Last Sunday’s Munster hurling final does not require much analysis… Limerick should have won it pulling up!

That they did not do so was due almost entirely to the profligacy of their forwards and the greater economy of their opposite numbers on the Tipperary team. Some of the wides Limerick shot made Waterford’s more glaring misses in the semi-final look like minor aberrations. Indeed, An Moltóir reckons there are many Déise folk who are now wondering ruefully about the might-have-beens if their talented team had been in Páirc Uí Chaoimh instead of the Shannonsiders, as Tipperary were very vulnerable on the day.

Nevertheless, as in the semi-final against Clare, Tipp survived despite being bested in the outfield exchanges. The supremacy of the Limerick halfback line for much of the second half was almost total. Ciaran Carey was back to something approaching his best, Brian Geary had his finest game in a Limerick shirt and Mark Foley gave another player-of-the-year performance. With substitute Damien Reale playing out of his skin and the limited but big-hearted Mike O’Brien dominating the midfield area, most of the second half was played in the Tipperary end of the pitch. At times Eamon Corcoran seemed to be playing Limerick on his own, and it defies belief that the Tipperary halfback was not given the man-of-the-match award on RTE’s Sunday Game.

Tipperary are Munster champions because they have one thing which appears to be absent in all the other Munster counties: scoring forwards. They were blessed this year by the complete loss of form of Niall Gilligan and Mark Keane. Had either of these played anywhere near their abilities, it would have been curtains for the Premier County. To give him his due, Sean O’Connor did a lot better than could have been expected for a championship debutant, but with veterans Barry Foley and Ollie Moran unable to hit the side of a barn from ten yards, Limerick’s goose was cooked.

For Tipperary, the question now is, having survived two games they should have lost, can they now go on to really express themselves in the remainder of the competition? There is no doubt that their team has many profound weaknesses, particularly at midfield, centre forward and right half forward. If they cannot stop opposing halfback lines dominating them, then some day they will be destroyed by forwards who know where the posts are. Imagine what the Kilkenny front line might have done with the ball sent into the Limerick forwards last Sunday!

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