Had we been playing any other opposition today (including Offaly) weâd have been beaten. We never got out if second gear because we didnât have another gear. Our forwards work rate is not good enough and the Westmeath full back line were able to work the ball out with minimum resistance.
Thought Downes had a decent wotk out and is worth a start next week. Cian Lynch had a nightmare and was hustled off the balk every time.
I genuinely thin k theyâre over trained and are just weary from it.
Based on today it doesnât matter who we meet. No need book yere up to the match tickets. You can watch it with your glass of whiskey tucked up by the fire. Weâve gine two steps backwards from last year.
What did you think of limerick today bud
Just back from Mullingar.
This was always a lose-lose game and thatâs the way it turned out. Downpour before throw in and midway through the half made conditions very difficult. Westmeath were well up for it and even after conceding a couple of early goals they were dogged, reeling off about 1-05 in a row. We were just very lethargic and complacent, banged in those early goals and it was as if we thought weâd the game won.
With the crowd up for it we belatedly woke from our slumber to grab a few points and lead at the break. Early goal in the second half didnât really kick us on and to be honest the game wasnât safe until we grabbed a fluke fourth goal and tagged on a few late points. The Westmeath number 2 had a brilliant game, gave Lynch nothing and it was only after he went off injured that Westmeath leaked those few scores.
Overall it was job done but a very patchy display and it looks ominous ahead of next week. The likes of Schutte, Lehane, Harnedy and Cadogan will be licking their lips at facing us. Condon will be a huge loss, he was hurling well at corner back. Interestingly it was Dan Morrissey who came on for him and not Hickey.
Scored two goals in the first half and missed another four goal chances. Should have kept tipping them over and kept the scoreboard ticking over but as we were wasteful Westmeath grew in confidence and a better team would have punished us. 12 points totally flattered us for a finish.
Our best player was Seanie OâBrien. Excellent all through. A great bit of stuff. Hard to believe he wasnât on the panel last year. Wayne Mac was solid enough at wing back too. Downes buried an early goal but wasnât in it for the rest of the half. To be fair he really came into it in the second half, hit the crossbar after creating a goal chance for himself. Chipped over three or four points and worked hard. After that slim enough pickings, both starting corner forwards had days to forget. Probably no harm to stop idiots hyping up Lynch either. Seanie Tobin was good in the first half, got a few fine scores from centre forward but he always seems to be the first to be taken off. There were three or four others who could and should have gone before him.
Things just seem very disjointed. Even in a knock out game like today we seemed very flat. There doesnât seem to be any great tactical planning or nous, just get it in high and hope for the best from the breaks. Still no closer to knowing what our best front six formation is. Belatedly we have stumbled upon our best half back partnership.
Overall Iâm a bit demoralised but no doubt Iâll be convincing myself next Saturday morning that we can somehow turn it around and produce our first decent display of the season. Hard to see us beating either Cork or Dublin.
Iâm downbeat.
5 Likes
@dodgy_keeper has summed it up perfectly. They can make all the excuses they like about bad weather, always going to win etc. The reality is that this team is flat and I donât believe that the next 6 days can re-inflate it.
We are owning possession in the middle third of the pitch all year. Hard-won ball gets tossed around endlessly, looking for the perfect pass and yet ending up with a 50-50 buckroot fired into one of our forwards who are all picked up due to the slowness of the delivery. This might work on one or two balls out of every 10. It appears to be our only tactic and will be badly exposed against the better teams.
Paul Browne is running with ball and thereâs no end result in sight. Countless balls were played into young Lynch when it was obvious that he was beaten up a stick. Richie McCarthy was pulled all over the place and still looks extremely vulnerable. Our half-forwards look completely uncoached and without a clue as to whatâs expected of them.
This could be a short summer. Is there a big game in us? - Youâd hope so.
Could we be tanked by an average team next weekend? - Highly possible.
3 Likes
Be upbeat about the fact that the team have a game in only 6 days and came through today without having to go beyond 70%.
We need to be at our best and have a fully fit squad in order to win the next day.
A lot of hurling (hopefully) for the Limerick team in the next few weeks. We need a full and fit squad.
Limerick started the game as a training exercise in goal scoring. They forgot they needed to win the game first.
A lot of overplaying the ball and wide shots at goal did help Westmeath to stay in contention.
A more direct and tougher approach required for next week.
I think Cork are the better of the two we can draw. Yet they are still outside the top 4.
I hope we draw them, because if we canât beat Cork then weâve no business sneaking in to a semi final.
They will still beat us.
If they do they do may as well find out if we are at anything this weekend
Doesnât matter. Galway or Waterford would fillet us if we got through.
Personally I donât think we would beat Cork. Theyâd have too much up front for us. We are far too open at the back.
Weâd have a better chance against Dublin but the Dubs would still beat us going by what we have seen so far this year.
Seanie OâBrien has been our best player in the championship and he didnât play an awful lot during the league. We seem to be making it up as we go along. No plan or vision as to what game we want to play. Gone back from last year to an alarming extent.
Great posts from Dodgy and Elvis, absolutely agree with the whole lot of that.
Weâve gone back a pile from last year. Main positives where Seanie, Wayne and Downes contributing at FF. The team is poorly coached for me, itâs amateurish stuff on the sideline, I was within earshot today and as much as the lads on the line have the greatest intentions their not at the races, Beary seems to be calling all the shots.
Iâm deflated and not holding out much hope for us next weekend. Got absolutely fucking soaked as well.
Was within earshot of the bench myself. Everything was ran by Beary. Dave Breen was taken off just for the sake of it. Very little instructions coming from the sideline bar the odd shout from Clark. The only time they looked any way knowledgeable was when the linesman fucked up two calls
Lucky Gavin switched sides with him at half time or their could have been a lynching.
He didnât look the full shilling, I felt a bit sorry for the fucker.
He was a fucking gimp. All the same ge probably knew more about what was happening on the pitch then our esteemed management team. Im telling ye, Limerick are overtrained. Clark did it when he had the u21s a few years back. Flaked em for a half hour before a Tipp match and we got the shit kicked out of us. They were being flaked again today and were doing full drills when I arrived in around 1.25
Wtf happened with the point that was waved wide but given eventually.
Given as wide, linesman calls him over for a chat, ref goes back into umpire, refs goes back out to linesman and eventually the white flag goes up. Joke.
The ref was a fucking gimp as well. Gave us nothing in the first half. I really thought we were hurling againsr 16 for that half.
Having said all of that at one stage I had visions of RTE breaking off commentary of the football to listen to the âclosing stages of a huge upsetâ Thats how fucking bad it was
I actually thought that was a point myself.
Fucking Offaly is one grim place to drive through., Worst again is you think your out of Tipp on the way up the road and all of a sudden your back in that bastard of a county.
To be honest I never felt weâd lose it. As poor as we were we always had enough.
Fucking grim though, hanging on to a 4 point lead against Westmeath with 5 mins left.
It took the fourth goal to finally shake em off though. Like I said anyone else today and we were fucked.