I was thinking to myself during the first half Limerickâs aura & the formidable reputation theyâve earned was having an effect on Kilkenny (of all counties). I know Kilkenny were hurling fairly well & going full blooded for every ball, but I thought they were a bit snatchy with shots (or maybe it was more technique with WW) & tried to go for the jugular or the killer option when straightforward points were on & the goal chance(s) were low percentage.
Itâs fair enough in one sense - Limerick have shown they can hunt teams down & completely dismantle them as games progress & it was commonly accepted theyâd need to score a clutch of goals to be in with a shout. That said, I didnât think they played the game in front of them at times & tried to force it. I thought Eoin Cody in particular took a lot out of the ball when he could have laid it off for scores & he also had the goal effort from the rebound that could have been popped over. I reckoned Kilkenny could have been 6 or 7 ahead at half time if they took the scores that were on but Iâm not even sure that would have been enough to keep the Limerick onslaught at bay. It might have put some doubts into their mind though & sustained their own belief. I dunno.
But that second half was unbelievable from Limerick & one of the finest halves of hurling Iâve seen. I guess the fact Kilkenny did pad the lead out to 5 after Deeganâs goal only for Limerick to wipe it out with 5 points in as many minutes probably answers the question I posed above. Some of the individual displays were unreal good - Nash, Hayes, Peter Casey in particular. Byrnes stormed into it after having some bother with Phelan in the first half. Cian Lynch was very good earlier on when the team as whole wasnât firing. I think the point Gillane got to level it under the Cusack at 2-10 to 0-16 after a really exciting passage of play was the beginning of the end for Kilkenny. TJ Reid had played someone in for a potential goal chance but he slipped (Keoghan?) & Limerick marauded downfield to score. It was a period where Kilkenny needed to halt Limerickâs growing momentum & had a big chance to but they were swept away after that. They didnât really get any impetus from the bench either & couldnât tilt the game back in their favour at all.
But 21 points in the second half of an All Ireland Final. Fucking hell. Congratulations to my INTERNET friends from Limerick.
Give me a shout tomorrow night if you want a celebratory one.
Will do . Might be late though.
I agree with all those views.
DB, WOâD and KH must be tallest ever All Ireland half back line.
Few things I picked up on:
-There was a terrible call by the umpire with ten minutes to go that was a 2 point swing. Kilkenny needed that.
-Tom Phelan got 0-3 and assisted a goal but if he was elite level he would have got 0-6 and assisted another goal for TJ. The ball was like a magnet to him today but he wasnât good enough to really prosper.
-Kilkenny and Lyng will have to move on from Tommy Walsh, Mossy Keoghan, Billy Ryan and Fogarty. Cian Kenny needs time to bed in as heâs quality. Gaeroid Dunne is a player I like. Thereâs a Reid young lad from the Rower that might be close to start at 4 next year, @Malarkey might know.
Wonderful from Limerick, they are a joy to watch when theyâre rolling but from a Kilkenny point of view that second half was an absolute disaster.
I think it was something like 0-24 to 1-5 from about the half hour mark. As I feared beforehand, Kilkenny were routed.
Major surgery needed from midfield up.
Wally - done
Richie - done
Fogarty - done
Padraig Walsh - done
Buckley - done
Donnelly - not up to it
Mossy - full forward or not even on the panel
We havenât had a midfield worthy of the name since Mick Fennelly hung them up.
21 points conceded in one half of hurling - brutal.
That was indeed a bad call by the umpires. But was it actually a 2 point swing?
Weâll never actually know what wouldâve happened. Reid might have missed the 65 and Limerick may have gone up the field and scored a goal from the resulting puck out.
Itâs like in Back to the Future. If you change even a small thing in history nothing plays out the same as before.
Touch of class from John Kiely bringing the cup up to JP.
From Kilkennys second goal to the end is probably the best sporting performance Iâve ever witnessed. It was close to perfect
Thereâs an 98% chance of Tj scoring that 65. It was a big moment.
Evenin all
I thought Buckley & Wally were good the last day though.
If you were lazy, & I am, you could say he encapsulated Kilkenny today. Ferocious effort, some excellent parts but not that elite level quality & a number of mistakes too. As you say, 3 points from play, an assist for Deeganâs goal & he even got a boot on the ball to play it into Codyâs path for the first goal too. And he worked himself to an absolute standstill & he couldnât be faulted for effort. One piece of play before half time stands out when Hegarty caught a puck out above Deegan & Byrnes set off on a run upfield. Hegarty played a low ball down the line but Phelan had sprinted back, got in front of Byrnes & drew a foul. Yet despite those moments of quality & huge appetite for work, there were some pretty poor pieces of play too. He carried the ball into contact & either got dispossessed or done for overcarrying on two or three occasions. He botched his first touch on another few occasions where promising attacks were ended abruptly. Some of these resulted in Limerick scores too. That incident where he could/should have laid it off to TJ was a replica of his goal in Wexford Park in the round robin. He took the ball on the exact same running arc & cut right through the middle but you could see the hook coming this time. I think he also nearly got through himself in that wild passage of play before Gillaneâs point but missed the pick up on the â14.
They won an U20 All-Ireland last year. Although Cathal Oâ Neill wasnât allowed play for Limerick which was a decisive factor in the final. The likes of Billy Drennan and Harry Shine are promising forwards for the Cats.
I canât see anyone stopping the 5 in a row now. Clare probably look the best equipped to challenge Limerick next year but Munster as always will be a bear pit and another year of mileage on John Conlon at 6. Cork will win a senior soon but it will probably be backboned by the U20 team from this year so it will be another couple of years at least.
Incredible display in the last 15 minutes from Peter Casey. Irrepressible. Reminiscent of his display in the first 15 minutes of the 2021 final. I thought Diarmuid Byrnes was very good too when Limerick were under pressure. I was in shock after 38 minutes when Paddy Deegan scored the goal. The low scoring rate was surprising to say the least. What developed from there was equally mesmerising. 0-19 to 0-5 thereafter. Itâs mad to think how close Limerick were to elimination in the Munster Round Robin but this team seem to thrive on flirting with danger and then powering through. Theyâll win the 5 in a row and go down in immortality I reckon. Not bad for a team who are fundamentally uselessđ
Just an exceptional group of men, there will inevitability come the time when they are pushed by a younger, fitter, hungrier team coming through more than likely Cork down the line and they will no longer be able to find a response but for now just have to appreciate what an incredible side they are and hopefully there is more to come, even typing the phrase here of drive for five is wake me up now stuff.
On a personal note like @Locke this was my first final without the auld lad and only sport or not there are some things in life which will no longer be the same like AI final days, he would have been smiling down at FT much like he would have been reassuring me all week in the build up they would get it done.
How are they all in Balkyraggett?
Fifi is tuning up for a big night.