The flick was obviously class (and Tomâs catch) but the composure to finish properly into the ground was very impressive. Knows how to finish a goal tbf to him.
The greatest goal of all time.
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Cork v Limerick is on in PuĂC next Sunday lunchtime. I presume @Bod95 and @Thomas_Brady will continue their love-in and share a few scoops in Longboats.
I donât do bog ball
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Tom was immense all through. Any time we begin to doubt him he does that.
Tom loves a final.
I do in fairness
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Theyâre hurling snobs lad.They donât do big ball.Mind you they were probably at them Munster finals in the 00s tbf
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Id argue Kyle Hayes vs Tipp last year but by christ what an arguement. For sentimental value the dow vs galway.
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Watched the game back, thereâs always a few close-up incidents that the cameras pick up that you donât see at the match and equally, thereâs a lot that you see at the game that the cameras canât see. A couple of points:
Puckouts
This is one of the things that the cameras canât really show as it only shows when the ball lands, but I thought the movement on our puckouts was way too early, so the ball was landing on top of a static target. Very unusual from a Limerick point-of-view to have that. Also, if Kyle is playing the Mul role, he cannot continually be the puckout target, it should be his job to get on the back of the break. And how many balls landed into that space where no one was? He caught one but his shot went wide. Mul definitely added a lot when he came on, and Kyle did much better out the field.
But particularly in the first half, we were really struggling to secure possession off our own puckout. Clare pushed right up at times and werenât allowing us to even go to the full-back line and we just werenât winning the breaks, Ryan Taylor in particular was just sharper than our midfielders on the break. However, after the extremely long Hawkeye break, we worked an excellent puckout, opened up a space right down the middle and Quaid was able to land it in front of the full-forward line without any Clare cover, Flanagan broke onto it and put it over the bar. That direct ball did work the few times we did it; Gillane won a free with another one in the second half for which Cleary was booked and DOD scored a few minutes later after Gillane broke the ball.
We were better on our own puckout in the second half, but did struggle a lot in the first half. But even more worryingly, we struggled on Clareâs puckout. We were very poor on the second ball when they went short, we didnât properly squeeze and they were able to play around us and they got some fairly handy scores as a result. Ryan Taylor again was very prominent and Tony Kelly is also excellent at reading the breaks. Just werenât sharp enough, and itâs an area we have to improve on massively.
Midfield
I donât think DOD or WOD were as bad as some people were saying, but Ryan Taylor was definitely the outstanding midfielder on show. Cathal Malone was actually only alright. WOD was so quiet in the first half; DOD was better than him in the first half and was okay in his linkman role but wasnât winning breaks. WOD was definitely better than DOD in the second half, and he really grew into the game in extra time then. Scored a ridiculous point aswell, which I think he was almost as surprised at as I was. But we do need more from them the next day.
Goal Chances
Obviously only scored one goal which was brilliantly created by Tom, and brilliantly finished by Hego. Had a couple of chances before that though.
CON brilliantly found Flanagan (his movement again exceptional). He lost the hurley and maybe that affected him but he actually had a bit of time, and had he kept his composure, I would expect him to finish with the boot from there. As it was, it just trickled wide. There was no real obvious pass on, so I think he had to go for it.
Flanagan also had the second goal chance when he was brilliantly set up by Hegarty. He was probably never scoring from a tight angle, but it was worth a go, especially as we had the advantage. Routine enough save for Quilligan but worth a go.
Think the last goal chance was Gillane, after he got inside Cleary. But never really got away from him, would have been a very difficult chance off his right from that angle, but Cleary got the hook in anyway. Probably had a pass on inside on that occasion because I donât think he was going to score even if he got his shot away, youâd fancy the keeper from that angle.
Gillane
I thought he was unreal tbh. Sheedy made a comment at half-time that he needed more movement to get away from Cleary but he was right in front of me in the first half and I donât think Iâve ever seen Gillane move so much. He was constantly darting from left to right but Cleary was just holding on and wouldnât let go. Now, we needed to play the ball in there more to test the referee; heâs not going to blow unless the ball goes in that direction.
He scored 0-3 from play, I think. He was fouled 3 times for frees he scored himself. And he set up 2 or 3 directly for Flanagan. The first one that Flanagan scored was absolutely unreal from Gillane; he caught the ball low when Hayes had two arms around him. Absolutely no right to win it. He also had a horrific wide, when he had circled back to give himself a handy score as well as missing a handy free. But overall a brilliant target man performance; scores came directly from him, in a way they didnât come from Duggan at the other end.
