One step closer: Limerick through to hurling decider
VINCENT HOGAN, COLM KEYS, DONNCHADH BOYLE, BRENDAN CUMMINS AND EAMONN SWEENEY ON A MEMORABLE HURLING WEEKEND
LIMERICK hurlers Diarmaid Byrnes (left) and Gearóid Hegarty celebrate their team’s 0-27 to 0-24 victory over Galway in yesterday’s All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship semi-final at Croke Park. The win sets up a first ever meeting with Waterford in the All-Ireland final on December 13. Limerick gunslingers show Déise they’ll need big arsenal in final – Eamonn Sweeney,
THE Wild West had Butch and Sundance, the Mid West has Tom and Gearóid. Limerick’s pair of gunslingers must be the best wing-forward combo in hurling. They’re certainly the most under-rated. Messrs Hegarty and Morrissey are rarely the first mentioned when Limerick’s marquee names are enumerated. The likes of Cian Lynch, Aaron Gillane, Declan Hannon, Graeme Mulcahy and Seán Finn have received more recognition than the No 10 and 12 who don’t have an All-Star between them.
Even their erstwhile half-forward partner Kyle Hayes, Young Player of the Year in 2018, has attracted more attention. But yesterday this most dynamic of duos were Limerick’s most valuable players. Without their nine points from play we’d be looking at a second Galway-Waterford final in four years.
It’s fitting that the final score of the game was a pointed free by Morrissey awarded for a foul on Hegarty. And also that Morrissey got things rolling for the champions in the sixth minute with a superb strike under pressure.
Pointing out the superb nature of the score almost seems superfluous because Morrissey and Hegarty have a penchant for the spectacular. They score a very high percentage of low percentage shots.
Yesterday’s haul was full of highlight -reel stuff. Morrissey pointed from way out on the wing in the ninth minute, Hegarty ended a powerful run with a perfect finish in the sixteenth.
There was a stunning brace from Hegarty in the 20th and 23rd minutes, both from near the sideline and out around halfway, as Limerick turned up the heat with five points on the trot.
A lovely point on the run came from Morrissey five minutes into injury-time just after Galway had drawn level and seemed to have momentum on their side.
Galway aren’t the first team unable to cope with the unsung heroes. The pair took Kilkenny for seven points in the 2018 All-Ireland quarter-final, Tipperary for the same number in last year’s Munster final and Clare for nine in the first game of this year’s provincial championships.
What makes these sprees all the more remarkable is that scoring may not even be Morrissey and Hegarty’s primary task on the Limerick team. Their ability to gain possession, carry the ball at opposition defences, win frees and create scores for others has been at least as important over the past couple of years.
Perhaps that’s why they’re so consistently underestimated. Their designation as workhorses made it easy to condescend to them as artisans rather than artists. Yet their increased scoring rate has come at an ideal time for a Limerick side whose one weakness is a lack of goal threat in the full-forward line.
On their way to the 2018 title Limerick scored 11 goals in seven games. Last year Tipp hit 14 in seven during their successful campaign. So far this year Limerick have scored just three goals in four games, all in the Munster semi-final against Tipperary.
This seems an especially poor return given that superiority elsewhere means
the Limerick front line has been amply supplied with quality possession. Yet so far Aaron Gillane has not really caught fire while Seamus Flanagan’s selection ahead of Peter Casey and the 40th-minute substitution of Graeme Mulcahy suggests Kiely feels more concern about this sector than any other.
The 16 wides Limerick struck not only allowed Galway to stay in the game but must also have given hope to Waterford. Liam Cahill will also be encouraged by the fact that, by holding Morrissey scoreless and keeping Hegarty to two points in the Munster final, Waterford have done better than anyone else this year against the Limerick wing-forwards.
In Calum Lyons and Kevin Moran they have two players, big, athletic, physically tough and good in the air, ideally suited to the challenge. The battle between this exceptional quartet will be one of the crucial contests in the final.
Limerick will start favourites but have yet to produce a display as convincing as the 2019 Munster final victory over Tipp. The suspicion is that there’s still something left in the tank.
The first-half spell which saw them move from four points down to one point up inside seven minutes and the injury-time rally which produced four in five were impressive illustrations of their ability to go up a gear when challenged.
Sceptics
Chances are that Limerick, as in 2018, will produce a really big performance when it matters most. Yet sceptics are entitled to point to the 12-minute spell without a score at the end of normal time and the eerie similarity of their start in this year’s semi to the one they made year against Kilkenny.
Last year they were 0-7 to 0-2 down after 13 minutes, this year the scoreline was the same after 14. The difference was that last year Morrissey and Hegarty were both eventually subbed after perhaps the most ineffective games of their inter-county careers.
That kind of reverse makes or breaks teams and players. In the case of Limerick and of their wing-forwards it seems to have had the former effect. The team haven’t lost since and Morrissey and Hegarty have played the best hurling of their careers.
Like their cartoon almost namesakes, Tom and Gearóid are always on the move, as elusive as the mouse and as eager to pounce as the cat.
It might be ‘that’s all folks’ for Waterford on Sunday week.