ALL-IRELAND SHC SEMI-FINAL Tipperary 6-19 Limerick 2-7: EVEN ALLOWING for the general preference to see Tipperary take on Kilkenny in next month's final, the neutral would have hoped that yesterday's GAA All-Ireland hurling semi-final might have seen a competitive effort by Limerick. It wasn't to be as the Munster champions, responding to criticism of their tendency to treat big leads like declarations in cricket, poured on the scores to subdue and eventually submerge pitiful resistance from out-classed opponents.
Engineering incisive opportunities with nonchalance, including slipping Lar Corbett in behind opposition lines for a late second-half hat-trick of goals, Tipp destroyed Limerick.
The biggest semi-final win for 25 years mightn’t be the best preparation for taking on the champions, but Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy will know that aspects of his team’s display will need working on in advance of next month.
The gulf in standards told from the very start yesterday. It had been feared on Limerick’s behalf that were they to start as badly as they have in some matches Tipp’s superior artillery might bury them well before the possibility of a late resurrection might reasonably occur. So it came to pass.
By the end of the first quarter, Eoin Kelly, the outstanding Noel McGrath and Pat Kerwick had laid waste the Limerick rearguard with goals that left the Munster champions nine ahead. Kelly, who worked hard and hit frees reliably, opened the show by blasting a goal after Stephen Lucey had missed John O’Brien’s through ball in the fifth minute.
Corbett’s right-corner run burned off Mark O’Riordan and popped up an empty-net chance for McGrath (service which the rookie forward would more than reciprocate in the second half) to bat home in the 16th minute and within 60 seconds Kerwick had dispossessed Mark Foley and knifed in for the third.
If the distress of their defence wasn’t bad enough, Limerick had at least as many problems at the other end where the decision to withdraw a forward did little to enhance a scoring unit that has struggled for scores throughout the campaign.
Tipperary’s backs were well in command, using their spare man to facilitate quick clearances and getting committed, industrious performances out of Paddy Stapleton and Pádraic Maher. One of the problems to be addressed will be the quality of the clearances which were gifted to Limerick. If the same benevolence is shown against Kilkenny, the price would be a lot more daunting than the four points that constituted the sum-total of yesterday’s first-half concession.
Centrefield wasn’t in top gear and both Shane McGrath and James Woodlock were replaced by the end of the match but Tipp did enough in the sector to keep the momentum of the game flowing in the one direction.
As often happens to teams under pressure Limerick weren’t even able to thrive in their proven areas. Gavin O’Mahony, whose dead-ball prowess sank Dublin in the quarter-final, had an afternoon for the therapist’s couch, hitting seven wides – five from placed balls.
Frees were in unusually short supply and it wasn’t until the 11th minute that referee Brian Gavin whistled the first foul. In the 18th Limerick got their first scoreable free, which O’Mahony missed. A couple of minutes later, his Tipp namesake Conor, stood over a free on his own 65 and boomed it in – the contrast in dead-ball proficiency being as marked as other aspects of play.
The damage might have been even worse had Tipp been able to find their attacking rhythm fully from the start. Although the work-rate was good and Limerick defenders didn’t find it easy to get out, poor spacing saw forwards get in each other’s way and in the at-times chaos the backs, especially Foley, mopped up loose ball.
Despite these problems, however, the relentless pressure had to tell eventually, particularly given Limerick’s inability to pose a scoring threat.
When Gavin O’Mahony finally popped over a free, Noel McGrath replied instantly for a 3-7 to 0-3 lead. Niall Moran – back after a broken finger as a late replacement for his brother Ollie – and Séamus Callanan swapped scores before the break in what was the former’s last action of the match before being replaced.
Thirteen points behind, Limerick must have had the old cliché about a good start being important ringing in their ears.
Instead, they missed two early chances of pegging back the deficit and spirits must have dropped further when Callanan flipped up the ball in rush-hour traffic at the other end and whipped over another point for Tipp.
The fortunes of Justin McCarthy’s team – in another semi-final defeat for the manager’s legendary portfolio – had deteriorated by five further points when they managed a first score of the second half – 13 minutes into it.
Andrew O’Shaughnessy, unable to revive his ailing form this season, was judged to have been taken down by Stapleton and Brian Murray came up from goal to nail the penalty. During a six-minute spell Limerick managed 2-1, but still couldn’t get any traction. Brendan Cummins saved well from Paudie McNamara and Brian O’Sullivan punished an obligingly stand-offish defence with a second goal before the levee broke.
Noel McGrath intervened at this stage laying off the ball for Corbett’s first goal in the 57th minute and flicking the ball off a defender’s stick to bag a point for himself before repeating the service for Corbett’s second and providing the first link in an impressive chain of passes, which opened up Limerick for a sixth goal driven in by Corbett for a nine-minute hat-trick.
