Munster SHC: Tipperary 2-23 Limerick 2-23
At the end of a rapturous match the ball became tangled in a heap of exhausted players and came to a dead stop. For both teams, the referee threw the towel in. The home crowd erupted into a defiant chorus of “Tipp, Tipp, Tipp,” and the significance of the performance was clear to everyone. They stood toe to toe with Limerick and stepped out of the ring in one piece.
Darragh McCarthy landed the equaliser for Tipperary from a free, with 20 seconds left in stoppage time, after a second half in which every outcome was never off the table. The sides were level four times, and the lead changed hands six times. Limerick looked like they might pull away more than once, but in those situations they don’t have the killer acceleration they had a couple of years ago and they couldn’t shake off Tipp.
For this young group it was a breakthrough performance. In Cahill’s first year as Tipp manager in 2023 they also held Limerick to a draw in Thurles but that was with a much different team, some of whom were nearing the end. Cahill threw in four players for their championship debutants and the extravagantly gifted McCarthy was the pick of the bunch, finishing the game with eight points to his name, including three beauties from play.
Against Limerick, matching their aggression is the only viable starting point. Tipperary weren’t waiting for Limerick to make the first move. Before a ball was thrown in, all of the Tipp full-back line had opened the bidding with their men and all over the field Tipp launched themselves into contact. For more than 70 minutes they sustained it. In the maelstrom, their hurling held up.
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“I think the biggest change from the league final was our bravery on the ball,” said Liam Cahill. “I mentioned it after the match [league final] that we just went into ourselves at times. You have to be brave to play in the big cauldrons with the big crowds, and there’s only small gaps to work that ball out. But you have to trust your hurling, and we should be trusting our hurling more in Tipperary because that’s what we thrive ourselves on; being really good hurlers.
“Today, I thought at times we tried it, it didn’t come off, but they never give up, and we’ll have to continue to be brave on the ball over the next couple of weeks if we’re to be one of the three to come out of Munster.”
For Limerick, there were traces of new beginning too. Adam English, Colin Coughlan and Barry Murphy all made their first starts in the championship and Aidan O’Connor made his first appearance off the bench. In a massive deviation from their published line-up, Kyle Hayes started in the forwards for the first time in three years, Will O’Donoghue was switched to centre back and English slotted in at centrefield alongside Cian Lynch.
Their play flowed at times and was clunky and interrupted at other times. Mike Casey was noticeably more involved in the build-up play from the back, Lynch processed a world of ball around the middle, and English was terrific at drifting into shooting positions.
He had landed two points before he pounced for Limerick’s first goal, midway through the first half, running on to a pass into space from Aaron Gillane and flicking the ball through Barry Hogan’s legs.
That gave Limerick the lead for the first time in the match, 1-6 to 0-7. Tipp, though, responded with three of the next four scores and they were in the fight all over the field. Jake Morris led their attack with three points in the opening half, and Tipp raced to the break with five unanswered points, including three towering frees from their full-back Eoghan Connolly.
Tipp’s three-point lead at half-time, 0-16 to 1-10, was the biggest margin between the teams at any stage of the game. Limerick wiped it out within three minutes of the second half. The excellent Shane O’Brien scored an early point and then rattled in Limerick’s second goal, rounding Michael Breen in the corner and flashing the ball to the net from an acute angle.
Tipp refused to buckle. Just three minutes later John McGrath scored a sumptuous goal, disarming two Limerick defenders with one change of direction and rifling a left handed shot past Nickie Quaid.
From there to the end, it was tit-for-tat. Limerick continued to nurse a marginal lead until seven minutes to go when McGrath stuck again at the end of a coruscating move. The scoring pass from Bryan O’Mara was the fifth transfer of possession, cutting straight through the heart of the Limerick defence.
Afterwards John Kiely questioned the legality of one of the passes in the build-up, and in the final quarter hand passing became a hot issue. Having not penalised anybody for the guts of an hour, Limerick were blown for three incidents of throwing and Tipp for one in the closing stages. The equalising free came from one of those infringements.
The fuse has been lit. More fireworks incoming. Brace yourselves.
Tipperary: B Hogan, R Doyle, E Connolly (0-4, 4f), M Breen, J Caesar, R Maher, B O’Mara (0-1), C Morgan (0-1), D Stakelum, A Tynan (0-1), J Morris (0-4), S O’Farrell, D McCarthy (0-8, 5f), J McGrath (2-1), J Forde (0-1)
Subs: N McGrath (0-1) for Caesar 42 mins; C Bowe for Forde 50 mins; S Kennedy (0-1) for Stakelum 53 mins; C Stakelum for Tynan 68 mins; S Kenneally
Limerick: N Quaid, B Murphy, M Casey, B Nash (0-1), D Byrnes (0-3, 2f), W O’Donoghue, C Coughlan (0-1), A English (1-2), C Lynch (0-1), G Hegarty (0-1), K Hayes (0-2), T Morrissey (0-1), A Gillane (0-7, 4f), S O’Brien (1-4), D Reidy
Subs: A O’Connor for T Morrissey 50 mins; P Casey for Hegarty 59 mins
Referee: T Walsh (Waterford)
Attendance: 32,295
