True but walking out of croker with the ball last year youd have to think he was happy with his lot. I think it reflects well on the squad and managment. Even in his pomp condon used to take till nearly championship to be at the pitch.
I wonder are we becoming hyper-critical? Because I must say I didnât think we were actually that good today; I thought we were better last week against Tipp. Obviously, the result and the ease of the victory were impressive but individually, a lot of performances could have been better and we made a lot of mistakes. But at the same time, we never even slightly looked like losing⌠in Nowlan Park, that doesnât happen that often.
What I will say is that even though there were plenty of basic skill errors and sloppy passes, that kind of thing, the work rate was superb. And I have no doubt that those other things will sharpen up to match it.
The wind was a huge factor, and I think we needed a healthy lead at half-time; the burst either side of the break was huge. Pitch wasnât great and it definitely didnât help forwards on either side, it was a day for backs and our backs did defend very well.
Finn is simply unreal, just oozes class in everything he does. Condon & English also tigerish and won their battles. Morrissey at centre-back was immense aswell, an absolute rock.
I think that was Hanleyâs league debut, thought he got through an awful lot of work. Absolutely flattened some fella in front of me; looked a fair shoulder from where I was but Horgan gave a yellow and a free. DOD was one of those who made a lot of simple mistakes but he got on so much ball, his work rate was unreal; he didnât let the mistakes faze him and he was always in the right place as the support player.
In the forwards, I thought Dowling was very good at centre-forward. Got through a lot of work and his movement into space is superb. Scored an unreal point early on, and an excellent finish for the goal. Boylan did well again. Kyle needs hurling work, for sure, Mulcahyâs touch also let him down a few times. Murphy did well, but did he do enough to displace someone like Flanagan? Probably not.
Gillane was very good, he really has all the attributes to make him one of the very best forwards in the country. Plays with a certain swagger and confidnece too, itâs great.
I like Nowlan Park as a venue, nice compact ground. Was sitting with my Kilkenny relatives; they were disappointed in their own performance, obviously, but were also hugely impressed with Limerick; particularly the support play, running off the shoulder, etc⌠A few people are talking about us peaking too early⌠Personally, I think there is a lot of improvement in the team from that performance and itâs nice to see a few fellas from outside last yearâs starting team getting a good run and doing well.
3 Likes
He threw the ball away and absolutely panned some Galway lad. 
i bet he wishes he held on to it.
Weâve been beaten once in 12 months i think? Correct me if Iâm wrong.
Pundits saying we are peaking too early yet lauding clare before they lost for their work in the league. Silly cunts
1 Like
Iâll watch it back when I get home but, what way did the full forward line set up?
Unbeaten in the league (70 minutes) since April 2017 only matches lost last year were Clare and Tipp in ET in the league semifinal
1 Like
In the first half, it was generally two right inside and one âin betweenâ the two lines.
Second half against the wind, was really just two inside the whole time.
Gillane and Mul inside?
Isolated Gillane inside and hit diagonal ball into him. He did wreck.
Mul wore 14 but didnt stay in
1 Like
Mulcahy started FF but as game progressed Gillane was in there so much movement that was hard to keep track of it. B Murphy played further out especially in the first half
1 Like
It looked at times we had only gillane in there
Heâs unreal. Doesnât seem to do anything special, I keep expecting a good corner to shut him down, but no one has yet.
No, Mulcahy was the âin betweenâ guy for the majority of the first half.
In the second he was also seen out the field at times; I did mix himself & Murphy up a couple of times though; both smaller fellas with black helmets. When Casey replaced Murphy, he was definitely inside and Mulchahy furhter out.
2 Likes
Yep numbers on the back are meaningless Boylan was a lot quieter than last week touch was off but still took his scores well which is a good sign
We tried to move the ball through the lines as much as possible, particularly against the wind. The main out ball was the diagonal ball into the right corner for Gillane to win and come back inside onto his left. And it worked, even if he didnât get a whole pile of scores in the second half, he had the beating of his man.
We are better suited playing against a wind imo. It forces us to work the ball out.
Byrnes goes buck ape when weâve a wind
1 Like
You can nearly see himself trying to restrain from winding up a big un!
1 Like
It does put pressure on the puckouts is the only thing; I thought we struggled to get scores in the last 15-20 minutes although I wonder was there an element of taking the foot off the pedal a little bit; we did enough to keep them at armâs length.
Kilkenny were poor too. Again, landing high ball on top of the backs. They mightnât have been winning it cleanly but backs hate being run at and Finn & Morrissey were eating that up today.
There was very little clean fielding done. They scored most of their points off our loose play. We had two or three bursts of scoring. We dominated for about 20 minutes and buried them. We did the same in games last year and werent burying teams.
A lot of scuttery auld shite on the ground today as well given the conditions. Its still strange to see a limerick man coming out of a ruck with a ball. We were always woeful at it
Beautiful 
1 Like