I went down to this myself. Really enjoyable win, I was quietly confident we’d do it but still it was a decent feat going into their backyard and winning and shows how far we have come since last year under Teege. @dodgy_keeper covered things perfectly in his report so I won’t rehash it too much.
In short, Lynch was brilliant at midfield in what is his best position. That was his best performance for Limerick this year. Hegarty is some bit of stuff, just what we’ve needed for the last few years. Hickey was very good, his best game this year too. Hannon was playing well until going off injured. I’d be worried about Mike Casey going forward as he had a bad day at the office on Cadogan who was roasting him until the brilliant Richie English quietened him. English is outstanding. Kyle Hayes and Dempsey did well too. I thought Dowling had a very poor game from play he wasn’t up to the pace of it. I think we’ll beat Galway and make the league final.
Poor game overall positive English hurled well half back line not bad Cian Lynch won’t do v Gallimh midfield. We need to man mark David Burke put someone on him that will take him out of the game. Cork are going nowhere and we’re not too far ahead Galway by 9 which should set up a cracking final with Tipp.
If Lynch was at midfield, who started in the corner?
It sounded like we still wasted an awful lot of ball, Aherne seemed to highlight Byrnes, Hickey & WOD most of all for that. Just need to take that extra second to get the head up and deliver the ball in low to the full-forward line or find a clever pass into midfield/half-forward. Hopefully, that will come with time.
The spells without scores are a bit of a worry, it was something that happened to the 21s in 2015 under Kiely too. But when they did burst into life at that level, they blew everyone out of the water. That won’'t cut it against the best at senior intercounty, you have to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
While I wouldn’t have minded a chance to play someone else, I suppose we can try and redeem ourselves against Galway. They were very poor against a weak Waterford side for large periods today. And they weren’t all that great against us last weekend but showed just flashes of what they are capable of. At least we can try and measure improvement against that performance, scoring more than two from play in the second half will be a start. Galway’s backs have a lot more about them than Cork’s.
We essentially played 5 up front, Hayes, Hegarty and occasionally Mulcahy rotating as those on the edge of the square. Lynch, O’Donoghue and Alan Dempsey all operated out in the middle of the park.
In the second quarter we hit an absolute hape of wides, and everyone was at it, Byrnes, WOD, Cian Lynch, David Dempsey, Hannon. The big thing we lack is a cutting edge up in the forwards. Mulcahy had an opportunity or two to pin the ears back with no red shirts in front of him and insisted on turning back and recycling the ball. Hegarty failing to see Hannon screaming for the ball in oceans of space with the goal at his mercy, Hayes popping off a poor handpass to Dempsey, again with the goal very much on. Small things, but the opportunity was there to go to town on Cork’s fullback who was having a trying afternoon. To try and keep the scoreboard ticking over you had guys taking potshots from distance and if there’s one area we have regressed in it’s our accuracy from out the park.
Lynch made some difference in midfield, storming into it in the last 20 minutes in particular. When he is in full flow at his game, winning blink-and-you-miss-it dirty ball in the middle of the park and releasing it to someone in space with some outlandish flick, he is an absolute joy to watch.
Hannon has struggled with a groin injury for the last 3 games and hopefully hasn’t done himself damage as he is growing into the role and - whisper it - may genuinely be a long term option at centre-back. Good positional sense, holds the centre without diving rashly into anything, his distribution is top notch, he almost always seems to put the ball into that space that stretches the defence in front of him.
When did that happen? I don’t recall Hannon getting very far forward. Are you sure it wasn’t Dempsey in second half failing to see Hegarty unmarked at edge of the square screaming for the ball? Hegarty went mad afterwards. Dempsey had tapped it over for a point.
I think Limerick are worth a bet at 7/1 to win Munster hurling championship. A rabble of a Limerick outfit beat Clare last year in Munster. I think this side are a few notches better than last years version. I think Clare have maybe regressed since last year. I would make Limerick favourites for this tie. As it stands the bookies will have Clare favourites since they are shorter in Munster betting but that would be wrong and won’t come to pass IMO. I would expect Limerick to be maybe 5/6 to win that tie.
In the final it will most likely be Tipp or Waterford. But teams are hugely struggling to win Munster from Rd 1 having to win three matches to do so. This is a negative for Tipp and Cork. If Cork somehow make the final (which is the most unlikely scenario), I make us slight favourites or 50/50 for that match up (assuming we are there). So you could have say 5/6 to beat Clare and then Evens versus Cork which is a cumulative price of just under 11/4 to win Munster.
Should it be Waterford we play I would make us maybe 7/4 (Waterford needing only to win two games like ourselves to win Munster). That’s 5/6 + 7/4 = 4/1.
Should it be Tipp they will be coming into a third match (minimum, assuming no draws) in Munster and worst case scenario we would be 9/4 IMO. Actually that match should be in Limerick since we last played them in Thurles. So I’m making us 2/1 in worst case scenario. That’s 5/6 + 2/1 = 9/2.
So the 7/1 price that’s out there is a reasonable bet to me.
Haven’t seen limericks so couldn’t say but from what iv seen of Cork I wouldn’t back a full strength Cork at 7-1 in a Munster final alone against tipp. Were limerick that impressive yday?
TJ, Ger Heg, Ciaran Carey and Más Mulcahy all within spitting distance of me yesterday… TJ crept in on his own, almost felt sorry for him as he meekly made his way into the stand… Ciaran is a roaster - boot cut jeans, brown shoes and a hoody. Más appeared to be in jovial enough spirits despite being disgusted at what he just witnessed, I exited the ground in his wake and enjoyed the fake smile he had on for the Carkies quizzing him about the performance - Both he and I knew that he was seething underneath it all and that was good enough for me… A few roasters were congratulating Ger Heg like we had won the AI
Except that we are now blooding a very young team, and have new players all over the park. Other than that it’s exactly the same as last year when we were papering over cracks and plugging square holes with round triangles.
It will be 1-2 years before we see the best of this team… We have the best management set-up we’ve had in a while. We are building depth at every position. The people of Limerick need to relax and bear with the project… A lot of those players need to fill out and mature enough to put in a 70 minute shift - Time will bring both of those elements.
