Would lohan or one of his team mates ever think of telling Cleary to stop fouling off the ball? It’s like telling the scoreboard operator to add 1pt to the limerick total.
Twice he was pulled up today before he eventually got booked
Limerick roll on. Well used to the 4 week break and will use it well. Good timing for the injuries alao.
Where to go for Clare? Their squad has always looked lighter and that has come true yet again. Badly missing Taylor.
Perhaps half a dozen will go in the next year or so. Can they get one last kick for quarter and semi final?
Thurles isn’t fit to hold big games any more. It’s literally falling apart.
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How is Thurles unsafe?
Having shit on the ground is just part of being in Tipp.
Lovely strike alright but keeper was woeful for it…Clare had worked ball out from near corner played it back to keeper who actually miscontrolled it cost himself a second and launched it down field under more pressure than he needed to be under and it came straight back down on top of him then and he got caught between 4 minds on coming out for it
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Tipp a shambles on the pitch, on the internet and in the realm of stadium maintenance.
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It was fairly hairy yday as people were still coming in to the ground when the delay was announced. The announcement saw many who were already seated head down back under the stand only to be met by those still entering. Fuck all staff or guards controlling crowd.
Hopefully yesterday was an eye-opener to decision makers. The place is a shambles
How does the infrastructure cause that?
Just a resources issue?
There always a crush at the bottom of that stand at the end of a game. Was made more dodgy yday before the game as there was no letting people out, they were still coming in
Another important aspect was Colm Lyons instructing goalkeepers before the game about no quick puckouts. This is a huge advantage to limerick with the best setup around.
In previous finals Clare were able to restart very quickly without a contest to the likes of Ryan Taylor and Fitzgerald. The famed 2022 final especially.
When limerick are focused and get a full reset they can start dominating teams and choking possession.
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I was reliably informed yesterday there was a crush at the 1954 Munster final between cork and Tipp in the Gaelic grounds.
Would I be correct in thinking Christy ring got hauled to the ground late and buried the resulting 21.
Not sure if there was black cards around then.
Poor Dalo
Anthony Daly: Limerick are a credit to the county. They look so imperious now
Limerick don’t be long in putting the dreams of others to bed. They just create their own.
FINDING THE GAP: Gearóid Hegarty scores Limerick’s first goal past Clare goalkeeper Eibhear Quilligan during the Munster SHC final at FBD Semple Stadium. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
MON, 10 JUN, 2024 - 06:45
When I arrived in Thurles yesterday, I found myself in the soft seats, as Mark Landers would say. Honest to God, the last time I found myself in that part of the Ryan Stand in Semple Stadium was when I was being presented with the cup after the 1998 Munster final. I said to myself, ‘God this could be lining up perfectly’.
It would have been an incredible experience to be so close to a Clare captain getting presented with the cup again but Limerick don’t be long in putting the dreams of others to bed. They don’t do fantasy. They just create their own.
I rarely got for a drink before games but I ambled into the Dome for one pint beforehand yesterday. I didn’t want to hang around because I was dying for the match to start. And then, all of a sudden, I had all the time in the world.
I was oblivious to the power-cut. I know these things happen but I couldn’t believe that it did, especially the timing of it. I understood the importance of getting everything back on track before the match went ahead, especially with the scoreboard and Hawkeye. But I still thought it wasn’t good enough.
I immediately began thinking of the players and management of both teams. You can’t imagine how precise players and management are in their preparations before a big game so it was bound to affect both groups when they had another half an hour to kill before the biggest game they’d played this year.
It was a poor start. It seemed to take an age for the match to take off but Limerick were still much faster out of the blocks than Clare. Clare just didn’t seem themselves, they weren’t attacking the ball like they usually do. I have never seen Adam Hogan playing from behind as much. All afternoon though, Clare were behind, they were always chasing the All-Ireland champions.
Play
Unmute
That was the last thing Clare needed to be doing but you have to give Limerick immense credit too. They didn’t perform at the level they can but they were still operating at a level above Clare. They only had 36 shots, which was 15 less than they’d had against Waterford, but Limerick were still supremely accurate and efficient, especially in comparison to Clare.
