IN what was almost certainly a dress rehearsal for the 100th Anniversary National Hurling League Final at the same venue on Easter Sunday (April 5), Limerick bettered Cork in front of a healthy attendance in the penultimate round of the pennant competition at the Gaelic Grounds.
Limerick fielded 12 to Cork’s seven from the respective line-ups of last summer’s Munster final.
In the weekend win, timely goals arrived for Limerick through Shane O’Brien, Cathal O’Neill, and Aidan O’Connor, who in another sensational display grabbed an impressive 1-11.
Of O’Connor (23), manager John Kiely stated: “His accuracy has been unerring, his energy on them, and he’s just in a very comfortable place. His confidence is high and more luck to him.”
“He’s got to keep driving it on. He knows there’s a man behind him waiting to pick them up if he drops them for a couple of seconds, so that’s a great piece for us to have.”
Kiely also reported that injured (shoulder) Darragh O’Donovan has made “an incredible amount of progress in a very short space of time” and that his return to training is imminent.
Peter Casey has fully recovered from his injury setback, Kiely confirmed.
In his 110th competitive outing with Limerick, captain Cian Lynch emerged as TG4 Player of the Match.
On the likelihood of a quick rematch with Cork, he reasoned: “Listen, all we want to do is play games and we won’t take our minds any further than the next game (Galway), and if it all leads to a League final great, and if it doesn’t we will still just drive on. We just take it all week by week.”
With Cork likely to account for relegated Offaly in the concluding round (Saturday, March 21), Limerick can join the Leesiders in the decider with a draw against Galway the same evening.