Limerick… 2-24
Galway… 1-18
Evidence that good players don’t always make good managers is ample. No need to name names but there have quite a few Galacticos who’ve flopped worse than a Premier League footballer trying to con their way to a penalty.
Henry Shefflin absolutely does not belong in the above category. He couldn’t after the exceptional levels of success he engineered with Ballyhale Shamrocks in a very short space of time. Which, no doubt, were chief among the reasons the Brains Trust in Galway took the plunge and appointed him manager two years ago.
It’s quite probable that, with his charges having been ran over by a Limerick team very obviously going up through the gears at the optimum time of the season, his tenure may be parked under the microscope at this stage.
That said, unless he was of a mind to move on himself, I feel it would be trigger happy in the extreme for there to even to be talk of change with the fields lie low. Maybe there won’t be talk of change at all, but knowing how we are told things are ‘results driven’ at the highest level, nothing would surprise me.
In my opinion, what Henry Shefflin needs more than anything is a change of luck. Just hear me out here. Taking on the maroon and white in the post-Joe Canning era was going to be an onerous task for whoever assumed it. This year, for example, doing so without David Burke and, most recently, Jason Flynn, even more so.
All that whilst taking on the best team in two decades and you’d be inclined to cut any manager or group of players a quantity of slack. Limerick, to their immense credit, are now a phenomenon. Personally, the thing I admire the most is their ability to rifle points literally from all over the field.
Remember, they too, notionally at least, have had their productivity impinged by the losses of Sean Finn and Mike Casey and Declan Hannon and Cian Lynch and Peter Casey at different stages. Except it hasn’t in any way diminished their capacity to produce brilliance. Why – because they are so long on the road that they now have the systems and processes in place and the men with which to implement them. As evidenced by the way players such as Will O’Donoghue, Darragh O’Donovan, Tom Morrissey – and indeed his brother Dan – the Casey brother in the forwards and Cathal O’Neill off the bench did serious heavy lifting here.
At this stage it must be emphasised though that the nine point chasm between the combatants at full time completely distorts the reality of how the match played out. Despite Limerick sprinting from the stalls via a trademark Aaron Gillane goal in the first minute, Shefflin’s side assumed control of most of remainder of the first half.
However, the key word there is most. Cathal Mannion essayed an exquisite shot past Nickie Quaide and with Cianan Fahy, Kevin Cooney and Conor Whelan feasting on high balls, the Tribesmen opened up a buffer of 1-13 to 1-07 for themselves as half time approached. The only problem from a Galway perspective was, it didn’t advance quickly enough.
John Kiely’s men hit a handful of scores without riposte in as many minutes at the end of Act I to leave the minimum between the sides and surely a sense of foreboding growing within anybody of Galway persuasion. It was vindicated as being well founded too as firstly the quadruple-chasing champions restored parity before another molecule of Gillane genius gave them a grip on proceedings for the day to mirror that which they’ve had on the game at the highest level for the last glorious period.
Galway caused them more problems than many have for a very long time but by the end of the first half the Shannonsiders had them decoded.
No matter what plan you have, they will come up with a better one. They feed off your anxiety. Brian Concannon won an ocean of ball in the first half, but with every shot that drifted on him you could see Limerick’s dander rising. Then, when Gillane did finally guiloteen Galway’s chances, the holders engaged in the swarm/drift defence that has served them so well, just as it does those who will be their opponents next time out.
And therein lies the tantalising dish blessedly awaiting us mere mortals.
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