Tidy tipping.
Both Limerick and Tipperary started slowly in their Munster Championship opener at the Gaelic Grounds, but suddenly as the clock struck 15, this game sprung into life.
With the home side enjoying the upper hand in the early stages of the game, Limerick looked to make their supremacy count on the quarter hour mark when Cian Lynch floated a hanging ball in over the heads of the Tipperary full back line. Rangy half forward Gearoid Hegarty had ghosted in behind the Premier’s last line and he looked to have done everything right as he batted the ball across the goals towards the far corner.
Tipperary’s debutante goalkeeper Brian Hogan leapt across his goals to keep it out with a stunning reaction save.
On the next attack, Tipperary made John Kiely’s men pay as Dan McCormack rattled Nicky Quaid’s net on the other end of the field. After a hard-hitting sequence of hurling with Billy McCarthy, Jason Forde and Willie Connors shipping heavy knocks, the Borrisoleigh club man would pull a ground stroke to the net after John McGrath had hit the post.
Dan McCormack rattles home the opening goal in the Limerick-Tipp Munster championship clash after a ferociously competitive passage of play pic.twitter.com/nTQIRaWazU
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) May 20, 2018
That gave Tipperary some respite, but it was still the men in green who were on top. Both Tipperary corner backs in Donagh Maher and newcomer Alan Flynn were struggling, with Graham Mulcahy hitting them to the tune of four points from play and Aaron Gillane running rings around them.
On the other end of the field, it was a similar story. Seamus Hickey had coughed up four cheap frees, converted by Jason Forde, as he continuously dived in rashly behind the Silvermines man.
It is a cardinal rule for a back man, particularly a full back not to lunge in, not to over-commit, because clever forwards will always take advantage. Hickey’s lack of nous in the tackle cost his side as Tipp took an undeserved point lead into the break.
https://twitter.com/Iamsmythers/status/998195758598971393
https://twitter.com/kevinhall9/status/998195623282331648
Needless fouling by Seamus Hickey keeping Tipp ahead #LimTipp
— john burke (@burke_jude1) May 20, 2018
