By John Redington
CORK …………………………………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………1-30
LIMERICK …………………………………………………………..………………………………………..………………………………………………2-27
(After extra time (2-19 to 1-22 after 70 minutes). Cork win 3-2 on penalties
“We needed to get a lead and hold it but we never got away from Cork and our scoring efficiency just wasn’t where it should be. I thought we were the better team in extra time but Cork got the rub of the green”, was how manager John Kiely summed up his Limerick senior hurlers seeing six unbroken years as Munster champions come to an end when they stumbled to a tie-breaker penalty shoot-out defeat to Cork in the TUS Gaelic Grounds before 43,580 spectators on Saturday evening. In a game resolutely refusing to deliver a winner as normal time, injury time, extra time and added time ended in stalemate, Declan Hannon’s failure to match Alan Connolly’s deciding penalty unleashed a red-clad pitch invasion savouring revenge for the hammering they had taken just weeks before on the Ennis Road.
Unlike the previous clash, Cork weren’t tailed off early on and the strong blustery breeze at their backs opened up more shots on the posts, allowing them to overcome Limerick’s goal on the quarter mark and move the ball quickly from defence. Although they went into the dressing-room with an advantage of four, nine wides prevented it from being more but their lead held until ten minutes after the restart when the hosts’ second goal looked to be the signal to drive on for victory.
But that gear change never arrived as Limerick failed to put more than two scores together, Cork’s injury time equaliser sent the game into twenty added minutes and, although the home team continued to dominate play, their six wides over that period stopped them building up a lead that would withstand the Rebels equalising ‘65’ from the last puck of play.
The Leesiders tore into the game from the throw-in, took an immediate lead through Patrick Horgan and tacked on further scores from Séamus Harnedy and a Horgan free before Limerick were able to make the deliveries to their front men stick. However, once Cian Lynch started pulling every ball in his direction out of the sky, Tom Morrissey got the hosts off the mark and after Adam English’s shot was stopped on the line, the passes and runs fell into place for Aidan O’Connor and Morrissey to draw them level.
The Rebels picked it up again when Diarmuid Healy restored their advantage and then added another after collecting off a turnover and, after Dave Reidy replied, Damien Cahalane and Shane Barrett had them leading by three, Diarmaid Byrnes’s reply from a free was then met by Barret but Cork’s hard-won lead was suddenly wiped out when O’Connor stopped a delivery on the end line and battled through the challenges to bat the sliotar to the net from a tight angle.
After Reidy put the home team ahead, further goal chances failed to deliver as Brian Hayes was denied by Nickie Quaid and Gearóid Hegarty by Patrick Collins at the other end before Tim O’Mahony and Aaron Gillane swapped scores. However, after Hayes pulled a shot across the face of the goals, Cork struck the jackpot when Barrett pounced on a ground ball just outside the large square and whipped a sizzler through the forest of legs and hurleys to the net.
Alan Connolly’s follow-up point was replied to by English and Barrett by Hegarty but, in the run-in to the break, Barrett, Horgan and Mark Coleman added substance to the visitors’ lead before Reidy’s answer narrowed Cork’s advantage to 1-14 to 1-10.
English opened the second half scoring straight from the restart only to be met by a Horgan free and, after Limerick hit back through Gillane’s free and English, Horgan struck again from a placed ball before the hosts shot back on level terms when Gillane was first out to a long delivery and laid off to Shane O’Brien to drill to the net with his first taste of possession after coming on as a sub. Going into the final quarter, however, they were denied the chance to move on as Horgan shot back from a free and struck from play in reply to O’Brien and the tit-for-tat continued with Brian Hayes restoring the Rebels’ lead, as did Darragh Fitzgibbon and Eoin Downey, each in reply to Gillane free.
The sides were level again when Hegarty struck after collecting the puckout before Darragh O’Donovan finally got Limerick’s noses in front coming up to the end of regulation time only for Horgan to tie scores up again before a 20 metre free out right gave the hosts another bite of the cherry. However, Gillane’s free drifted wide of the far upright and both sides failed to find a match-winner before extra time was called for.
