Tribe’s distribution and their rejection of route one played into Limerick’s hands
FOR me there were two key areas in which Galway added to their own demise yesterday, and they happened at opposite ends of the pitch. The first was poor distribution inside their own ‘45’: that led directly to seven Limerick points. I felt for Éanna Murphy (right) in goals, who seemed to get a bit spooked by an incident after 15 minutes.
He floated a puck-out that got intercepted by Gearóid Hegarty and after that he started to arrow them, but they either flew over the top of the receiver or went too low.
Then he over-compensated, and struck the ball from just below his hip and it shot up high. That caused chaos for Galway in the middle third.
He had a great game otherwise with two or three fantastic plays, and Dáithí Burke wasn’t without blame for the same issue. Galway had an extra defender and they could have given him a hand by letting it go to the corner-backs instead of the half-backs, but they had it in their head that the Limerick half-forwards would sit back.
They did, but the Galway receiver wasn’t far enough out to get the ball wide; he was down the middle, and trying to pinpoint it there is tricky.
Galway got so caught up in what Limerick were doing. They thought they could pass it short, play through them, run at them, but they didn’t have the legs for that, whereas Waterford will.
It was frustrating watching them in the first quarter. Joe Canning and Conor Whelan were inside at the edge of the square and because of that the Limerick halfback line didn’t go as far up the pitch – they were afraid of their lives.
If you’re Limerick, the last thing you want is Canning and Whelan inside but when they were in there Galway never really hit it in. I’m talking route one, old style – take advantage of the mismatch in size.
Morrissey was marking Whelan and Seán Finn was on Canning. That’s all of Galway’s Christmases coming at once. But maybe that’s the way the modern player has gone: they’re programmed to look 40 or 50 yards up the pitch rather than 70 yards. When Canning came out Finn came into the game a lot more and from being three points up at the end of the first quarter, Galway were two down at half-time. Down the stretch, Galway still had a shot but there was a lack of composure, which they should have had as a seasoned team.
But take nothing away from Limerick. I don’t know what people expect from them – as if they’re going to hammer the life out of teams – but if you’re talking longevity of success it’s about managing matches as best they can.
Limerick are doing just that, though John Kiely will know they need to be better when they come up against Waterford again. To me, the lesson of that first semi-final is this: it’s amazing what happens to a group when they have nothing to lose.
Exposed
That was the case for Waterford, going in at the break seven points down. The main issue was their half-forward line weren’t coming back far enough to support their half-back line, which left them exposed one-on-one. But in the second half Jack Fagan and Neil Montgomery sat back, nearly on their own ‘65’, and ran the ball up from there.
Once they got inside the shoulder
of the Kilkenny defence they caused havoc. You had to be in Croke Park to truly understand the speed of Calum Lyons, Jack Prendergast, Stephen Bennett – they’re flying machines.
Once they were able to anchor possession 70 or 80 yards from the Kilkenny goals and get it in their hand and run, they went up the pitch in waves.
They’d been hesitant in the firsthalf. It was a new experience for a lot of them and they stood off Kilkenny. At one stage Kevin Moran, Tadhg de Búrca and Calum Lyons were standing on their own, looking at the Kilkenny half-forward line 20 yards further up the pitch and the balls were flying over their heads – they weren’t coming out to engage them.
In the second-half, Moran pushed up and Lyons played more like a wingback than a wing-forward because his wing-forward team-mate, Fagan, did his job better. Austin Gleeson looked a bit disinterested at the outset, like he didn’t want to be playing in the full-forward line, but when they brought him out around the half-forward line he got on a few balls and you could see the swagger return.
Energy
Kilkenny typically put their foot on your throat when they have a period of dominance, but that didn’t happen. Waterford were allowed to do their thing and in the second half they just had way too much energy. They overpowered them and, in truth, could have won by more.
I think the absence of a crowd helped Waterford. If it was the normal semi-final, when they started hitting wides in the first half the groans would rain down from the stands but with no one there, there was silence every time Kilkenny got on top.
In that quietness, I noticed a key trait in Waterford: hunger for goals. When they got inside the Kilkenny ‘45’ the shout from the sideline was “go, go, go” instead of “hit it over the bar”. That’s a big part of what they do now and it’ll cause Limerick’s defence to sit back and be a bit hesitant.
For Liam Cahill, the game was proof positive that his project is working. Those players have unbelievable spirit and the team is as athletic, if not more athletic, than anyone out there.
The good news for Cahill is there’ll be no nonsense with All-Ireland final tickets over the next week, and due to the restrictions everyone has to stay away from his players.
That’ll make it easier to reduce the hype in the county and allow players to keep their heads level as they approach the final hurdle – the biggest hurdle of all.