Limerick were always ahead in everything they did though, on and off the field. I felt Clare were slow to make changes on the line. I felt they needed David Reidy in around the middle of the field earlier. I also thought Ian Galvin should have been introduced earlier. Will O’Donoghue didn’t have his best game but he was still well on top of Darragh Lohan.
That might sound harsh on a brilliant young player playing in his first Munster final but this is a brutal environment. Aidan McCarthy did some good things but, to me, he has to be nailing every free to fully justify starting ahead of Reidy and Galvin. And Aidan wasn’t yesterday, missing three frees in the first half with the breeze.
Clare were extremely lucky to be level at the break. They were because of Peter Duggan’s goal. In fairness to Duggy he was immense. He had some battle with Diarmaid Byrnes. It was savage stuff.
Clare kept going but I just felt Limerick were always that bit more clever as well as everything else. When Limerick’s David Reidy went off the field, Fergal O’Connor sprinted straight across to the other wing. Before the Clare lads knew what was happening, Nickie Quaid had the ball fired down the other wing where they had a 3 on 2 overload.
Nickie was immense again yesterday. As well as making a couple of top class saves, he also made a brilliant reaction stop just before the goal before getting unlucky by scooping it away to Duggy. Throughout, Quaid’s distribution was of an elite standard.
And yet, despite always appearing to be a step ahead, Clare were still only a step behind Limerick going into injury time. If Mark Rodgers hadn’t hit the butt of the post, Clare might have found that momentum earlier in the fourth quarter. But Clare just didn’t have enough performers in comparison to Limerick. They had eight or nine top class performers whereas Clare only two or three, with Duggy at the top of that list.
To me, Ryan Taylor’s absence was really felt, especially his energy around the middle, particularly as a link man and someone to break the tackle at pace.
At least Clare kept going and kept trying. There was one stage when they went six up in the second half and I had visions that it could turn out like 1994 when Mike Galligan started scoring points for fun and Limerick ran out easy winners. But Clare never allowed that to happen. They just never seemed to have enough.
I never thought I would see a team win six Munsters in-a-row but I am not surprised that it was John Kiely’s men that eventually did so. They are a credit to the county. They look so imperious now that the only way they will be beaten is if it is a smash and grab job late on.
That discussion is for another day but, while Limerick are creating history, Kilkenny are also gobbling up provincial titles for fun again.
They were highly impressive on Saturday evening but Dublin were so poor that it was hard to make any real assessment on just how good Kilkenny actually were.
My fear beforehand was that Kilkenny were being talked down and Dublin were being talked up. It smacked of 2012 and 2014 when I was manager and Kilkenny turned up and torched the Dubs where there was expectancy around us.
Kilkenny’s TJ Reid scores his side’s third goal. Pic ©INPHO/James Crombie
It was always going to be hard too for some of those young Dubs to get up to that level so quickly in a Leinster final, especially when they hadn’t been used to it in comparison to Kilkenny. To me the writing was on the wall early on when Dublin were making rash decisions and were going away from the gameplan.
Dublin never got to the pitch of it but Kilkenny with their best 15 are a real threat to Limerick and everyone else in this championship. They have big names coming back too. The only caveat though, is that the Dubs provided no test to say exactly where Kilkenny are.
Finally, there is huge credit due to Offaly for winning the Joe McDonagh Cup on Saturday. I really enjoyed the game. When Laois watch it back they will see how they pucked it away but in fairness to Offaly, they stuck with it and eventually got there.
Brian Gavin: Colm Lyons was the safe pair of hands needed in Munster hurling final
It was his fourth time in three championships, his second in this one, and his knowledge of what he was facing came in so handy.
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Referee Colm Lyons during the Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship final match between Clare and Limerick at FBD Semple Stadium. Pic: Ray McManus, Sportsfile
SUN, 09 JUN, 2024 - 20:57
Supporters might wonder at times why the same referees are appointed to the same games.
For a few years there, the name of Joe McQuillan, for example, would have been the first name down on the sheet for a Donegal-Tyrone championship match before any player.
Colm Lyons’ assignment to this Munster final was a case of sending a safe pair of hands to Thurles for a game and an occasion that has proved frightfully tricky for the last three referees that were given the job.
