U-21 Hurling Semi Final - Galway v Limerick

grenache

Ah lads, i thought somebody would put a thread up! I'm at the game, so maybe somebody else might throw up the teams. If Limerick lose this one, it wont be from lack of support. Galway have their usual fanbase of 5 men and a dog. I dont think Galway coming in cold to this match will make any difference to them, certainly didn't bother their minors. Downes is starting for Limerick, how good his hand is anybodys guess

Luimneach abú!

Super point from Hannon there. Score for score so far. Have we thriller number 2 on the horizon?

EDIT: Here are the teams

Limerick (U21HC v Galway): A Murphy; A Dempsey, P Begley, S O'Reilly; J O'Brien, C Hayes, T O'Callaghan; C Allis, S O'Brien; N Kennedy, D Hannon, S Dowling; M Ryan, K Downes (captain), G Mulcahy.

Galway (U21HC v Limerick): Jamie Ryan; Declan Connolly, Niall Donoghue, Ger O'Halloran; Rory Foy, Paul Gordon, Jason Grealish; Johnny Coen, David Burke; Barry Daly, Niall Burke, Tadhg Haran; James Regan, Conor Cooney, David Glennon.

Insect Overlord

Aboy Shane Dowling! 0-5 to 1-2 now, Dowling with the goal.

Galway winning a huge amount of Limerick puckouts. Just as i say it there is the lead for Limerick. Hannon is a ball of class

Insect Overlord

Deleted User wrote: »

Galway winning a huge amount of Limerick puckouts. Just as i say it there is the lead for Limerick. Hannon is a ball of class

Where did you find the line-ups for the two teams? Google gave me nothing!

ontheditch2

Limerick are providing great entertainment this year. Good game so far.

Insect Overlord

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Where did you find the line-ups for the two teams? Google gave me nothing!

On Hoganstand
Galway's and Limerick's individual county pages.

Bullet peno!

What a game.

Jaysus it must be taking its toll on the nerves of ye limerick fans the under 21s have you all on the edge of your seats this year.

To be honest i think a challenge like that should be a straight red. It was Rash but extremely dangerous

Cartman78

What was the final score?

rok

Galway won by 2 points in the end I think, Limerick were 1 point up with 15/10 mins to go then went on to shoot 3 wides in a row while Galway went on to score 5/6 points in that time

KevIRL

Silly decision by Dowling to go for goal when 2 points down with a minute and a half left. He should have taken the point, then tried to win the puck out and see if Limerick could have forced ET. Otherwise a fantastic performance by the chap though, and he's young and will learn.

Its more than a bit sickening that Galway breeze into an AI final after playing only one game. They should be made play under age in Leinster as well.

Mountainlad

KevIRL wrote: »

Silly decision by Dowling to go for goal when 2 points down with a minute and a half left. He should have taken the point, then tried to win the puck out and see if Limerick could have forced ET. Otherwise a fantastic performance by the chap though, and he's young and will learn.

Its more than a bit sickening that Galway breeze into an AI final after playing only one game. They should be made play under age in Leinster as well.

Yeah it was a bad decision but that's what happens when your young you make mistakes, he'd a super second half and finished the goal well first half.

I was worried for Limerick early on, they were being cleaned out in the half forwards, and seemed to be too loose at the other end. Niall Burke was deadly accurate, 0-7 points from play I think with one wide, savage stuff. Declan Hannon was well on course for man of the match at half time but he didn't see the ball in the second half until Grealish tried to pull his head off his shoulders.

You'd have to say Kevin Downes not being fully fit was always going to make this difficult for Limerick. Big gamble putting on another minor to replace him. Carmody had a tough time and could/should have scored a goal, but to be fair he's had a good year and I don't think Limerick fans will be too hard on him either.

All in all for Limerick they had a very good year and were unlucky, but given that Downes will be back next year and Hannon will be there two years more, and Dowling will be there another three years plus others they'll be back again.

For Galway, I thought Barry Daly did very well. There full back won some very important ball at the end. David Burke was quiet enough though. Dunno what age Cooney is but he was poor, looked quite slow. They'll be happy and they put up a big score overall.

