Full Time : Limerick 0-17 Offaly 3-19
Limerick are out of this year’s All Ireland Championship. A disappointing end to the season for Limerick and its supporters. Limerick just did not turn up for this match. The team were booed at the end off by certain sections of the supporters something I do not approve of no matter how bad they were, short memories indeed people have ,everyone was clamoring for tickets when they were doing so well last year,ah they were lucky last year I heard people say on the way out of the ground, well one has to have a degree of luck in games no matter what sport it is I say, these guys are amateurs who give their all and they hold down day jobs also ,they are not fully paid professional like the ronaldos etc of this world.
There is not a player I know who would not go out on to a pitch to lose a match of this proportion .It was heartbreaking watching this evening’s match and seeing it all go wrong for Limerick . Watching it on TV and seeing it as it unfolds one sees a lot more; the movements off the ball, the runs …. The body language was not there for the Limerick Hurling team this evening, faitigue seem to set in a lot throughout the game, heads dropped. It was a sad spectacle seeing a team with a lot of the players I know been destroyed. Time after time well rehearsed training movements broke down, passes going astray, players lying on the turf disconsolate.Offaly were sharper, quicker to every 50/50 ball ,speaking earlier today to some Offaly supporters stated that they were a very young team given no hope of winning this match , Joe Dooley did not tell his team that.
This was their All Ireland Final and boy did they perform to the highest level. Credit has to be given to Offaly for this performance; living in the shadow of the Cats in the Leinster Championship is not easy to take defeat after defeat year after year. The All Ireland Championship needs to be sorted out by the gaa at headquarters otherwise in a decade hurling will be non existent.
It is easy to write articles criticizing players and what their manager says after I am still trying to comprehend how a team who reached the highs of last years championship were beaten by so much tonight at the Limerick Gaelic Grounds in front of 10, 000.Burnout, problems in defence over reliance of Andrew O Shaughnessy to deliver…what direction does Limerick Hurling take now, perhaps the long rest will cause all to contemplate some soul searching for a new comeback next year. Let’s hope so for the good of our National game.
