Tough day today. From early in the game I felt we were very flat. Touch was off and our sharpness on the ball and in rucks wasn't there. Lads looked stuck to the ground and the first half was very poor all round. The two sendings off didn't help us and the 3rd week in a row factor reared its head again. Home advantage is clearly key too. Circumstances were against is today that said i wasn't expecting the performance. It's time to reflect and recharge in the next few weeks. KK most likely opponents and with a good long break we will match up we'll against them. Positives from today were Casey hannon English and 2 Morrisseys. Management like the players will learn truck loads from today. I do still think limerick will play a major part in this summer. The ref imo is out of his depth (absolutely not saying he was a factor in our defeat at all) at this level. 3 matches he has officiated and huge question marks over all of them. Players need and deserve better.

daveboy (Limerick) - Posts: 1197 - 17/06/2018 22:04:38    2112443

One of the repetitive features of Limerick hurling is we get away too high when we win and away too down when we lose. This is still a bunch of good players and a good management team. The game didn't go to plan today but that's the first time this year that we've had a bad loss. There's plenty of negatives as posters are pointing out but the positives are:

It busts the bubble and buzz around the team which is welcome as Limerick are terrible favorites.
We conceded no goal with Quaid pulling off one fantastic save.
We will learn more from this defeat than we ever would from another victory and we still have much to learn as this is still an immature team that's nowhere near the finished article. Kiely now has a chance to take a hard look at the team and go in a different direction based on the evidence of the round robin championship games.
I thought that Cian Lynch had a fine game with good support from both Morrissey's
We now get to play what should be a turkey shoot against either Carlow or Westmeath and then get a crack off of KK in a quarter final which is a game that we can win.

Looking forward, he needs to consider:

Full back - I'm hopeful that Kyle Hayes is the eventual full back but I wouldn't contemplate putting him in there in 2018. Mike Casey had his hands full today but every full back in the country would struggle on Conlon who's a serious forward. His biggest issue is that he's not that tall. My preference is to put Ritchie English at 3 and move Casey to 4 which I regard as his natural position. Bearing in mind that we need to be thinking of how to manage Walter Walsh, it might make sense to pull back in Ritchie McCarthy at this stage.
Half forward - So far, we have played two guys that I regard as natural half backs in the forwards. Given that we have a surplus of promising young forwards, I believe that we need to start playing them and putting more scoring power into the team. Gillane needs to start. He's a fantastic hurler. I would like to see a full forward line of Casey, Dowling and Gillane who are all natural scoring forwards and pick a half forward line from Morrissey (who has to start), Nash, Dempsey, Flanagan and Dempsey. That's 5 guys who play half forward week in, week out.

Finally, I wouldn't give Tom Condon a shirt again. He was put on to do a job. We have now had 2 red cards in 4 games which is unacceptable. We also need to stop conceding some many score-able frees as most of KK's scores now come from them and not from play.

Congratulations to Clare who out thought us today and to our minors. Making the Munster final is a massive achievement for that group and hopefully, they can go on now and win a championship.

Dealer (Limerick) - Posts: 837 - 17/06/2018 22:15:14    2112447

A break mightnt do both players and supprters any harm now and the reality check no harm either. Forwards looked very limited especially in the 2nd half, it was like looking at limerick 2 years ago again all of a sudden!

Flanagan and Mulcahy were our 2 best forwards a couple of weeks ago. Management need to stop messing them around and get them back playing and in the positions they had been excelling in a couple of weeks ago against Cork. I just hope it's not too late and their confidence isn't shot.

Bringing on McCarthy was admitting they were afraid of Clare and surely Hickey or anyone.else would have been a better option than Condon -
he shouldn't get a jersey again after that.

I wonder if accommodating Dowling and more so bringing Dempsey on every game is upsetting things somewhere. Dempsey has been poor and done absolutely nothing in my eyes to warrant getting more chances than the couple of Doon lads that have made an impact every time but didn't get a look in today. I hope I'm wrong and hope that nothing is seeping in to upset what has clearly been a great camp atmosphere this year.