Can anyone tell me what the story with this Bernard Burke lad is? Saw him come on last year I believe against Tipp, and even though the game was probably over at that stage I thought he made a big impact. Suprised that he's still on the bench if I'm right in what I'm saying.

soccymonster

Thought the extra time at the end with 2 minutes was very harsh tbh. Declan Hannon went down with that red card incident. And then a few of the Galway players were going down like bowling pins.. Was the full back for Galway injured prior to the match or just fragile or anything, he seemed to be going down alot? Even the 5 year old beside me was complaining!

Thought the peno by Dowling was class. Especially just the whole event of it. With him throwing his hurl up in the air when it was awarded (got the whole crowd pumped even more than Mullane's fistpumps could ). And then the Galway hurlers being difficult not getting out of the way (they were difficult throughout alot of the match tbh, throwing the ball FAR away when Limerick got a free and even took so long to take a free that the ref gave a throw in!) and then that rocket of a shot. Just brilliant.

Disappointed about the loss of course. Thought Begley was immense for us. And some of hannon's scores especially that sideline cut, wow. The poor wides at the end killed us as did our last minute decisions of going for goal at the end. Another thriller with Limerick involved just unfortunate we ended up on the wrong side of things! well done to Galway.

Joyce Country

KevIRL wrote: »

Its more than a bit sickening that Galway breeze into an AI final after playing only one game. They should be made play under age in Leinster as well.

you realise galway were at the massive disadvantage, not limerick?

galway had to find out their best 15 in first game of championship with no clue of form going in whereas limerick were well battle hardened after Munster and got the match in thurles!

Mountainlad

KevIRL wrote: »

Its more than a bit sickening that Galway breeze into an AI final after playing only one game. They should be made play under age in Leinster as well.

Joyce Country wrote: »

you realise galway were at the massive disadvantage, not limerick?

galway had to find out their best 15 in first game of championship with no clue of form going in whereas limerick were well battle hardened after Munster and got the match in thurles!

To be honest, I think it works both ways.

Fireball07

I've got to say I am gutted. But I can't begrudge Galway the win, they probably deserved it in the end.

We could have won, definitely, and there were some very impressive performances but it was more disjointed than the last day and we weren't clinical enough. Losing Downes early on was a huge blow but it looked like we'd still be able to pull through...but maybe his dynamism up front would have helped come the end.

Hannon was fantastic, his point-scoring in the first half was top class and the sideline was beautiful. Dowling was probably the best of the forwards, great game (although he should definitely not have went for a goal at the end). Allis and O'Brien were both good but Allis was better the last day. The backs were okay, Begley and Dempsey had 1 or 2 bad moments but were otherwise extremely solid.

But the missed goal chance from Carmody was awful...he had to put that away. There was another similar to it...and the time we had lovely build-up play along the ground and then Mulcahy hit a terrible wide. Those were the scores that cost us, they would have swung the momentum. I do think he could have added a bit more time but I don't know if we would have won.

Galway's defence were well on top for most of the game, swept up the breaking ball. Their full-back, Donoghue, was fantastic but the man-of-the-match in my opinion was their number 7, I think Foy is his name. He got sent off too, but he cleaned up in defence, looks like a brilliant player. And then Johnny Coen, Barry Daly and Niall Burke were all excellent too. They took their scores easier and racked up a lot of points and that's why they won, really.

I have no idea what Willie was doing at the end, that was one of the worst attempts at dropping a ball inside I've ever seen. He needed to run towards goal with that and then make a handpass, he had plenty of support.

I'm gutted but we'll be back next year hopefully. 12 of the starting team are underage again (I think Allis, Mulcahy and Hayes are the 3 but I'm not so sure). Good luck to Galway in the final, they'll have a great chance.

aidan24326

KevIRL wrote: »

They should be made play under age in Leinster as well.

As far as I know the Galway County Board would welcome a move into the Leinster underage championships, but they weren't allowed, the arrangement was for the seniors only.

All in all another good game in the under-21 grade. The Limerick freetaker ought to have taken his point near the end and they might have forced a draw, but Galway probably just about deserved the win I think.

AbsentPonderer

Galways forward movements had more co-ordination and their backs were well on top, they did deserve to win... Yet once again, the chances were there for a Limerick win and were not taken, it is almost like a culture in Limerick!

Kojak

AbsentPonderer wrote: »

Galways forward movements had more co-ordination and their backs were well on top, they did deserve to win... Yet once again, the chances were there for a Limerick win and were not taken, it is almost like a culture in Limerick!

