Dublin 2-24; Limerick 0-28
If you saw that coming, then please let us know the winner of the big race next Saturday? In truth, nobody saw this coming with the possible exception of Dubs boss Niall Ó Ceallacháin and a few hardy dyed-in-the-blue-wool souls surrounding this Dublin hurling team.
Even if you did see it coming, certainly when Dublin skipper Chris Crummey was harshly sent off after 15 minutes for a phantom high tackle collision, well you would have thrown your gambling docket into the fire at that stage.
So under both those circumstances, this has to rank as the biggest hurling surprise of the millennium - and you know what, they were so good that there are shades of Heffo’s rise with the footballers in 1974 about this ‘25 hurling outfit.
They were immense, they were powerful and ultimately they had too much hunger for a rapidly tiring Limerick team to cope with at an equally rapidly filling Croke Park on Saturday.
The fact that this was the early game serving as a curtain-raiser to the Dublin-Cork football preliminary quarter-final tells its own story - this was seen as something of a turkey shoot for a Limerick team trying to get back on the rails after their penalty shoot-out loss to Cork in the Munster final.
Instead John Kiely and co. had to pack their bags, pick up their tents and head off into the sunset of the 2025 championship much, much earlier than they anticipated.
So from hurling folk everywhere, a massive congrats to Niall and his squad for what they have done for the national game this early summertime. And while it would be all unbelievable if they could do the same against Liam MacCarthy favorites Cork the weekend after next (Saturday, July 5 at 5 p.m in Croke Park), there is no doubt that the pendulum trajectory has now changed.
The late football followers got a taste of what these hurlers are about and if they give a “boys in blue” feel to Croker the next day, that fact plus the sheer intensity if it can be replicated, will make Dublin believe they can be a match for anyone.
Certainly they won’t be 12/1 longshots like they were on Saturday when from the first whistle to last, they out-desired Limerick in the pursuit of every sliotar, every play and every block and scoring attempt.
And they were no slouches on the sideline either where they refused to panic after Crummy saw red and instead kept their high intensity plan to force the Treatysiders onto the back foot for most of the game.
The management team also excelled as it was a marvelous goal from substitute John Hetherton from the acutest of angles and another from the ubiquitous Cian O'Sullivan that allowed Dublin enough oxygen against the elements to survive Limerick every parting shot to drown out the new kids on the block.
Hetherton’s introduction allowed the Dubs to go long with their play and the huge man on the square will never score a more important goal than the exocet he unleashed off his left side to whistle past Nickie Quaid.
It is 12 years since the Dubs got past a quarter-final match, which was the year they won the Leinster final before losing to Cork at the penultimate stage.
On Saturday, they had heroes all over the pitch, for aside from Hetherton and MVP Conor Burke, you could point to Seán Currie’s unerring accuracy which yielded nine points while brothers Ronan and Brian Hayes stood tall, as did one time county football star Conor McHugh.
In the other semifinal, Tipperary will meet old foes and neighbors Kilkenny. And despite the weekend heroics, the Dubs will be seen as the outsiders of the four left in the competition.
That won’t faze them as when they were trailing by two points when Crummey got red-carded, outsider would have been a term of endearment almost. The hope around that issue is that referee Liam Gordon accepts that what he thought he saw and what happened were two different things so that the skipper is free to play in the semi-final.
We got a look at this new Dublin who despite the disadvantage numerically still led 0-15 to 0-12 at the interval, albeit with a wind at their backs.
It was what they did next that gave them belief - they snatched four of the following five points. Then Aidan O'Connor and Aaron Gillane scored to get Limerick back in it and following diligent point-taking culminating with Adam English putting them ahead, it looked like the bookies odds would be right after all.
The introduction of Hetherton at half-time was crucial as we were about to see with two goals to put the Dubs in the driving seat. Hetherton scored one and broke the sliotar for O'Sullivan to slam home.
Leading now by 2-18 to 0-19, Dublin asked Limerick to show what they were made of. In fairness they kept chipping at the score deficit and with subs Peter Casey and Shane O'Brien aboard, the hope was they might conjure up some magic.
Gillane added to his tally and late scores from Casey and midfielder English but the Dublin defiance was clear with their ability to score points and keep a gap between the sides, which also stood in tact thanks to a brilliant save by Sean Brennan who deflected what looked like a certain Gillane goal over the bar.
Limerick’s last chance came from a Diarmaid Byrnes which was blocked by a scrum of Dublin defenders and Hetherton, who else, came thundering out with the ball in his hand.
Dublin: S Brennan; J Bellew, P Smyth, C McHugh; P Doyle, C Crummey (0-1), A Dunphy; C Burke (0-5), B Hayes (0-2); R McBride (0-2), F Whitely (0-1), C O'Sullivan (1-1); S Currie (0-9, 0-5f), R Hayes (0-3), D O'Dulaing Subs: J Hetherton (1-0) for O Dulaing h/t, D Power for Whitely 52, D Burke for McBride 64, C Currie for R Hayes 69, DLucey for McHugh 75.
Limerick: N Quaid; S Finn, D Morrissey, M Casey; D Byrnes, K Hayes, B Nash (0-1); A English (0-5), W O'Donoghue; G Hegarty (0-4), C Lynch (0-2), Tom Morrissey (0-2); A Gillane (0-9, 0-6f, 0-1 65), A O'Connor (0-3), D Reidy Subs: C O'Neill (0-1) for T Morrissey 23-24, blood, B Murphy for Casey h/t, O'Neill for Morrissey h/t, D Hannon for Nash 51, P Casey (0-1) for O'Donoghue 58, S O'Brien for O'Connor 64.
Ref: L Gordon (Galway).