We are better than today. There's a chance for them now to go away for a few weeks, get the heads down and get back to what they were doing well. A quarter final against possibly Kilkenny is a right chance for them to get back on the horse and if we were to get one over on them for the first time since 1973 it would huge and today would be forgptten. Here's hoping they go about it right and grasp the second chance with both hands!
Luumneach abú!

LowerTheBlade (Limerick) - Posts: 62 - 17/06/2018 22:25:17    2112453

Sideline slow today to make changes today a lot of comments about had to start same team as last game undoubtably dowling an ace free taker but should have started gillane offers so much more from play takes his points a goal threat and combines so well with Flanagan and mul limerick not the same threat without him....didn't click today but have to make switches or changes a lot quicker

championselect (Limerick) - Posts: 32 - 17/06/2018 22:27:44    2112454

I dont like the Ennis pitch i think its too small and not condusive to good flowing hurling. Limerick looked flat and i think the energy exerted in a tough munster campaign finally caught up with them. However we did our job in munster and are now into All Ireland series. I think we will still have a major say. Regarding the forwards very weird decisions today from the line taking mulcahy and flanagan off also not naming Pat Ryan on bench who i regard highly . Barry murphy not coming on when we needed a bit of pace and not bringing on Paul Browne when it was obvious the Daragh o donovan had emptied . My favoured full forward line woud be mulcahy, flanagan and gillane . Does dowling have the pace ?

longtermfan (Limerick) - Posts: 120 - 17/06/2018 23:47:11    2112467

We won the toss and we elected to play into the strong breeze.Can anyone explain to me how that makes sense?I don't know if it was a management decision but if was it was a shocking decision.
We have all played matches where the wind dies down or changes direction for the second half. I'm not saying that alone lost us the match I just think this was one of a number of decisions that we made in error.

DurkaDurka (Limerick) - Posts: 63 - 18/06/2018 00:58:11    2112475

PatOLogical (Limerick) - Posts: 1377 - 18/06/2018 01:26:00    2112476

PatOLogical (Limerick) - Posts: 1377 - 18/06/2018 01:39:48    2112477

Just a few comments on Limerick from our perspective.

I thought ye were well in the game at half time. We were slightly keeping ye in it with frees but you guys had the forward pressure to get those frees. You have big physical imposing men but I felt ye were slightly cumber-sum at times. Physicality does not matter what size you are its the controlled aggression you can bring and think you saw some controlled aggression from Clare today that maybe you did not expect.

I thought the reason why ye lost by 11 points was squarely managements issue. We are not that much better than you.

From the outset, you seemed content with containing Clare rather than. It reminded me of ourselves v Cork in last years Munster final. It is a very negative approach and when it starts to not go your way, heads drop.

As a Clare fan I was delighted to see McCarthy come on as IMO he is passed his sell by date. It was a baffling decision by your management really and further emphasised the negative approach. You needed 6 forwards on the pitch at this time not 6 defenders.

There seemed to be a fear in Limerick yesterday in that ye never really (on the line or the pitch) seemed to think ye could win the game. I can only put this down to the overall negative approach and tactic to contain Clare. Letting us go short with our puckouts was a disaster from your perspective. Anyone could see that ye would kill us in your half back line if you forced Touhy long. once again this was reminiscent of our tactics v Cork last year.

All in all you are certainly not as bad as the scoreline suggests and no one will want to meet Limerick this year. This game could in fact bring your management on a tonne as I feel it is them who need to learn the lessons of yesterday. I dont feel that your players underestimated Clare but your supporters definitely did. We are not easily beat and I fancy us against any team anytime at home. We should only get better now as the sod dries out and can have a real cut at the All Ireland this year. I hope the next time we meet is the All Ireland final.

