Munster SHC replay/Tipperary 2-13 Limerick 0-18: Like some miracle of physics, Saturday's Munster replay at the Gaelic Grounds crammed 90 minutes of improvements, disimprovements, defiance and failure of nerve into a single one-point margin.
How Tipperary won is a straightforward narrative. Their focus had tightened since the draw in Thurles, big names regained some lost composure and they rode their luck to hang on to the narrowest of wins. But the subtext was more complicated.
For all the improvement in Tipperary's display, their victory was copperfastened by a sequence of barely credible wides perpetrated by Limerick at the end of extra time.
The feelings of the Limerick defence can only be imagined as they saw a succession of bravura clearances squandered in the closing minutes, as the one-point deficit moved closer and closer to a defeat.
"We've a great tradition of extra time," said Tipperary manager Ken Hogan afterwards. "That's what we drummed through to the lads - the belief we'd come through in extra time. Everybody will point to mistakes made but Tommy Dunne said just before we went out for extra time: 'Lads, hurling's gone out the window. This comes down to heart'.
Dunne was one of the stand-out successes. On Saturday, he was placed at the heart of his team, lining out at centre forward. He was the ingredient Limerick lacked. Calm and clinical in the maelstrom, he had the shots and the nerve to take critical scores and ended up with four points and no wides.
The other major success for Hogan and his back-room team was the switch of Diarmaid Fitzgerald and Eamonn Corcoran. Fitzgerald was sufficiently forceful on the wing to raise a question about his omission last week.
Corcoran played the corner with the sort of conviction lacking the previous week and beside him Philip Maher benefited and raised his own game several notches.
The tightness and hard work of the defence was the most obvious improvement in the team and the consequent pressure on the opposing forwards played its role in Limerick's poor shot selection and hasty, inaccurate shooting. Two of the players of whom much was expected, Andrew O'Shaughnessy and Niall Moran, were replaced.
Conor Fitzgerald made the same walk in a wipeout of the half-forward line.
Not that Tipperary had their attack satisfactorily sorted out either. The half forwards benefited from Tommy Dunne's craft and Colin Morrissey's exuberance on the wing. But Eoin Kelly still didn't get a serviceable supply and the succession of big lads, including the returned prodigal John Carroll, failed to make a significant impression on a very efficient Stephen Lucey.
Ger "Redser" O'Grady came on after 25 minutes and scored another goal to add to last week's match-turning score in Thurles. This was a streakier effort, scrambled in after Lucey's breathtaking block on Morrissey but it was equally significant - altering the match from one in which Limerick were in close contention to one they would have to chase.
One of the problems Tipperary will address is how they failed to use the platforms created by their two goals to construct a convincing lead. O'Grady's score put the team five up, 1-7 to 0-5, but by half-time the goal had been given back through three frees, two of them needless - a late tackle and a foul on the ball.
As a result the second half was played on a knife edge. Limerick got to within a point but then the jitters set in. Ten minutes of hammering for an equaliser came to nothing and in the 63rd minute Carroll shovelled the ball out to Tommy Dunne on the left wing and his point looked to have killed the match.
Carroll could have done so having for once slipped Lucey under a high ball but the space disappeared and his snatched shot went wide. Somehow Limerick managed to bridge the gap, the equaliser arriving in injury-time when Donie Ryan wormed his way within shooting distance and scooped the ball over.
The drama wasn't over as referee Aodán Mac Suibhne turned down Limerick's case for a free after Donie Ryan was tackled high about 65 metres out. Given the team's rising momentum it looked as if that omission mightn't matter but ultimately it did.
Having taken the lead, Limerick shipped their second body blow when Tipp replacement Evan Sweeney flew at the Limerick defence and inadequate resistance allowed him shoot - successfully - for goal. And the catch-up routine began all over again.
"Goals win matches, especially in extra time," said Limerick manager Joe McKenna. "The fresh man came in and caught us and stuck it in the net but we certainly had the best of it in the last 10 minutes of extra time. I felt if we could just keep in there tipping away we might even get the winning score. I thought if we got the equaliser with even two minutes to go we might have gone on to win it but it didn't happen."
His opposite number added an almost poignant note when assessing the possible impact on his county's unimpressed support.
"This will bring us on and restore the faith. It will get the people behind us again, restore the faith in the blue and gold jersey. Let us earn the respect of the Tipperary people and the public. Tonight was a tough battle but it shades in the comparison with two weeks time."
TIPPERARY: 1. B Cummins; 7. E Corcoran, 3. P Maher, 4. P Curran; 5. D Fanning, 6. D Kennedy, 2. D Fitzgerald; 12. B Dunne (capt), 9. P Kelly (0-1); 8. C Morrissey, 15. T Dunne (0-4), 10. J Devane; 13. E Kelly (0-7, five frees), 27. M Webster, 14. L Corbett (0-1). Subs: 11. G O'Grady (1-0) for Devane (25 mins), 24. M O'Leary for Corbett (44 mins), 18. J Carroll for Webster (58 mins), 25. C O'Mahoney for B Dunne (65 mins), 26. E Sweeney (1-0) for O'Grady (70 mins), 19. F Devanney for O'Leary (80 mins), 23. P O'Brien for Carroll (86 mins), 22. P Morrissey for O'Mahoney (91 mins).
LIMERICK: 1. T Houlihan; 4. M Foley, 3. S Lucey, 2. D Reale; 5. O Moran (capt.), 6. B Geary, 7. P Lawlor (0-1, free); 8. P O'Grady (0-1), 9. D O'Grady (0-2); 10. C Fitzgerald (0-1), 11. N Moran (0-1), 12. A O'Shaughnessy (0-1); 13. D Ryan (0-1), 14. TJ Ryan (0-8, frees), 15. D Sheehan (0-1). Subs: 17. P Tobin for Fitzgerald (40 mins), 29. S O'Connor for O'Shaughnessy (49 mins), 23. K Tobin (0-1) for N Moran (61 mins), 11. N Moran for O'Connor (78 mins), 12. A O'Shaughnessy for K Tobin (79 mins).
Referee: A Mac Suibhne (Dublin).
Attendance: 20,812.
