Limerick 2-27; Galway 0-31
They are not the Limerick of the golden era just gone but they still know how to get over the line in a tight game.
On Saturday in the Gaelic Grounds, they qualified to meet Cork in the National League final the weekend after next by holding on for a two-points victory in a game where Galway showed that they might have more of a say on the outcome of Liam MacCarthy this season than most people felt at the turn of the year.
In a classic game of two halves, Limerick dominated the first and held on for dear life in the second when the Westerners came at them like an army storming a citadel - and almost managed that feat except for the fact that Aaron Gillane spiked their comeback with a trademark goal four minutes from the end.
The upshot of the game is that Cork and Limerick will meet for the second of five possible encounters in the league decider - a game that might attempt to interpret form but not the outcome of further battles down the line.
Limerick cloak of invincibility, which they wore so well for almost five years up to 2023, unquestionably has slipped somewhat, but their latest coming must also reflect the fact that they have won five tough games in a row following a blip against Waterford at the start of the campaign.
Another important fact for the Treaty men is that they seem to enjoy going for and scoring goals again - on Saturday they got two, one in each half from the impressive Cathal O’Neill four minutes from half-time and the irrepressible Gillane when John Kiely and his men needed it most.
Credit to Galway for making a match of this contest when they seemed to be cut adrift when trailing by 10 points at the break.
What the 14,108 crowd will have seen is a new Galway - one that will put it up to Kilkenny when they meet in the first round of the provincial championship next month.
After their win over Cork a few weeks before, Kiely made a single change as Darragh Langan replaced Mike Casey and the rest of his players, including relatively new blood like Cathal O’Neill showing good leadership qualities.
What will be of concern to the brains trust behind Limerick is how they not only almost threw away such a big half-time lead but went missing in vital parts of the field.
When the Tribesmen got going, they really put their peddle to the floor and actually out punched Limerick by almost double scores when landing 22 points to their opponents 1-11 in that second moiety.
Galway’s annihilation of Kilkenny in Salthill two weeks earlier as manager Mícheál Donoghue rang the changes with Cianan Fahy, TJ Brennan, and Jason Rabbitte taking over from Kieran Hanrahan, Darragh Neary, and Rory Burke.
Galway had a chance of a final spot before the game and given that they hadn’t reached that stage in nine seasons, such changes seemed to suggest that some experimentation on line-up permutations were still the order of the day.
True, the visitors began well with a flurry of points from Jason Rabbitte, Cathal Mannion, Aaron Niland and Thomas Monaghan. However Limerick wrestled back control in double quick time by landing all but two of the next 10 white flags before O’Neill had the umpire bending for the green flag in the 26th minute.
Despite Aaron Niland scoring to keep Galway ticking Limerick kept plugging away and looked to have an easy second half when turning over ten to the good.
Whether the men in green eased off or the the men in maroon found renewed spirit is a matter of conjecture, the result was that after a short bout of shadow boxing, Galway came out swinging for the rest of the round.
In the 15 minutes approaching the hour, they landed jab after jab to make it a three point game with 10 mins left on the clock. The likes of Brian Concannon, Rabbitte, Ronan Glennon, Darragh Neary were to the fore in this part of the game.
Limerick were desperately in need of leaders and O’Neill stepped up with a point before Gillane reacted like a gazelle to a rebound from Adam English high shot to flash the ball home with only two minutes remaining.
That pushed the winners lead up to five again but Galway weren’t finished as Neary, Molloy and Niland with two placed balls, kept it lively for both sets of supporters right to the last moment.
In fact with time almost up and two points the lead, Galway had a chance of a goal from a close in free but Cathal Mannion’s effort was thwarted by William O’Donoghue on the line.
For a millisecond in his follow up Brian Concannon could have been the hero but his effort was smothered on the line and cleared.
Limerick: N Quaid; S Finn, D Langan, B Nash; D Byrnes, W O'Donoghue, K Hayes; A English (0-4), C Lynch (capt.); G Hegarty (0-3), A O'Connor (0-5, 0-3fs), Cl O'Neill (1-6); A Gillane (1-4), S O'Brien, D Reidy (0-2) Subs: D Ó Dálaigh (0-2) for O’Brien (half time), E Hurley (0-1) for Lynch (temp 40 mins-43 mins), H Flanagan for Hegarty (56), M Casey for Nash (62), P O’Donovan for O’Connor (65), CCoughlan for Byrnes (69)
Galway: D Fahy; J Ryan, C Trayers, D Morrissey (capt.); R Glennon (0-1), P Mannion (0-1), C Fahy; TJ Brennan, C Daniels; T Monaghan (0-2), Cl Mannion (0-4), T Killeen (0-1); C Whelan (0-2), J Rabbitte (0-4), A Niland (0-10, 0-8fs) Subs: S Morgan for Morrissey, Dh Neary (0-3) for Fahy, CMolloy (0-2) for Brennan (all half-time), B Concannon (0-1) for Monaghan (47 minutes), S Linnane for Glennon (66)
Ref: C Mooney (Dublin).
