I believed going into this weekend that we would be watching the best two teams in the championship playing in Limerick. The scary thing, especially for Cork, is that may still be true but it’s a long drop from first to second.
Limerick were savage on the day. You could probably put a best 15 from all of the other teams together and they wouldn’t have been beaten here. That’s as impressive as I’ve seen them in a couple of years – since the Munster finals in 2019 and 2021 and the ’21 All-Ireland. It was that good.
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The question before the championship was would John Kiely have all of his players healthy and ready to go? He did on Sunday. Will they be all healthy in eight weeks’ time? Who knows, but on this evidence, at their best they are untouchable.
Ominously, Will O’Donoghue and Gearóid Hegarty are still improving as well, getting closer to their best. Nickie Quaid was a likely non-starter in the championship – the Munster Championship, anyway – or so we thought.
Yet there he was, making outstanding puck-out decisions, and when Cork needed goals to stay in it in the first half, he saves from Patrick Hogan. The ball is worked up the field smartly to Hegarty, who scores a point at the other end.
In general, the improvement they showed against Waterford was not only maintained but the rate of improvement was as well.
The first point that Tom Morrissey got came from a very snappily hit pass from Cian Lynch, which Morrissey took on the full and went on to score. It was like a declaration of intent and showed straight away that Limerick were really on their game.
I think it was a more important match for them than it was for Cork. Limerick lost the five-in-a-row last year when Cork beat them in the All-Ireland semi-final. I’ve heard O’Donoghue saying they just get over it and focus on the future, but obviously something like that hits deep and hard because they were probably the best team in last year’s championship.
They played well enough to beat Cork but yet didn’t manage to. Maybe it was the stress of the drive for five but they also had key injuries. Barry Nash, another who was outstanding this weekend, missed that semi-final.
Their depth is now enviable. Cathal O’Neill is a replacement because Tom Morrissey has improved and is capable of scoring five points in a match and because Adam English has been outstanding. O’Neill would be starting for any other team.
Kyle Hayes was named Man of the Match, and rightly so, but English for me was a close second. He scored a goal and a couple of points, but overall his touch was so silky and his footwork so neat. He also got on a load of ball and delivered it brilliantly in front of him. You’d love to be a corner forward with that quality of supply.
Aaron Gillane was on it from an early stage with his goal and ran amok. We’ve questioned the Cork full-back line in the past having previously been in trouble against both Limerick and Clare, and they were again under all kinds of pressure here with little option but to foul.
The Limerick defence, particularly with Hayes in front of the full-back line, were just winning every high ball that was incoming. By the time English scored the second goal, they were out of sight.
Will Cork get over it? It’s a long way from the confidence of winning the league, so it’s not going to be easy. A saving grace is that they’re back on the bike very quickly against Waterford, who have their own issues and are probably an ideal match for Pat Ryan’s men to start the recovery process.
The problem with that is there’s a very ominous prize for winning, playing Limerick again in a couple of weeks in the Munster final.
If Limerick repeat what they did this weekend, there’s nobody who will come near them. The All-Ireland is eight weeks away but this was a massive statement.
