Munster SHC: Limerick 2-27 Tipperary 0-18
Limerick can – and do – win this sort of game in their sleep. There was no blood, no thunder. It was an entirely rudimentary exercise in which they never had to remotely hit full stride to ease clear of a Tipperary team that brought very little to their first championship encounter of the season.
Goals from Aaron Gillane and Peter Casey spiced up the scoreline but weren’t strictly necessary, with the sight of Casey leaving the pitch on a stretcher after injuring himself while scoring the only downside for John Kiely. A quick scoring burst in the 10 minutes before half-time turned a level game into one in which they had an upper hand they never relinquished. They have a fortnight break before heading to Cork. They will surely find a sterner test waiting for them than they got here.
For long spells, this felt like we all went to the wrong party. As news of relentless drama filtered in from the early games around the country, this was an altogether more sedate affair. Neither side raised much of a gallop until after the half-time break. Up to then, it had been a bitty, scrappy encounter with no real sizzle.
Everywhere you looked, mistakes were the order of the day. Jason Forde missed a couple of 65s and a free in the first half. Diarmaid Byrnes put two frees wide and seemed as surprised as anyone when his third was carried over the bar in the wind. Three Tipp efforts at points got blocked down, six different Limerick players pucked wides inside the opening 35. Champagne hurling, this was not.
The atmosphere was flat too, even with a 33,475 crowd in the house. For their first Munster championship game of the year, Tipp brought enough representation to the Gaelic Grounds. As the sides went point-for-point in the opening 20 minutes, there wasn’t much to draw a roar out of either following.
An early Kyle Hayes score on the run was followed by one from distance by Cathal O’Neill. It was matched within minutes by a Forde free and a fine Mark Kehoe effort. By the 25th minute, the sides were level on 0-6 apiece and no animals had been harmed in the making of this production.
The first goal chance fell Tipp’s way. Alan Tynan wriggled through and found Seán Hayes to his right with a pass that was just a little too loopy to be efficient. Hayes had to wait for it to drop and by the time he got his shot off, Nickie Quaid had rushed out to smother it.
It was a let-off for Limerick and they made sure to cash in their voucher between there and the break. Gillane reeled off three frees in a row and whistled over one from play after Craig Morgan was disposed of on his way out of defence. When Casey latched on to a long Declan Hannon clearance just before half-time, his simple finish pushed Limerick into a six-point lead. It had only taken 10 minutes to put clear water between the sides.
Limerick’s Kyle Hayes contests possession with Willie Connors and Craig Morgan of Tipperary during the Munster SHC game at the TUS Gaelic Grounds. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
A Forde free brought the margin down to five at the break, 0-12 to 0-7. With the wind to come, Tipperary weren’t necessarily a forlorn hope. At least not while they were still in the dressing room. Different story once the ball was thrown in, though.
Limerick put the game away in the quarter-hour after the restart. David Reidy whipped a point, Tom Morrissey and Will O’Donoghue followed suit. Bonner Maher and Noel McGrath came off the bench to snatch a point apiece but Tipp were on borrowed time. And just like last week, it was a mis-hit free from Byrnes that bought Limerick the breakthrough goal.
Reidy broke it down and Gillane pounced, making space for himself and sending a bullet to the roof of Barry Hogan’s net. Five minutes later, any mystery left in the day was demolished when Casey buried his first championship goal in five years past Hogan to make it 2-22 to 0-13. Sadly for the Limerick corner forward, he suffered a serious injury in the act of scoring and was stretched off.
The rest of the afternoon was target practice for Limerick, with Adam English particularly impressive as he came off the bench to ping four points from four shots. They were able to see it out under no great duress from a Tipp team who need to rally now ahead of next weekend’s home game against Waterford.
LIMERICK: Nickie Quaid Seán Finn, Dan Morrissey, Barry Nash; Diarmaid Byrnes (0-2, 0-2f), Declan Hannon, Kyle Hayes (0-1); Will O’Donoghue (0-1), Cathal O’Neill (0-3); Gearóid Hegarty, David Reidy (0-2), Tom Morrissey (0-3); Aaron Gillane (1-8, 7f), Peter Casey (1-2), Cian Lynch.
Subs: Donncha Ó Dálaigh (0-1) for Hegarty (52 mins), Graeme Mulcahy for Casey (58), Adam English (0-4) for Lynch (61), Colin Coughlan for Hayes (65), Conor Boyland for Reidy (70 ).
TIPPERARY: Barry Hogan; Johnny Ryan (0-1), Ronan Maher, Craig Morgan; Mikey Breen, Bryan O’Mara, Conor Bowe; Willie Connors, Eoghan Connolly (0-1); Alan Tynan (0-1), Gearóid O’Connor (0-2, 1f), Jason Forde (0-9, 8f); Jake Morris, Mark Kehoe (0-2), Seán Hayes.
Subs: Noel McGrath (0-1) for Hayes (ht), Patrick Maher (0-1) for Kehoe (42), Andrew Ormond for Connors (51), Darragh Stakelum for Morris (60), Seánie Kenneally for Forde (69).
Referee: Liam Gordon (Galway)