With the breeze still behind them, Hannon struck immediately from the first period throw-in and was quickly followed by a Gillane free but, after referee Thomas Walsh had to depart with cramp and was replaced by linesman James Owens, Limerick’s cohesion dipped, shots stopped finding the target and Darragh Fitzgibbon’s free hauled Cork back into gear. Horgan and Conor Lehane then put their side back in the driving seat but an injury time free allowed Gillane to level scores at 2-22 to 1-25 before the change of ends.
A Gillane free followed the restart only to be overtaken by Shane Kingston and Lehane but Cathal O’Neill and Peter Casey restored Limerick’s lead. In the ding-dong chaos of the closing minutes peppered with missed chances, Cork gained the advantage through Tommy O’Connell and Kingston only for Gillane and O’Neill to edge the homeside back into the driving seat. But the drama didn’t end there as a Limerick attack ended in a free for overcarrying, a minute of stoppage time extended to four, Fitzgibbon’s free from deep in his own half was deflected for a ‘65’ which he converted as over 100 minutes of play came to an end.
So then came the penalties. Limerick took an early advantage when, after Byrnes slotted, Quaid blocked Darragh Fitzgibbon’s attempt and Gillane then drilled his shot beyond Patrick Collins’ reach. Lehane made no mistake with his reply and it was Cork’s advantage after Barry Murphy’s effort missed the target and Shane Kingston didn’t. Collins then put it up to his opponents when he stopped Tom Morrissey’s puck, Connolly increased the pressure with his successful reply and there was no need for the Rebels’ final attempt when Hannon drove wide of the upright.
Scorers: Cork: Patrick Horgan 0-7 (4 frees); Shane Barrett 1-3; Darragh Fitzgibbon 0-4 (1 free, 1 ‘65); Diarmuid Healy, Shane Kingston 0-3 each; Séamus Harnedy, Conor Lehane 0-2 each; Damien Cahalane, Tim O’Mahony, Alan Connolly, Brian Hayes, Eoin Downey, Tommy O’Connell 0-1 each;
Limerick: Aaron Gillane 0-9 (7 frees); Shane O’Brien 1-2; Aidan O’Connor 1-1; David Reidy, Adam English 0-3 each; Tom Morrissey, Gearóid Hegarty 0-2 each; Diarmuid Byrnes (free), Darragh O’Donovan, Declan Hannon, Peter Casey, Cathal O’Neill 0-1 each.
Cork: Patrick Collins; Damian Cahalane, Eoin Downey, Seán O’Donoghue; Cormac O’Brien, Ciarán Joyce, Mark Coleman; Tim O’Mahony, Darragh Fitzgibbon; Diarmuid Healy, Shane Barrett, Séamus Harnedy; Patrick Horgan, Alan Connolly, Brian Hayes.
Subs: Robert Downey for Cormac O’Brien (53), Tommy O’Connell for Tim O’Mahony (58), Shane Kingston for Alan Connolly (64), Robbie O’Flynn for Séamus Harnedy (67), Conor Lehane for Patrick Horgan (72), Niall O’Leary for Seán O’Donoghue (72), Brian Roche for Diarmuid Healy (half-time extra time). Alan Connolly for Mark Coleman (83).
Limerick: Nickie Quaid; Seán Finn, Dan Morrissey, Mike Casey; Diarmaid Byrnes, Kyle Hayes, Barry Nash; William O’Donoghue, Adam English; Gearóid Hegarty, Cian Lynch, Tom Morrissey; Aaron Gillane, Aidan O’Connor, Dave Reidy.
Subs: Shane O’Brien for Aidan O’Connor (42), Peter Casey for Dave Reidy (54), Cathal O’Neill for Tom Morrissey (54), Darragh O’Donovan for William O’Donoghue (64), Declan Hannon for Diarmuid Byrnes (extra time), Barry Murphy for Mike Casey (extra time), Tom Morrissey for Gearóid Hegarty (77), Diarmaid Byrnes for Cian Lynch (93).
Referee: Thomas Walsh (Waterford) – Sub James Owens (Wexford) (injured, 73).