“This Limerick team have got to learn to behave themselves when the match is in the melting pot.”
Limerick and Waterford was a game of trench warfare. Sparks flew all over Semple Stadium as, from the first minute to the last, both teams thundered into each other like two dogs fighting over the one bone.
It all boiled over on the three quarter hour mark, in the aftermath of Aaron Gillane’s missed penalty, when both Gearoid Hegarty and a Waterford mentor were sent off in the madness.
Barry Nash was lucky to stay on the pitch too.
In the end, thanks to tremendous displays from Tom Morrissey and Diarmaid Byrnes in particular, Limerick won out on a scoreline of 1-18 to 0-19, but they had to work harder for this one than many would have imagined.
Davy Fitzgerald had his Waterford team primed for action and, led by their brilliant sub Tom Barron, who came in for the injured Tadhg De Búrca early on, the Déise never took a step back.
The game teetered on the edge of recklessness for large periods and, on The Sunday Game, Liam Sheedy highlighted Limerick’s over-zealous tackling.
“He’s a very lucky man,” Sheedy said of Seamus Flanagan, after the corner forward floored Stephen Bennett with a late first half shoulder.
“But too often he tends to use his body, and hits it off the wrong part of the opponent.
“It was high into the face. I don’t know if it wasn’t seen, but there was no action taken on this tackle. He leads with his shoulder into the face, and he follows through with the elbow,” added Sheedy.
Waterford 0-19 Limerick 1-18
Anthony Daly thinks that but for wastefulness Waterford could have won while Liam Sheedy says Limerick's discipline is an issue John Kiely will want to address.
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“He wasn’t looking at the ball. The ball was gone to ground. He came late, and he was lucky, very lucky,” added Anthony Daly.
Gearoid Hegarty was sent off on two yellow cards and Sheedy said that he couldn’t have any complaints.
“No he can’t have any complaints. It’s something I have been highlighting for quite a while, this Limerick team have got to learn to behave themselves when the match is in the melting pot,” said Sheedy.
“There was no need for the tackle. It was reckless.
“He didn’t need to go there. The ball was gone clear over the line when he made the tackle, he doesn’t need to go in there to attract the contact.
“And I wasn’t surprised it was a second yellow.
‘He can have no complaints, and I think it’s something Limerick are going to have to learn from.
“But I think John Kiely will be happiest of all, because he has a stick to beat them with in many ways,” concluded Sheedy.
For a finish, Galway referee Liam Gordon dished out more almost a dozen yellow cards, and one red, in as physical a game as you’ll see.
Related links
- Waterford mentor and Limerick doctor sent off in one of maddest minutes of hurling you’ll see
- Down pile the misery on Donegal with big Ulster championship win
- Jackie Tyrrell suggests two radical hurling rule-changes
