Among the interesting facts about John Kiely’s Limerick is that they have never lost a final. Five successive Munsters, four All-Irelands and a couple of leagues have gone by without anyone cracking the champions’ composure.
There was more of it this weekend, as Clare came calling to their neighbours’ venue, sufficiently emboldened by last April’s victory – a first defeat for Limerick in the province for four years – to agree to play the Munster final there.
It may have lacked the feral abandon of the previous year’s decider in Thurles but yet again it was a one-score match and Limerick were ahead at the final whistle.
Clare could lament a number of missed opportunities, particularly before half-time when they had seized the whip hand, but in a combination of poor shooting and an apparent inclination to put the match to bed by looking for goals, they got to the break just three ahead, 1-11 to 0-11.
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The champions took control in the third quarter. A total of 1-6, the goal from Aaron Gillane, to a response of only 0-3 turned the match on its head.
“Yeah, it was a big third quarter,” said Kiely. “It’s something we go after. Each season brings its own narrative and one of the things that’s been noticeable this year is that our third quarter has been tremendous in terms of energy and in terms of scoring. It’s a great trait in a team to come out in what they call the moving quarter and actually move.”
Again, Clare didn’t help their cause by spurning three scoring opportunities just after the break. The inaccuracies killed their momentum. Manager Brian Lohan admitted as much afterwards.
“Yeah, I think the stats are kind of even, all the puck-outs, breaking balls – everything is kind of even apart from shooting efficiency and their shooting efficiency is way better than ours. Our shooting efficiency let us down. The game is about putting the ball over the bar and when you don’t put it over the bar you don’t win.”
Kiely did feel that his team had merited the victory. He made a couple of switches before the start, bringing David Reidy and Graeme Mulcahy in and keeping Cathal O’Neill and Peter Casey in reserve, which helped create a significant impact off the bench.
“I think we were the better side. We probably could have had a couple mores scores on the board. When we were five up, we could have gone six; coughed up a chance.
“It went down the field and went to four, then it went to three. That six-point gap literally disappeared in the space of 30 seconds – just a few moments then that were very significant in keeping the game tight right to the very end.
“I’d be particularly pleased with the impact we got off the bench. Lads came into a really frenetic, difficult game, probably the most difficult game I’ve ever seen lads get into.
“We coped with it really well – Cathal and Adam, particularly given the circumstances around the death of his [Adam English’s] uncle yesterday, having to come and participate today and do what he did, for a young player, I thought that was an incredible achievement.”
Clare’s change was well-flagged, as full back Conor Cleary didn’t manage to make a miraculous recovery from his shoulder injury.
“Yeah, look, Conor is just a great guy,” said his manager, “and he made every effort to be there but he wasn’t able to play and that was confirmed for us on Thursday.”
Asked would be fit for the All-Ireland quarter-final against Dublin or Carlow, Lohan replied: “Don’t know, we’ll leave that in the hands of the physio and the doctor.”
But Cleary’s experience of marking Gillane made him a significant loss?
“Look, Aaron Gillane is probably one of the best forwards in the game at the moment and if you’re looking at traditionally good forwards in Limerick he’s probably one of the best there’s ever been so really tough challenge for anyone that is marking him. He was very good.”
It was Limerick’s fifth consecutive Munster title, a record they now share with Cork, who have managed it twice. Kiely wasn’t getting carried away.
“You don’t think about them, to be honest with you. You’re just so focused on the game, the preparation of the team, selecting the subs – just your work, really. Everybody is just focused on the here and now. The five obviously was something that’s there. You can’t hide from it, that’s the reality.
“But as I said this morning when I was leaving home, I’m so proud of the four we have.”