We could say the same in Galway tbh. Why did dowling go for goal from 35 yards out with 2 minutes to go? He gets that point and they are only one adrift, and usually the refs gove an opportunity for the team to draw level after that.

Thought Niall Burke was excellent in the first half, but why did it take the limerick management until half time to make a change at number 6? Burke was nearly beating Limerick on his own in the first half.

Fireball07

Kojak wrote: »

We could say the same in Galway tbh. Why did dowling go for goal from 35 yards out with 2 minutes to go? He gets that point and they are only one adrift, and usually the refs gove an opportunity for the team to draw level after that.

Thought Niall Burke was excellent in the first half, but why did it take the limerick management until half time to make a change at number 6? Burke was nearly beating Limerick on his own in the first half.

I don't think anyone knows why Dowling did...he was never going to score a goal from there. And I have even less of an idea what Willie Griffin was doing when he drove the ball wide with the last attack...

Limerick's management wouldn't always be the quickest off the mark to make changes.

teednab-el

Not sure if Limerick played their All Ireland final against Cork in Munster. I thought they had a really good chance of winning the competition after that game.

grenache

Total anti-climax from a Limerick point of view. But a fantastic display by Galway. They seemed to want it more, played with great tenacity, hunted in packs (unlike Limerick) and always had a man on their shoulder to pass to. How many times did a Limerick man find himself being surrounded by 3 or 4 maroon shirts with nobody to pass to? Surely well over a dozen times! Galway purposely bunched the middle third of the field and Limerick had nothing to counteract this tactic. The men in green showed a lack of urgency about their play, the work rate that served us well against Cork was not evident last night - they weren't finding their men in the forwards, and even when good ball was sent in, invariably a Galway player was first to the ball. They lorded it in both half lines, Gordon at 6 and Burke at 11 did the real damage (big mistake to leave Cian Hayes on him for so long), the half backs cleared umpteen balls, Daly at 10 and that number 12 Haran were also very very good, scoring some lovely points.

Its a credit to Limerick though, that as out-played as we were, we still could have won it had we kept our head in the final ten minutes. I'd love to know exactly who on the sideline told Shane Dowling to go for goal from that 30 yard free, he had no chance in hell of hitting the net from there and the obvious thing to do was to point it, with a minute remaining on the clock and enough time to get the leveller. Some really bad wides too, the same old Limerick failing. Downes being taken off was a psychological blow to Limerick for sure, he's the group leader and tallisman of the team. If a player is not fit to start, then he should not be risked. His hand was not right and it was easy to see that with how he was moving, he actually looked like he was minding it when he went to pick up the ball. There is nothing to be gained from risking a not fully fit player, we saw it with Henry Shefflin in last years AI final. It was as much a boost to Galway as it was deflating to Limerick.

For me our three best players were Hannon, Dowling and Begley, the first two are class acts and very intelligent and skillful hurlers, the latter is very commanding and powerful. O'Brien played well in spurts at midfield, Allis seemed to be somewhat subdued. Dempsey at corner back had a good first half but was caught badly for 3 or 4 points early in the second. James O'Brien was steady too i thought, even if the half back line in general was being over-run. Also, if somebody can tell me just what Willie Griffin was trying to do with that last ball hit it, i'd love to know! He did score a nice point to be fair when introduced.

All in all, the better team on the night won, no complaints from that point of view. Good luck to Galway against Dublin. Should be a cracking final.

shawnee

Disappointing display overall from Limerick , Galway moved the ball better and found their players. Galway also won a huge amount of puck outs from both keepers. Limerick Keeper was pucking out long and tried left right and centre (even over the line) but ball was nearly always won by Galway half back line.
As regards Dowlings decision to go for goal, he looked uneasy and looked at the sideline a few times , a runner then came into him from the sideline and obviously told him to go for goal... this was not his decision. I suppose if he got it it was brilliant but the goal was crowded and he was a bit far out.
Best of luck to Galway to should improve from that first outing and the game against Dublin should be a cracker

cgpg5

Great result for Galway who look very good and have plenty of depth in the panel, stand out performers Niall Donohue, Barry Daly and Niall Burke. Galway were missing three players involved in last years under 21 AI final too- Richie Cummins, Niall Quinn and Joseph Cooney, and it didn't show whatsoever looked a very well balanced side. I'm sure some of the players still feel the pain of the 2008 minor final defeat and it would be great to see them do the business against what looks a good Dublin team.