Flanagan
What makes him a top class player is his movement. He scored 0-8 across the 90 minutes; some of them were handy enough finishes but he found himself in the right place at the right time. But he also had a few big scores that he had to do the hard work himself. Kelly got a massive score after his hook on Hego but directly from that puckout, Flanagan makes the run to left half-forward, wins the ball and takes a shot from the sideline that goes straight over the bar. That was his third point, but an absolutely massive point after what was an inspirational score. His 8th point in the second half of extra-time aswell, won a very hard ball in front of Hayes from a puckout, again after Clare had narrowed the gap back to 1. Won the ball, broke free and put it straight over the bar.
Clare Inside Forwards
I think I counted 6 points in the entire game that came as a result of the Clare inside line, our full-back line were absolutely top class. They simply ate up everything that came in; maybe the ball was a bit one-dimensional at times but any contested ball, they tended to win. Finn & Nash in particular were huge, but Casey & English aswell.
Ian Galvin scored a point after Conlon delivered a great ball in. But there was not a hint of pressure on Conlon as he delivered it, the ball was undefendable and Galvin tapped it over.
Duggan won a free which led to a score, even though he had no hurley, a silly flick by Byrnes caught Duggan on the ankle was he was trying to rise the ball with his feet. Possibly a little soft in the grand scheme of things but Byrnes just needs to be careful in that situation.
Meehan was lively when he came on; he dispossessed Hannon for a score and was fouled by English on the right touchline which Duggan pointed. He also set up a score for Kelly in extra-time; Kelly possibly could have gone for goal.
And Rodgers got a point at the very very end, he was going for goal but was brilliantly blocked by Nash, and it deflected over the crossbar.
There was also a score when Mike Casey took the ball into contact and got turned over, which Kelly popped over. It was something we possibly did too much in the game. Iâm all for breaking the tackle than hitting the ball in front of an opponent but donât carry the ball into 2/3 opponents; in those situations, you have to go around. We are excellent ourselves at winning those turnovers but Clare did it as well as us yesterday.
But our full-back line applied good pressure even when the inside men did win the ball, Reidy hit a bad wide, Mounsey hit a bad wide, the one time Duggan did catch a ball cleanly, he was brilliantly hooked by Nasher. We definitely got a lot more from our full-forward line than Clare did from theirs, and thatâs with Cleary doing a lot right and Paul Flanagan being absolutely superb. He was a massive loss for Clare when he went off, Cian Nolan was definitely not as good as him on the day.
Other Points
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Couple of other things, CON picked off a couple of nice points but probably wasnât involved enough.
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Already mentioned, but the bench made a massive impact. Reidy probably the most prominent of them, winning a lot of dirty ball, won a couple of frees, a big score and some lovely deliveries inside. But Boylan was also excellent, Mulcahyâs work rate and his ability to get on those breaks changed the way we played, and Richie was very solid bar one foul on Meehan.
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Kyle wasnât great inside but was much, much better at centre-forward. Some lovely deliveries into the full-forward line, some big turnovers. Almost set up a goal chance by going through the middle, offloaded to Hego who was levelled by Conlon but had managed to pop it outside to CON to tap over. A WOD handpass was also just too high for Kyle when it looked like he was in on goal. But heâll be disappointed with a few fumbles which led to us being turned over.
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After an immaculate display of freetaking in Ennis, Byrnes must have missed 4 or 5. Gillane missed a handy one too; I think Kelly missed 3 and Duggan missed 1. Conditions clearly were difficult for freetakers.
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I mentioned it in the match day thread yesterday but as I was running a few Sunday morning errands in my beloved Tipp Town yesterday i came upon the Limerick team getting on the team bus outside my alma mater, Abbey CBS.
Apart from the obvious questionable physiques of the players, what really struck me was the amount of Sponsored Cars parked up. Ford Kugaâs, Nissan Quashqaiâs, Mercâs. Every type of fucking yoke.
Along with the air miles clocked up by The Big House on the chopper and Private Jet, its clear this current crop from Limerick dont give one fiddlers fuck about Climate Change. cc @Little_Lord_Fauntleroy
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Its Tipp town ffs. Nuking it would probably reduce emissions
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Donât forget all those flights theyâve had going on holidays. So many people want to reward them itâs sick.
Tipp GAA lads saving a load of journeys by boycotting Croke Park and girlfriend pooling.
Looking forward to hearing Takaka Rain blaring out in Croke Park in a few weeks.
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Are you one of those peeping Tom types who multiplied during the pandemic?
They played it in Thurles yesterday.
(Not in Hayes Hotel)
O Neill put Flanagan through early for the goal chance he missed. Thought he should a good presence of mind and vision to spot him given it was helter skelter at that time.
Itâs really his first day in big school and he done well.
Centre forward is his position.
What are they on? HGH? EPO? These âamateursâ are in better condition than elite premiership soccer players and professional boxers like Canelo Alvarez (who is on drugs) it must the stheak jp buys them after training on Thursday night and all the early nights 
Good job drug testing wasnât as advanced in 95 or 97