Nicky English: Disappointing Galway makes things too easy for Limerick

A very disappointing match but for Limerick, this semi-final win was hard evidence that their challenge for four-in-a-row is building and whoever wins on Sunday will have a formidable job on their hands.

The contest died early. Galway crashed and burned in a couple of minutes around the half-hour mark. In the 30th minute Kevin Cooney goes through with every chance of a goal but Mike Casey takes Brian Concanon’s shot off the line. A goal would have extended Galway’s lead to eight points, 2-12 to 1-7.

Instead Darragh O’Donovan goes up the other end and scores a point and the margin is down to four but you could sense Limerick drawing inspiration from the turnaround.

Until then Galway had been energetic and effective, creating space in the Limerick defence and being able to find Conor Whelan with measured ball. Evan Niland was unerring on the frees and their puck-outs found their men with room to operate.

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But this cleverly constructed play stuttered to halt in the 32nd minute. Brian Concannon responded to O’Donovan’s score with a point and the lead stood at 1-13 to 0-8 but that was it.

From then on, Galway were outscored by a scarcely believable 0-5 to 1-16.

Diarmaid Byrnes thundered into the match and scored two big frees. Cian Lynch got his season up and running, scoring a point and getting on to plenty of possession. For Limerick to cut the deficit to a point before half-time was a strong statement of where the match was going.

[ Stunning second half by Limerick crushes Galway at Croke Park ]

[ Limerick v Galway as it happened ]

At the start of the second half Conor Whelan, lethal in the first half, scored the second point – an instant response to Séamus Flanagan’s opening score on the resumption – but hardly saw a ball after that.

Their puck-out strategy completely failed and Limerick mopped up. Kyle Hayes, the outstanding Darragh O’Donovan and Byrnes devoured ball and Lynch signalled a real return to form. Peter Casey got his scores and this was all significant in the context of the season so far.

We had noticed how they had struggled to get off the 0-25 mark and this evening they got that back up to 30 points. Cathal O’Neill came on and the bench in general was excellent. I don’t really understand why he doesn’t start for them.

The players that they needed to step up as regards scoring did so. The lack of input from Lynch, Casey and Hegarty had been noticeable in this season’s smaller scoring returns and they addressed that.

Those who had been playing well continued to do so. Aaron Gillane maintained the razor-edge of his Munster form with two goals and Will O’Donoghue slotted in seamlessly at centre back to replace Declan Hannon, allowing Gearóid Hegarty back to the forwards where he played well.

But Galway were clueless in the second half – reduced to 0-5 in total. I counted at one stage that they had five lineballs on the Hogan side from the 60th minute when they really needed to make a stand if they were going to make a late contest of it but they couldn’t get off the side-line and it ended up being put wide by Conor Cooney.

In the end it was so easy for Limerick and all of the doubts we had about Galway were vindicated. They looked like the long-awaited “click” of sustained performance was happening in the first half but was it in fact that the champions were simply slow starters?

In hindsight that looks more plausible. Limerick could have even scored more and shot plenty of wides themselves, including two straightforward chances missed by Tom Morrissey from malfunctioning Galway puck-outs.

Limerick after the four-week rest since the Munster final are back where they want to be, in Croke Park and finding their best form, which is the worrying thing for whoever faces them in the final.