IN THE enforced absence of both Declan Hannon and David Reidy, noted attacker Cathal O’Neill looked comfortable at centre-back in Limerick’s snug defeat of Dublin the Allianz National Hurling League at Croke Park.
Hannon is due back in the coming weeks while Reidy – who was due to start at number six – was a late withdrawal through a training injury (hamstring tweak), but is expected to make a swift return to action.
Afterwards, manager John Kiely reflected to RTÉ Sport: “I think Cathal should be very, very happy with the way he equipped himself tonight.”
The boss continued: “It’s a learning curve for him, Cathal has huge capacity as an athlete and as a player. He learns very quickly on the hoof. There’ll be things he did and he didn’t do tonight that when he looks back on them, he’ll say ‘okay, right, I should have gone here or there’, whatever.
“He’ll learn from it, he’s a very, very astute student of the game in his own right.
“For us it’s brilliant that we have a game into him here at Croke Park in that position. All of those things are pluses for us.”
Unbeaten Limerick are next out against Tipperary at the TUS Gaelic Grounds on Saturday week.
