Tipperary rout Limerick to avenge defeats of last two years

Well, explain that. Limerick were playing at home in front of the biggest crowd this Munster championship fixture has seen in over 10 years.

Limerick were coming off an iron-in-the-soul quarter-final win over Clare. Limerick were facing Tipperary, the opposition they have bent to their will for the previous two years.

But Limerick were annihilated – their biggest championship defeat since 1962 by the rivals that most stir their blood and the blood of their animated supporters.

Tipperary came into this Munster semi-final, played before 31,488, at Limerick's Gaelic Grounds with as many questions to answer as the average senior banker in Leinster House.

Manager Eamon O'Shea had in the course of his three years in charge comes within a hair's breadth of winning an All-Ireland last year but had yet to win a single provincial championship match.

Our nerve

Yet on the day his team asserted themselves against their recent Nemesis with such force that Limerick must have been half grateful that whatever formula it was hadn’t been discovered last year or the year before.

“Probably more emphatic than I thought,” mused O’Shea on the subject of the 16-point win. “There was still a lot of hurling left in the game. I thought we held our nerve when they came back at us and showed a lot of resilience.

“The experience gained over the last couple of years has been really good for us, you know? In 2013 we didn’t get very far but we played the best game of the championship down in Kilkenny and you learn a lot down there. You get a lot of information.

"Last year, we failed to win the All-Ireland but we got a lot of experience. We're not an inexperienced team but at the same time it's very pleasing for me to see you players like Ronan Maher, Niall O'Meara and Jason Forde – and Bubbles (John O'Dwyer) is still young, and some players we got on the pitch.

Top players

“Part of the last few years for me has been, you know, there’s a transition as well. We lost four or five of the top players in Ireland. Some people forget that:

Eoin Kelly

,

Brendan Cummins

, John O’Brien,

Paul Curran

.

“We lost really top-quality players and to replace those players, that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re not anywhere near the end of this, and maybe we won’t get to the end of it, but we’re very happy tonight.”

That happiness encompasses not having to pay anxious attention to this morning’s draw for the All-Ireland qualifiers and instead preparing for a first Munster final in three years, against Waterford in three weeks’ time.

With Cork’s Páirc Ui Chaoimh out of commission, the obvious venue isn’t available. There have been suggestions that Thurles might, you know, be worth considering rather than dragging Waterford all the way over to Limerick. The Flies’ ambassador to Spiderland is said however not to be in favour.

No decision has yet been made by Munster Council.

It was a consistent team performance by Tipp. Helped by the extra space at the back granted by Limerick’s supplemented defence, Tipperary defended well and fired guided missiles into their attack.

In the past a failure to take chances proved costly for the team but they weren’t making that mistake again. Séamus Callanan scored two goals in the first 23 minutes. Bubbles O’Dwyer fired over extravagant scores and the big win was on the cards from an early stage.

There were other words of praise for players, including team captain Brendan Maher who has adapted to playing a new role for the team in attack but operating as an auxiliary centrefielder.

“Very happy for Brendan. It’s not easy when you ask a player to maybe play a little bit out of where he’s normally playing. He’s been outstanding for us, trying to work hard at that and he’s just a model in terms of being selfless,” said O’Shea.

Limerick still knew enough of the script to hang on and fight and improbably they had made a new match of it by the third quarter but an incinerating blast of 2-11 to 0-2 in the last 20 minutes or so burned off the challenge. O’Shea sounded affronted when the idea that his first Munster championship win might be, you know, also a bit special.

“Me? It doesn’t mean anything for me except we won a game. I just manage these boys.

“Why would it mean something for me? The players are the real heroes and I just sit and watch them. And some days . . we’re not on song and some days you have to say . . .But they have an awful lot to do yet to get anywhere where they want to be. But it’s never about the manager, ever.”

That’s the explanation.