Limerick's monumental display a stark reminder of their enduring power
The Munster Championship is alive and dead.
Technically, mathematically, statistically, it has a pulse. But after a Sunday that felt clarifying in the extreme, Limerick's monumental display against Cork has left it weakened.
John Kiely's side had 16 points to spare in the Gaelic Grounds and are all but guaranteed a tilt at a seventh Munster title in a row. Is that your idea of competition?
Everyone else has to satisfy themselves with various half loaves. Tipperary's win over Waterford in Thurles guarantees them knockout hurling in June.
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Cork have Waterford at home next week and if they handle their business, they'll see Limerick again in the final. Waterford beat Cork last year so they can maybe convince themselves a repeat is possible. At this time of year, no act of self-deception should be dismissed out of hand.
That kind of thing isn't Limerick's vibe though. They gave Cork the full Ezekiel 25:17 treatment in front of a full house on the Ennis Road. Great vengeance, furious anger, the lot.
Aaron Gillane ran in 2-7 for himself, all loose-limbed panther menace. Cian Lynch was a one-man variety act, juggling knives, drumming with his knees, playing Beethoven's Fifth on the harmonica.
They scored 2-18 from 25 shots in the first half. Cork were 15 points down at the break, worse even than the 2021 All-Ireland final when the gap was 13 at half-time. The tills finally stopped ringing at 3-26 to 1-16 to Limerick. Talk about taking the good out of it for everyone else.
Tim O'Mahony looks dejected late in the game during the Munster championship defeat to Limerick at the TUS Gaelic Grounds, Limerick. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
'We got beaten by Cork twice last year,' said John Kiely afterwards, just in case anyone was wondering where his team's display came from.
'They are one of the top teams in the country. You're at home in the Gaelic Grounds in the championship, you only have two games here so we have to deliver on days like today. You have to deliver. You just have to. We had too much work put in.'
Thing is, so had everyone else. And at the start of the day it was still possible for every team in Munster to kid themselves that there was something to aim for. Two points separated top from bottom, leaving ample room for bargaining.
Even Clare, hobbled and winless from their first three games, weren't quite toast yet. It would take a moon shot combination of results, allied to a prevailing wind and the sum of the square on the hypotenuse for them to pull it off. But it wasn't impossible.
It is now. Tipperary's 1-30 to 1-21 victory over Waterford means that the All-Ireland champions have no route to a continued defence of Liam MacCarthy. Brian Lohan's team are the first champions not to at least make the following year's All-Ireland quarter-finals since they themselves fell in the qualifiers in 2014. It has been a wretched few months but at least the agony has ended for them now.
Tipperary's Oisín O'Donoghue celebrates scoring a goal against Waterford at FBD Semple Stadium. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho
Waterford are the obvious favourites to be the next to join them. Peter Queally's side couldn't make the best of their fast start in Thurles – after they sprinted out to a 1-3 to 0-1 lead in the fourth minute, they lost the rest of the way by 14 points. So many of their players looked shrunken and listless against the more purposeful Tipperary, with maybe only Jamie Barron coming out of it with any real credit.
It means their showdown with Cork next Sunday could be a nervy affair between two teams who have spent the week getting over a hammering. The next seven days assume a vulgar simplicity for Queally and his squad. Cork will survive with a draw but anything short of a win and Waterford are gone.
'They just need to get their heads around it now,' Queally said afterwards. 'It's not over. It's the nature of the Munster championship, the nature of the round-robin. A win next week will hopefully get us through. That's what we need to be mindful of now. There's no point in dwelling on it, no point in feeling sorry for ourselves.'
That's the way of it for all of them. Get up and get on. Limerick's shadow is back hovering over the province like Gulliver doing jumping jacks so they have to bathe in the shards of light they can find.
When it was all over in Thurles, a string of Waterford players came up to Liam Cahill and congratulated their former manager on his success. All the while, his young daughter clung to his leg, resplendent in her communion dress, a magnet for almost as many well-dones as her father.
Limerick are looming, big and bad and forbidding as ever they were. But nobody needed to convince Cahill that there was good in the day for him and his county too.
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