Gaelic Games

Nicky English: Limerick have found top gear and have eyes on Liam MacCarthy

Defending All-Ireland champions simply had too much for Waterford in semi-final

Limerick’s William O’Donoghue celebrates after the All-Ireland SHC semi-finals with David Reidy. Photo: Tommy Dickson/Inpho

Nicky English's face
Nicky English
Sun Aug 8 2021 - 11:30

Ultimately Saturday ended up exactly as logic and precedent suggested it would for Waterford. Their season’s revival simply ran into a Limerick team improving as they go in what’s turning out to be a really well-timed All-Ireland run.

Up until half-time in the Munster final they had been relying on Cian Lynch and Kyle Hayes but this time we saw the year’s-best performances from a number of Limerick players, including Nickie Quaid. On the occasions that Waterford managed to escape the stifling attention of their markers, the goalkeeper made some excellent saves.

There were a couple of factors that I felt influenced Waterford’s approach. Fatigue in their fourth match in successive weeks was bound to be a factor even though they made no excuses of their punishing schedule. In last year’s final they were physically overwhelmed and appeared determined not to allow that to happen again.

They attacked savagely in the first quarter. Conor Gleeson stuck to Cian Lynch and the Bennetts put themselves about with some serious hits, showing that Waterford were well up for it. I’m not sure if I was going to war with Limerick that I’d choose physicality as the ideal battlefield.

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The champions’ physique, conditioning and - now - fitness is fairly forbidding and there was a step-up in performance all around: as well as Quaid, Dan and Tom Morrissey and Darragh O’Donovan to name a few.

I don’t know if it was their emphasis on confrontation or simply fatigue but Waterford’s hurling wasn’t anywhere as good as in recent weeks - there were times when they needed a second touch to get control.

At the first water break, Limerick led 0-4 to 0-3 for all Waterford’s all-out aggression and John Kiely must have been well satisfied.

Aaron Gillane - maybe reacting to the fright of being left out of the Munster final team and despite the determined marking of Conor Prunty - and Séamus Flanagan made hay up front.

At one point Gillane hooked Shane Bennett around midfield as if to demonstrate both his work-rate and state of fitness.

Will O’Donoghue got to grips with Jamie Barron at an early stage and Seán Finn made life predictably hard for Dessie Hutchinson. Waterford struggled for scores. Stephen Bennett had an unusually erratic day on frees but to be fair to him, there was a very tricky crosswind, blowing from right to left, which is particularly disruptive for free takers.

Waterford’s puck-outs were under pressure but what were they to do? Go long and the ball is landing on Diarmaid Byrnes and the outstanding Kyle Hayes; go short and the ball carrier is swallowed up in the middle third.

The game got away from them after the water break, as Cian Lynch began to turn up the dial and every one of the Limerick forwards scored from play. They won that phase by 0-11 to 0-4 and that was that.

Waterford to their credit were resilient. They went more orthodox, got rid of the sweeper, ran at the defence and rattled off four points. Gillane’s goal just before the second water break killed whatever momentum they had stone dead.

I was particularly impressed with Limerick’s discipline. They tackled with the chest rather than using arms and hurleys, which suggested that they’ve done some work on this aspect of their game. It was ironic, so, that they picked up a red card.

Peter Casey’s foul didn’t look great on review and unless they can argue that the bars of the helmet got entangled - which actually can happen - they’ll be doing without him in the final, which is a blow for the player.

Overall though, the last three halves of hurling produced by Limerick have been mesmerising. They finished Saturday in cruise control and were able to take off their top performers before the end.