LohansRedHelmet (Clare) - Posts: 2697 - 18/06/2018 02:53:13    2112482

McFan88 (Limerick) - Posts: 449 - 18/06/2018 08:15:31    2112492

This game was lost by management. It was clear to see Limerick were running on fumes - they had a free shot at Clare knowing they would still qualify from group - they should have freshened things up all over the park. The changes second half just handed the initiative to Clare and they duly obliged.

An awful day at the office and that's an awful beating to take from near neighbours.

e45lotion (Limerick) - Posts: 274 - 18/06/2018 08:59:09    2112499

Disappointing day for Limerick very flat but ye are better than that and will be very hard to beat later in Championship
Ennis is a notoriously hard place to win for visiting teams a bit of tweaking and better days will follow.
THe sending off worked out far better for Clare and it allowed us the short puck outs to by pass the half back line
Clare backs way more disciplined as well Shane Dowling got 4 from frees though missed 2 more
Any player that puts himself in a position to be send off is nuts Limerick struggling to get into Game Condon running 20 yards to jab with hurlet let all off Limerick down utter clown
Good banter with the fans yesterday

clooney (Clare) - Posts: 983 - 18/06/2018 09:01:13    2112501

e45lotion (Limerick) - Posts: 274 - 18/06/2018 09:29:35    2112512

meehan82 (Limerick) - Posts: 173 - 18/06/2018 09:32:45    2112513

Limerick got a set back yesterday. I don't believe that losing helps this team one bit. It knocks confidence. Management need to put out the same team that started against Cork except for Ritchie McCarthy in fullback. We should be apologising to him for treating him so badly this season. He's miles ahead of Hickey and even Casey who's too small to dominate at full back.
Flanagan has lost his form thanks to being shoved in the corner. There's lots of questions left after this performance and while I feel they can still go very well they'll need to be 100% against Kilkenny or Galway.

PeggyShippen (Limerick) - Posts: 300 - 18/06/2018 09:37:11    2112517

daveboy (Limerick) - Posts: 1197 - 18/06/2018 09:48:57    2112524

One error above. Clare beat tipp in thurles. Apologies.

daveboy (Limerick) - Posts: 1197 - 18/06/2018 10:17:51    2112542

Yesterday was a disappointment but all is not lost. We were flat from the start, 3 weeks in a row got to us, the game against Cork physically took alot out of the team and that caught up with them yesterday. No need for us yesterday to use the sweeper, Clare's use of the sweeper was much more effective than ours. Look we have 3 weeks now, game against Westmeath or Carlow will set us up nicely for a hop off Kilkenny or Galway. Still believe this Limerick team will see at least a semi final in Croke Park this year and god knows what will happen after that. Yesterday will stand to team and management, bring them back down to earth.

rualach (Limerick) - Posts: 28 - 18/06/2018 10:19:45    2112544

jimbob50 (Limerick) - Posts: 100 - 18/06/2018 10:43:09    2112557

Points on yesterday
a) good reality check if properly handled - mgt have an important job now to ensure that confidence isn't damaged
b) I can't understand why teams dont play 3 inside forwards when you have a strong wind behind you - I've seen many teams do it and it never makes sense to me - if they drop sweeper or midfield/HB line back, then space opens around the middle to exploit for points.
c) To LRHs point above, you can't leave Clare take short puck outs - they are probably the best team in the country at working the ball out from the back - 14 players on the pitch only gave them more space - we had to make them go long on puck outs.
d) when pressure came on, we started going back to old habits - launching ball rather than using it
e) if we learn from above, we'll improve. I'm not too despondent to be going in against probably KK - think they are beatable if we work as hard as they do because our hurlers are as good as theirs - if we match their workrate, I think we'll beat them. If its Galway, probably a different task but I wouldn't be overly frightened of them either.

ImokillyMan (Cork) - Posts: 221 - 18/06/2018 10:46:55    2112559