Limerick 3-19; Cork 0-20
Two things we think we know after this game played in championship fervor at the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday evening - Cork aren’t unbeatable and Limerick haven’t gone away.
We must put an asterisk on the above because both managers know these two teams could meet five times this year so in this round Cork boss Ben O’Connor produced something of a shadow team to see what sort of punching power was left in the Limerick fighting machine.
He got his answer, quite a bit actually, and this was underlined by the caliber of player he brought on in the second half when for a while it appeared that the Treaty boys could end up routing the team in red.
One thing we can be fairly sure of - there won’t be as yawning a gap between the victors and vanquished when they meet up further down the line because both sides possess top class performers.
They are probably the two biggest outfits, size-wise, in the hurling world and that could be a factor, though Tipperary’s win last year has also shown us there are ways to victory around such man mountains.
By next month, depending on how results shake down, the men in red and green could be meeting in the league final while for certain they will step it out in the Munster series in just over six weeks. Their close to 19,000 fans in Limerick on Saturday got a glimpse of what is to be expected as the two sides kept an edge to their game and their head to heads right through the game.
Then if results go in a direction, they could meet in the Munster final and similarly, if they stay standing on either side of the draw, could meet again in the All Ireland final. Who says familiarity breeds contempt?
The first half mainly went tit-for-tat with the winners leading by 1-9 to 0-11 at the interval, but Limerick kicked on impressively to score 2-10 in the second half while Cork returned 0-9 for their endeavors.
What has to be factored into all of this is the fact that Cork had less than half the team which beat Limerick in last year’s Munster final, so O’Connor certainly kept his powder dry knowing that winning could turn out to be no more than a pyrrhic victory.
By contrast Limerick manager John Kiely knew he needed to rebuild confidence within and outside the camp and so gave a dozen of the players who lined out in the last Munster final a start.
In Páirc Uí Chaoimh on April 26, when both teams are at full strength, we will only then see where both stand in terms of each other and if they have the ability to go all the way and claim the Liam MacCarthy Cup in July.
Afterwards losing boss O’Connor said: “Ah, disappointed with the result. We were well in it until the middle of the second half, they got on top of us then but we fought back well again in the last 10 minutes. Delighted with the performance, disappointed with the result,” he summed up.
Reviewing the overall game, he went on: “We found it hard to get a foothold, they took over in the middle third and it took us a while to get to grips with it. But when we did, our fellas battled back again and we had the few that had to go off with injuries, Dáire O’Leary and Eoin Roche. We'll learn a lot from it.
“Disappointed we didn't get goal chances, they'll come another day. A learning experience for a lot of our fellas that wouldn't have had that kind of a game under their belt. I think we learned enough of them tonight to see that we have plenty fellas good enough to play at this level.
“The disappointing thing is that we never looked like getting a goal. You are always going to need a couple of goals if you are going to beat Limerick. A worthwhile exercise, got game-time into a lot of fellas. Just disappointed with the result because we set out our stall to win every game this year. Now that's out of the way, we just move onto Offaly in a couple of weeks' time,” he stated.
Limerick now join Cork on eight points and the Treaty know that a win or a draw at the same venue against Galway will set up a Cork v Limerick Mark 2.
Limerick: N Quaid; S Finn, M Casey, B Nash; D Byrnes, W O'Donoghue, K Hayes; A English (0-2), C Lynch (0-1); G Hegarty, A O'Connor (1-11, 0-7fs, 1-0 pen), C O'Neill (1-2); A Gillane (0-1), S O'Brien (1-0), D Reidy Subs: C Coughlan for Hayes (blood sub, 11-12 minutes), T Morrissey (0-1) for Hegarty (51), H Flanagan (0-1) for Reidy (57), D Langan for Finn (60), D Ó Dálaigh for O’Brien (65), O Farrell for Gillane (65).
Cork: P Collins; E Roche, D O’Leary, G Millerick; D Cahalane, E Downey (0-1), M Mullins; C Joyce, T O’Connell (0-3); B Walsh (0-2), T O’Mahony (0-7, 0-6fs, 0-1 '65), S Kingston (0-1), A Walsh (0-1), B Hayes (0-3), S Barrett (0-2) Subs: S Harnedy for Kingston (40), N O’Leary for Roche (47), D Fitzgibbon for Mullins (54), S O’Donoghue for O’Leary (60), D Dalton for Walsh (65).
Ref: S Stack (Dublin).
GAA RESULTS
HL Division 1A
Galway 0-35 Kilkenny 0-17
Limerick 3-19 Cork 0-20
Waterford v Tipperary
(Postponed)
HL Division 1B
Dublin 6-32 Down 0-18
Kildare 3-22 Carlow 1-19
Clare 0-26 Wexford 1-20
HL Division 2
Kerry 6-24 Mayo 0-15
Laois 0-28 Meath 0-11
Westmeath 1-20 Derry 3-13
HL Division 3
Tyrone 3-22 Armagh 0-11
Wicklow 0-21 Donegal 0-14
Roscommon 5-18 Fermanagh 2-22
HL Division 4
Leitrim 2-28 Lancashire 0-15
Warwickshire 0-16 Longford 1-13
Sligo 8-19 Cavan 0-11
Camogie League Division 1A
Waterford 1-16 Antrim 0-9
Galway 1-13 Tipperary 0-12
Cork 1-15 Kilkenny 0-9
Camogie League Division 2A
Meath 2-12 Derry 1-11
Kerry 0-10 Westmeath 0-8
Laois 2-11 Carlow 2-9
Camogie League Division 3A
Armagh 4-11 Tyrone 2-10
Roscommon 3-15 Wicklow 0-6
Camogie League Division 3B
Mayo 1-13 Monaghan 0-7
Louth 6-1 Donegal 0-7