It was his fourth time in three championships, his second in this one, and his knowledge of what he was facing came in so handy.
From the off, he was determined to cut out the proverbial between Conor Cleary and Aaron Gillane and in both halves he whistled the Clare captain for fouling the Limerick forward off the ball.
I wrote after the round-robin game in Ennis that Cleary and Gillane, Adam Hogan and Seamus Flanagan, could all have been sent off. He wasn’t going to have a rerun of that and his determination to stamp it out lent to a more free-flowing game of hurling.
There would have been a few anxious officials before this game considering the fate of Paud O’Dwyer, John Keenan and Liam Gordon after the three previous finals but Lyons delivered.
Clare had a fair shout for a penalty late on when there was a claim Mark Rodgers had been held but Lyons had a good look at his umpires as it happened and when there was no signal, he wasn’t going to blow for it.
All the yellow cards were warranted. Cathal Malone was wild with a pull on Will O’Donoghue, Cleary was booked for persistent fouling of Gillane and Diarmaid Byrnes was also yellow carded late on as was Conor Boylan for dissent.
O’Donoghue caught Tony Kelly in the chest and there was no question about the foul. Kelly had come off the pitch so when he took off his helmet he could come back on straight away unlike Peter Duggan in the first half who had to retreat to the sideline as per the new rule.
Gearóid Hegarty was pinged for a foul on Shane O’Donnell in the first half and replays made it look bad but from the sideview showed there wasn’t malice in the attempt at a tackle.
It was a tough, physical game and like the players, Lyons’ brief wouldn’t have been helped by the 30-minute wait arising from the power outage but it was a day that went well for him.
Lyons is one of a handful of referees in the championship pool of 12 who has been used regularly in this championship. The same can’t be said for Kevin Jordan or Shane Hynes who have each been appointed to just one game so far.
That says one of two things, neither of which are complimentary of the appointments committee.
Either the referees are not good enough or there is not enough of an effort being done to work for them. For lads to be training all along and holding out hope waiting on a text message, it’s nothing short of scandalous that they are being kept hanging.
At least on Saturday, there was an example of an up-and-coming referee in Thomas Walsh getting a big job with the Leinster SHC final. The Waterford man is trying to make a breakthrough and this game passed off without too much controversy for him.
Having said that, TJ Reid’s first goal, Kilkenny’s second, shouldn’t have stood as he was in the square before Tommy Walsh’s ball dropped in. Going back to last year’s McDonagh Cup final, Walsh and his team need to be blowing these square balls. You saw them whistling Patrick Horgan for one in the Cork-Tipperary game last month but they were wrong on that count.
Strangely, Walsh was letting a lot go while dishing out yellow cards and Kilkenny’s forwards, men like TJ Reid, Adrian Mullen and Eoin Cody, were rightly collared for some over-the-top tackling.
I know Dublin fans were calling for a penalty when David Blanchfield was guilty of a trip but it was an accidental one and Walsh couldn’t give one for that. It’s one of the rules that people continue to misunderstand.
In the curtain-raiser, the Joe McDonagh Cup final, it was my first time seeing Colm McDonald operate in the flesh and he had a decent outing.
The major incident was Laois substitute John Lennon being punished for overcarrying at the end when a clear scoring chance was developing for his team. It was the right call but in the context of the game it was an inconsistent call. For the first of Offaly captain Killian Sampson’s first two points, he was allowed to take far too many steps.
What I did like about McDonald was his no-nonsense approach to dissent from the players. He strikes me as a man who won’t accept lip and that goes a long way towards being a top referee.
I’ve had enough of the word savage… A savage game…a savage battle
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First thing that came into my head when i saw him do it, hurling intelligence… he has it in buckets. Rarely makes a wrong decision in possession.
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McInerney fucked him out of it at one point.
He rightly got done for steps yesterday when he could have popped the ball off to O’Brien who was standing alone just off his shoulder… He’ll have to work on that as it’s just not good enough
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He got away with a lot of it in Ennis and thought he could do same yesterday. I’d say Colm Lyons could have had his hole kicked about it in his assessment after the round robin game. IIRC he pulled Cleary 3 times on it and gave him a yellow on the third