By contrast with the all-action fare at Ennis, the encounter the previous evening between Limerick and Galway was a rather anaemic and free-ridden affair. The dreadful quality of the heavily-sanded playing surface certainly didn’t help. An Moltóir counted about 15 instances of players failing to effect a straightforward pick-up which was mainly attributable to the poor surface, and there was also an unusual frequency of poor line balls.
As usual, Limerick should have won but failed to do so due simply to their inability to score, even from the most straightforward of frees. Galway were typical Galway, a bit flashy and capable of some lovely scores, but ultimately lacking substance. However, they did have two things which Limerick lacked – a scoring forward (Damien Hayes) and a reliable freetaker (Ger Farragher).
Galway also showed evidence of better coaching. An Moltóir has never seen a Galway team playing so much first-time ground hurling. This was a long way from the “jennet express” tactics beloved of Cyril “as such” Farrell and makes a lot of sense when you have a lot of light, nippy players. By contrast, Limerick were much more inclined to run with the ball and, especially in the first half, they relied too much on the high ball sent into the Galway goalmouth, even though the Limerick inside line has no ball winners suited to such a tactic. Significantly, their first goal, by Donie Ryan, came from a quick low ball sent in by Patrick Kirby.
A major problem for Limerick this year has been the sad decline of Niall Moran, one of the best forwards in the country last year. The failure – at least so far – of Andrew O’Shaughnessy to live up to his early promise has also been a disappointment. His only contributions to the game were two nasty fouls, the second of which was a red card offence. Not only did Shaughs get away with this, but his victim David Collins instead earned a yellow card for exacting retribution.
The new GAA disciplinary committee must surely take action to stamp out incidents like these which are captured clearly on television but missed by the referee. The idea aired by an official from Tipperary that this would be unfair because TV only picks up some such incidents is absurd. It is simply not good for the image of the games if nasty blows such as this go unpunished. Last year in the Munster football final a Kerry player felled one of the Limerick team with a fist into the stomach and got away scot free. How is this supposed to influence the tens of thousands of kids (and their mothers) looking on? If players knew that such actions would be severely punished, we would presumably see a lot less of them.
The finale of the Limerick-Galway match highlighted another area where the GAA needs to take action. The sequence where Patrick Kirby lobbed in a close free and then drove the subsequent 65 wide indicated a lot of confusion on his part. If he had a clear idea of how much time was left he probably would have acted otherwise. So why don’t the GAA adopt the time clock used to such effect in the women’s football championship (and in several other sports)? But then, one could go on all day asking why this organisation doesn’t do things sensibly.
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