Keane causes Galway more pain

As taut and as traumatic a that the All-Ireland under-21 championship is likely to produce. It was so taut in the way that Limerick maintained their narrow and hard-earned edge until the end, and so unavoidably traumatic for Galway as they became beaten finalists for the fourth successive year.

By the end of the hour, however, scarcely anyone among the 18,500 attendance in Thurles could have denied Limerick's right to the title - their first in 13 years and only second ever - after a committed and rampant display in so many key areas.

So much has been said about the dual senior trio of Brian Geary, Stephen Lucey and Brian Begley, yet once again their influence was wide-ranging. Geary lorded the centre back position like it was made for him and Lucey shone like a diamond at midfield.

Surprisingly, Begley was the only Limerick forward to finish scoreless, but he was always a threat, the obvious targetman for Galway, and is bound to be somewhat tired after the length of season he's had.

What was less surprising was that Mark Keane provided the conclusive score. Nine minutes into the second half and already with five points to his name, the agile corner forward drifted towards the square after a floating ball from Lucey.

Sean O'Connor made the first strike, but it was Keane who saw the space to sweep the ball into the net. Limerick were 1-10 to 0-8 in front and Galway spent the rest of the afternoon chasing in vain.

Keane's goal was also the cue for Galway to spring David Tierney from the bench. Their own well-seasoned dual performer had spent the whole week tending to a torn calf muscle and yet his previous displays this year suggested that he could be the man to restore the challenge.

The difference was eventually restored to a goal but it hovered at that margin until the end.

"There were really only the two key plays in it," admitted Limerick manager Dave Keane, himself a previous under-21 winner with Cork.

"Galway had that first big goal chance in the first half, which luckily was blocked out, and then our goal in the second half. Other than that it was incredibly close the whole way, at least it was from where I was standing."

Galway's only real goal opportunity came at a crucial time. Limerick were a little slow to settle, despite controlling far more territory. They missed a fifth-minute penalty, although by the time the first half was coming to a close, they had pushed a couple of points clear - 0-7 to 0-5.

Then, two minutes before the break, a rare but sweet piece of combination play between Galway forwards Damien Joyce and David Forde seemed to set up David Huban for a certain goal. With the goalkeeper committed, it took a Damien Reale clearance off the line to keep out the sliotar. That could have put Galway a point up, but instead a couple more points were exchanged and Limerick headed into the break 0-8 to 0-6 in front.

It was all happening for Limerick from the start of the second half. In truth, they were making it happen. The Reale cousins, Damien and Paudie, maintained their excellent play in the corner of the Limerick full-back line and, in between them, Eugene Mulcahy was a constant inspiration.

John Meskell backed up Lucey at each time of asking and the half-forward line of Paul O'Grady, O'Connor and David Stapleton proved persistently too awkward for Galway. As a result, the Galway defence, and half backs, in particular, were made to look far more porous than they probably are. David Donoghue was at least reliable when it came to their free-taking, but Huban, scorer of 3-3 in their semi-final win over Offaly, looked largely out of sorts for the afternoon.

Manager Brendan Lynskey made three further substitutions before the end but none of them had the required effect (Michael Greaney's important point being the only exception).

Part of the problem was that Tierney wasn't getting the low, useful ball that he desired. Midfielder John Culkin has definitely had better days in the Galway jersey, but even when given the chance, the general shooting of the forwards was far from perfect. Seven wides at the end (just less than Limerick's eight) may not sound like a remarkable offence, but at least half of those could have been pointed.

Limerick, however, were still living on the edge. When Eamonn and David Donoghue chipped in two quick points in succession, the score stood at 1-12 to 0-12 with a least three minutes left to play.

Keane, fittingly, dispersed some of the tension with his first point from play (to add to his seven frees) and even though Greaney fired the last shot, Limerick were safe.

"Well it certainly wasn't the performance we had in the Munster final replay," added Keane (where Limerick beat Cork by 21 points). "Our half forwards were that bit jittery at the start and I really would have preferred to have been a couple more points up at half time. I just told them that we had won the first, but we had to go and win the second as well.

"But these are a great bunch of lads with some very obvious potential. There really is very little between the strong hurling counties in Munster at the moment, but I do believe that you have to get some success at under-age level if you want to win anything with the seniors. From that point of view it is a very important win for Limerick hurling."

The senior team, worryingly, haven't won a senior championship game in over three years. But how much longer? Now that Geary, Lucey, Begley and company begin to get the taste of success (this result goes some way in making up for the trio's All-Ireland under-21 football loss to Tyrone last May), the future for Limerick hurling can only get brighter.