Cork 3-28
Limerick 3-26
JOHNNY CAROLAN REPORTS
AN epic game deserved an epic finish and it certainly got one.
The scoreboards in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh showed 3-26 to 2-27 in Limerick’s favour after Limerick sub Aidan O’Connor had pointed. With the game deep in injury time, it looked like Cork were headed for an early championship exit.
However, there was still some time left. Goalkeeper Patrick Collins drilled the puckout into the hand of sub Shane Kingston, who ran at the Limerick defence. Many of the Cork fans among the 41,670 present would have taken a point and the chance to engineer an equaliser but the Douglas man kept running.
Eventually, his progress was halted, illegally, by Kyle Hayes. Instead of a free and a tap-over point, though, referee Seán Stack adjudged it to have been the denial of a goalscoring chance and signalled a penalty, black-carding Hayes.
Already with ten points to his name, Patrick Horgan stood up to face Nickie Quaid. All around him, the pressure was tangible but Horgan was the coolest man in the stadium, drilling the ball to the net.
When Shane Barrett won possession from the puckout and was fouled, Horgan sauntered out to midfield to take it. Instead of going for another score, though, he played the ball down the line to Brian Hayes, who capped a fine performance with his second point.
The final whistle followed and the stands and terraces deposited delighted fans on to the pitch, acclaiming Cork’s first win over Limerick in the championship since 2019.
Cork's Seamus Harnedy celebrates his goal against Limerick in the Munster SHC epic at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.(Photo: George Hatchell)
And yet, as impressive as it was, it merely keeps Cork alive. The stakes are just as high going to FBD Semple Stadium to face Tipperary on Sunday and manager Pat Ryan is keenly aware of the need to back up this performance.
‘You knew you were coming in with some negativity and pressure around,’ Ryan said.
‘We were very disappointed with the Waterford game, we knew going down that that was going to be a huge game. Waterford are a very, very good team, they were being written off and they were in the long grass for us.
‘We didn’t perform as well as we did and they played well. That was disappointing.
‘We played very well against Clare down here but you’re not going to beat Clare when you’re down to 14 men, you’re just not going to do it. That’s what we did after, we really looked at that 55, 60 minutes where we played well. We showed lads some clips of the heart they showed down to 14 men to come back into that game.
‘But it matters nought unless we can go out next week and get a result against Tipperary.’
They certainly gave themselves a template for that here as they roared into the game. A brilliant flick from Hayes following a Patrick Collins puckout allowed Barrett to feed Séamus Harnedy for an early goal to make it 1-2 to 0-2 and Cork pushed on from there. They were 1-11 to 0-8 in front when Aaron Gillane intercepted Seán O’Donoghue’s pass and passed to Séamus Flanagan, who fired to the net.
Cork were not rattled, though – Harnedy won the puckout and repaid the compliment to Barrett, who shot past Nickie Quaid. By half-time, Patrick Horgan’s frees had helped Cork to a 2-15 to 1-10 advantage. Such a deficit has never been a concern to Limerick – indeed, at the same venue in the 2021 Munster final, they had come back from ten down at half-time to see off Tipperary.
They ate into the deficit point by point of the resumption but Cork, with Darragh Fitzgibbon hitting his stride, were able to keep them at bay. A five-point lead was cut to two as Gearóid Hegarty’s turnover allowed Flanagan to net again and the same pair combined in the 58th minute as Limerick moved in front for the first time since the opening minute, 3-21 to 2-23.
Cork's Damien Cahalane battles with Limerick's Aaron Gillane.
When John Kiely’s side scored four of the next five to move four in front, it looked like a familiar story but Cork would not give up. Kingston, Alan Connolly and Horgan all pointed to cut the lead to one before O’Connor gave Limerick breathing space.
It was not to be the Treatymen’s night, however. Having lost their previous four championship games by an aggregate of seven points, Cork finally came out on the right side of a close one.
‘I am sick of coming in here and talking about hollow victories,’ Ryan said.
‘We have had a lot of those games over the last two years – tonight we showed great heart to get over the line against a savage team that never says die. Even though we were seven or eight points up we knew that they would come back at us.
‘We answered a lot of their scores when they got them.’
Scorers
Cork: P Horgan 1-11 (1-0 penalty, 0-10f); D Fitzgibbon 0-5; S Harnedy, S Barrett 1-2 each; A Connolly, B Hayes, D Dalton (0-2f) 0-2 each; S Kingston, E Twomey 0-1 each. Limerick: Séamus Flanagan 3-3; Aaron Gillane 0-7f; Gearóid Hegarty 0-4; Cathal O'Neill 0-3; Tom Morrissey, Diarmaid Byrnes (2f) 0-2 each; Cian Lynch, Adam English, David Reidy, Kyle Hayes, Aidan O'Connor 0-1 each.
Cork: P Collins (Ballinhassig); N O’Leary (Castlelyons), E Downey (Glen Rovers), S O’Donoghue (Inniscarra); T O’Mahony (Newtownshandrum), R Downey (Glen Rovers), M Coleman (Blarney); E Twomey (St Finbarr’s), D Fitzgibbon (Charleville); D Dalton (Fr O’Neills), S Barrett (Blarney), S Harnedy; P Horgan (Glen Rovers), A Connolly (Blackrock), B Hayes (St Finbarr’s).
Subs: D Cahalane (St Finbarr’s) for E Downey (23), B Roche (Bride Rovers) for Twomey (57), G Millerick (Fr O’Neills) for Coleman (63), S Kingston (Douglas) for Dalton (62), Tommy O’Connell (Midleton) for Downey (66).
Limerick: N Quaid; S Finn, D Morrissey, B Nash; D Byrnes, D Hannon, K Hayes; W O’Donoghue, C O’Neill; G Hegarty, C Lynch, T Morrissey; A Gillane, Séamus Flanagan, D Reidy.
Subs: F O’Connor for Finn (35+2, injured), A English for Reidy (49), C Boylan for T Morrissey (61), A O’Connor for Hannon (68), D Ó Dálaigh for Gillane (70).
Referee: S Stack (Dublin).
