Bravery and Composure is the way to solving Limerick conundrum

By Shane Brophy

There was a familiar ring to this latest loss for Tipperary against Limerick, their twelfth in fifteen league and championship games going back to John Kiely’s arrival as manager of the Shannonsiders in 2017.

Tipperary were strong in the first half and full value for their half time lead, 1-13 to 0-15, but it should have been greater but for seven wides to Limerick’s four. The trend has been there over the last eight years that Tipperary lose second halves to Limerick and that happened again, outscored 0-15 to 0-10.

Okay, it wasn’t an over-run and on 66 minutes, just one point separated the sides, but there was never a sense that Tipperary would get the required scores to go on and win the game, bar they got a couple of goals.

Failing to score from play after the 44th minute was never going to get it done, with their last six points of the game coming from Darragh McCarthy frees, many of them from difficult ranges and angles, one major bright point from a Tipperary perspective from the game.

It wasn’t just the fact Tipperary didn’t score from play in the last thirty minutes of game-time (including four of added time), they got few shots at goal at all in that time, registering just four wides in the second half.

Even with the Limerick team having a fresh feel to it, some things don’t change, regardless of who is wearing the green shirt, one of which is that if you are behind on the scoreboard after fifty minutes, you are in big trouble. Limerick are nothing if not predictable in that they sit deeper, crowd their defence, leaving few gaps for opponents to create clean scoring chances. This explains Tipp’s difficulty in attack, although forcing Limerick to foul was a win of sorts.

One way of trying to overcome what Limerick do at this time of the game is to get your best shooters in position from long range, just as what Limerick do so successfully with Diarmuid Byrnes who scored four points from play from wing-back.

The Limerick team might have had up to six players that might start in the Munster Championship openers between the sides on April 20th but what makes them so hard to beat is they are a system-orientated team. No matter who is chosen to play, they all know their role, epitomised by Ethan Hurley who slotted in seamlessly at centre-back after Kyle Hayes was forced off injured at half time.

Then you have wing forwards of the hard-working Eddie Stokes and particularly Aodhan O’Connor who pilfered five points from play, while previously used midfielder Barry Murphy has been transitioned to a corner back, a la Barry Nash, and was once again superb.

Tipperary do have a problem with coping with the way Limerick play, the best way to deal with it is to bring ferocious intensity, and for the first half, Tipp did that but it took its toll as the game wore on with the home side pilfering their scores a little easier, 25 points from play.

That being said, Tipperary can’t get too caught up with trying to emulate Limerick as not many can, plus not few teams play like them. Cork have successfully come to terms with the Shannonsiders by taking them on man for man, something Tipperary did to a certain extent on Sunday, maybe not wanting to show their full hand ahead of the championship meeting.

Tipperary’s best chance of beating Limerick is to follow Cork’s lead and go man-for-man, play three in the full forward line, and keep their centre back occupied. In Sunday’s game, Darragh McCarthy and Seanie Kenneally played as a two-man full forward line, with Darragh Stakelum given a roving role, but he never impacted the game. Jake Morris finished with four points from play but will feel he left a couple more behind him, but it’s hard to get away from the sense he is better served inside where he is a sniper when it comes to getting goals.

The final scoreline is always the be-all and end-all but there was a small crumb of comfort to be taken for Tipperary by the fact they had as many scoring chances as Limerick in the game, with the home sides greater efficiency the difference.

Defensively, the full-back line didn’t give up a goal chance with Aaron Gillane and Donnacha O Dalaigh kept to one point from play with Patrick O’Donovan scoring three, although all three were audacious efforts from out on the wing you wouldn’t advise players to shoot from, but Limerick are so well coached, they make such efforts almost routine.

Barry Hogan got his first action between the posts in the league and had one of his best games in the Tipp jersey in terms of his puckouts, particularly in the first half where his mid-range and long range puckouts found their men more often than not. In the first half, they transitioned the ball well into scoring chances, both close to and long range with Alan Tynan, Willie Connors, Gearoid O’Connor, Michael Breen, and Bryan O’Mara all finding the target.

After two impressive games in midfield against Galway and Wexford, Connors and Craig Morgan didn’t have the same joy as the same space wasn’t afforded to them, but they will benefit from the experience of coming up against how Limerick crowd and area, so ripping up the script in term of that being an effective pairing would be foolish based off just one game.

The number of Tipperary’s scoring opportunities fell off after the break, as players began to tire, both physically and mentally, laterally their decision-making in their use of the ball fell off, starting to go more direct which is something you can’t do to a Limerick defence who bring more players back the field the longer the game goes on. Maybe this is the time to get fresh players into the team, in the half-back line and midfield, a perfect role for Noel McGrath to come in fresh and keep to doing the right things on the ball.

Arguably the best time to play more direct hurling is in the first half, and the Tipperary goal came about was the perfect example as an angled delivery from Michael Breen was broken down to Darragh McCarthy who played in Seanie Kenneally for a goal that will be shown on his highlight reels for the rest of his life.

In terms of individual performances, Kenneally was Tipp’s brightest on the day, also mentioning Robert Doyle at corner back who, not only with the green helmet, plays in a similar mould to Cathal Barrett, the jersey he is arguably asked to fill in the side.

Back to Kenneally, there are not many occasions in his career where Dan Morrissey was under such pressure, conceding 1-3 and was also fouled for another. The goal is one that will follow him through his career for the rest of his life.

However, what suggests he might just be the new marquee forward Tipperary are looking for is having the audacity to take on such a shot in the first place. The coaching manual would have said to get the ball in his hand before taking on the shot but to decide to double on it first time and connect so sweetly to the net says a lot about the Moneygall clubman’s confidence in his own ability, and his teammates need to feed him as much as they can, plus he is strong in the air, so quality direct ball is now also an option.

While it’s never good to lose, and tasting defeat again to Limerick is beginning to annoy, there were elements to be optimistic about in terms of the performance.

Four points from six after three games of the league is a good spot to be in before tough end to the campaign with games against Cork, Kilkenny, and Clare to come, but a kind one in terms of the schedule as it will be a game every fortnight.