First Round Kearns' new guard overthrows the old

Munster Football Championship: How do you explain these days? They arrive once in a generation, or even less frequently. There is often a general sense that a breakthrough is possible but hardly anyone believes it will actually happen.

Yesterday in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in the Bank of Ireland Munster Football Championship first round it happened.

Not only did the Limerick footballers beat Cork in their own back yard and knock the Munster crown spinning to the ground, but they did so in style and so convincingly that the champions were shamed.

This was a day for Limerick and the achievement of these players and Liam Kearns. The manager's hard work with a promising cohort of footballers in a county more passionately engaged with hurling and rugby has paid off with the breakthrough win needed to sustain their flight into a new dimension.

Limerick did so many things right. Their centrefield dominated Cork. They broke the ball down for hungry half backs and half forwards to devour.

Three markers tried their luck on John Galvin, whose participation had been threatened by injury right up to the start. John Quane roamed all around the pitch, making himself available for passes and riding out the hits and even adding a glorious point before half-time.

In defence, Limerick mightn't have been unduly threatened by the gross lassitude of their opponents' attack but Diarmuid Sheehy did what few full backs manage and held Colin Corkery scoreless from play.

Without the capacity to supply their best scoring forward adequately, Cork struggled for scores. The whole attack put up one point from play all afternoon. Wing back Noel O'Leary supplied another and that was it, apart from three Corkery frees.

If there was no turning point there were gradual indications that Limerick were not going to be casually put down this time. In the first half they defended tigerishly and played a full role in making the Cork attack look as bad as it was.

But more crucially for a team in their position, they attacked with stunning economy.

Only two wides were signalled in the first half.

Principal among the contributors was captain Muiris Gavin, whose dead-eye place-kicking converted every chance given him by the at times over-fussy refereeing of Brian White.

Teams who are on the verge of a big result often fall away because of loss of nerve in front of the posts. Limerick weren't going to be caught that way.

Further evidence of their single-mindedness came with the injury to their excellent centre back Jason Stokes a minute before the break.

Kearns was decisive. No nursing him through to half-time, no hoping he could run it off, but swift substitution with Stephen Lucey slotting in impeccably and the team spirit unbroken.

At the interval Limerick were given an ovation leaving the field, leading 0-10 to 0-5.

If the win was surprising, Limerick's overwhelming superiority was sensational. Tompkins looked overwhelmed on the sideline. Surely some switch needed to be made, but you had to sympathise with the Cork manager: who of his drastically under-performing players should he withdraw?

Cork got one shot at redemption. In the minutes after half-time - when a substitution was finally made - replacement Maurice McCarthy made a difference at centrefield. The defence also tightened up and a platform of sorts was established.

But equipped at last with the chances to get the margin down to touching distance, Cork's forwards only continued to squander them.

They took their final score - their sixth - of the day and only one of the second half 11 minutes after the restart and from then on Limerick's wildest dreams incrementally morphed into reality.

Full forward Brian Begley began to shake ball out of a distracted defence and the threat of Limerick's forwards was a constant menace. Led inspiringly by Gavin, who tracked back tirelessly and tackled like a demon, the whole attack ended up scoring from play.

Gavin's seventh free pushed the score to 0-13 to 0-6 at the start of the final quarter and the penny dropped that Cork weren't coming back.

A few minutes later and the day reached its nadir for Cork. Murray, surprisingly selected only a fortnight after finishing a lengthy suspension, was red-carded after kicking out at Gavin, who was hovering too close to a free he was about to take.

It was the player's third red card in successive competitive matches for Cork, following on last February's NFL defeat of Kerry and last August's All-Ireland semi-final against the same opposition.

Limerick let themselves go at the end and kicked a few wides but won pulling up.

LIMERICK: S O'Donnell; M O'Riordan, D Sheehy, T Stack; D Reidy, J Stokes, C Mullane; J Quane (0-1), J Galvin; S Kelly (0-1), M Gavin (0-9, 8fs, capt), S Lavin (0-1); C Fitzgerald (0-1), B Begley (0-1), M Reidy (0-1). Subs: S Lucey for Stokes (injured; 34 mins), J Murphy (0-1) for Fitzgerald (65 mins), P Ahern for Reidy (67 mins), P Browne for O'Riordan (71 mins).

CORK: K O'Dwyer; S O'Brien, A O'Connor, A Lynch; N O'Leary (0-1), M Cronin (capt), O Sexton; D Kavanagh, N Murphy; BJ O'Sullivan, T Kenny, A Cronin; F Murray, C Corkery (0-4, fs), M Ó Croinín (0-1). Subs: M McCarthy for Murphy (half-time); J O'Donoghue for Kenny (48 mins); C Crowley for A Cronin (56 mins); J O'Shea for Ó Croinín (61 mins).

Referee: B White (Wexford).