Cats cruise past off-colour Treaty

capacity to pull the Limerick fullback line out of position and their work-rate which was causing the All-Ireland champions so many problems.

These characteristics were central to their third goal in the 30th minute when Paddy Deegan and John Donnelly forced a turnover against Lynch and Deegan’s drive into the danger zone was won by TJ Reid who rounded Alan Costelloe and drove the ball to the net.

A measure of the disarray in the Limerick ranks was underlined soon afterwards when Quaid fielded a Reid free from under his crossbar. His clearance went straight to Reid who transferred to Cillian Buckley whose score extended the Cats’ advantage to seven points.

Limerick were guilty of wayward shooting as well as hitting nine wides, compared to four for Kilkenny, including two Gillane frees but the corner-forward did convert one in the 36th minute to leave the half-time score 3-6 to 1-6 in favour of Kilkenny.

But the Cats suffered a blow just three minutes into the second half when Eoin Cody who had been booked in the first half was sent off.

Donnacha Ó Dálaigh and David Reidy scored Limerick points but a brace of TJ Reid frees kept Kilkenny in front. Indeed, his leadership qualities were crucial and his performance was typified by an incident in the 48th minute when despite taking punishment from a posse of Limerick defenders he kept possession and won a free which he converted to restore their five-point advantage.

There was little indication of a Limerick revival with Reid continuing to keeping the scoreboard ticking and the All-Ireland champions faced further jeopardy when Peter Casey was red-carded following an off the ball incident which left Deegan needing treatment.

After Reid was withdrawn Billy Drennan proved an able replacement scoring three points as the Limerick challenge petered out. Before the end Limerick had withdrawn Lynch, Declan Hannon and Gearóid Hegarty while their starting forwards only managed to score four points from play.

By the end, Kilkenny were in cruise control and sub Eoin Wall could have scored two goals and it mattered little that only two of their 11 second-half points came from play.

Scorers – Kilkenny: TJ Reid 1-8 (7f, 1 65); E Cody, L Hogan 1-0 each; A Mullen, B Drennan (2f) 0-3 each; A Ryan, C Buckley, M Keoghan 0-1 each. Limerick: A Gillane 1-5 (3f); C O’Neill, T Morrisey (2f), D Reidy (1f) 0-2 each; D

Byrnes (1f), D Ó Dálaigh, P Casey, G Hegarty

0-1 each.

Kilkenny: E Murphy; S Murphy, H Lawlor, T Walsh; D Blanchfield, P Deegan, C Buckley; C Kenny, J Molloy; A Mullen, E Cody, J Donnelly; L Hogan, TJ Reid, B Ryan. Subs: R Reid for Buckley (h-t), M Keoghan for Hogan (45), O Wall for Ryan (52), B Drennan for TJ Reid (59), T Clifford for Donnelly (69), K Blanchfield for Kenny (71).

Limerick: N Quaid; D Nash, S Finn, A Costelloe; D Byrnes, D Hannon, C O’Neill; W O’Donoghue, C Lynch; G Hegarty, A English, T Morrissey; A Gillane, D Ó Dálaigh, P Casey. Subs: D Reidy for English (h-t), C Boylan for Lynch (55), S Flanaghan for Gillane (58), M Quinlan for Hannon (61), A O’Connor for Hegarty (67).

Referee: J Owens (Wexford).