They allowed Clare to go in only four points down instead of nine or 10.
So many of their early wides came from shots when they weren’t even under pressure, so that’ll be a big focus for Micheál Donoghue’s men: to make better use of their chances.
I was surprised by how nervy a start Clare made. Galway knew Clare would try the short puck-out and it didn’t fully work, with a lot of Galway’s early scores coming from Clare mistakes.
Those errors come from the occasion, but I don’t know why they were nervous after such a great Munster campaign.
For Clare, a big tactical change was needed when they went nine down and moving Colm Galvin back to sweeper made a big difference. Up to that they were all over the shop and the Galway full-forward line looked very dangerous, but when he went back he gathered up good ball and usually made good use of it. A lot has been made of Clare keeping Galway waiting on the pitch before the second half, but it had no bearing on the game – if Clare won it would have been considered a masterstroke and if they lost it would have been called the wrong thing to do. But Clare saw a lot of outstanding players stepping up in the second half like Peter Duggan and Tony Kelly, while some of Galway’s stars were playing well, it was still only in patches.
In the dying minute, when Galway went one up, I can’t understand why they didn’t move up on that final Clare puck-out. When they didn’t Clare played it short, worked it up the pitch with beautiful passing and tapped it over. For a score that crucial, it was all too easy.
In the end, it was another game no one deserved to lose, but the key thing for Galway now is getting the injured lads back. If they get the same personnel on the pitch in Thurles, they’ll have to do a few things differently because Clare knew exactly how they were going to set up.
I’m just thankful we get to witness them go at it again, because these four teams have brought the game to a new level.
But I still think we need to have another look at the scheduling because too many games have been lumped in together.
That’s picking holes in what has been an incredible championship – one that’s taken