Christy O'Connor: Cork hurlers must learn a lesson from how many shots Limerick take

KILKENNY’S Eoin Murphy proved again this year that he is the best goalkeeper in the country, especially as a shot-stopper, but Limerick’s modern relationship with Murphy provides an interesting case study.

The first time this Limerick team came up against him, in the 2018 All-Ireland quarter-final, Murphy almost singlehandedly beat them on his own.

Limerick should have won that game by about 10 points but the reason they only scrambled over the line by two points was because they couldn’t get past the Kilkenny goalkeeper.

On the night of that 2018 All-Ireland final, a panel of seven experts sat down with Des Cahill in Montrose to discuss The Sunday Game Moments of the Year.

When it came to ‘Save of the Year’, the section was a Murphy highlights reel; all three saves selected were from the Kilkenny goalkeeper.

Two were from the All-Ireland quarter-final, both of which were incredible saves from Aaron Gillane. Murphy’s stop from a kicked Gillane effort from just seven metres was chosen by the panel.

And yet, both of those saves from Gillane weren’t even Murphy’s best stop in that match. Technically, the save Murphy made from Gearóid Hegarty, which was hit from six metres, across his body and just a foot off the ground, was on a different level.

Limerick are a different team now but they have pursued a different relationship with Murphy in the meantime. Limerick took the same number of shots from play at Murphy in that 2018 match as they have in their three subsequent championship matches — 2019, 2022 and 2023.

No ‘keeper in the world would have stopped Gearóid Hegarty’s early bullet in last year’s All-Ireland final but Limerick have almost decided against going down that route against Murphy. Shane Dowling scored a brilliant batted goal from distance in the second half of that 2019 semi-final and the only real save of note Murphy made against Limerick in those last three matches was a stop from David Reidy late on in that 2019 game.

Heading into last month’s All-Ireland final, Murphy was the talk of the country after his superb stop from Peter Duggan in the semi-final against Clare. 

In the final though, Murphy’s main contribution in open play was stopping a point attempt in the second half. After that, he was effectively redundant in open play.

For the second time during their four-in-a-row journey, Limerick failed to score a goal in the All-Ireland. Waterford’s Stephen O’Keeffe made a couple of brilliant saves in the 2020 final but Limerick still failed to raise a green flag that day. They didn’t even have a shot at goal in this year’s final — because they didn’t need to.

No other team has such a variety of shooters, or such propensity to shoot from distance. Some of the shots Limerick players took on in the second half of the final would have been considered low-percentage efforts for most teams but Limerick don’t think in those terms.

Their accuracy levels were off the charts in that match, especially the second half, but Limerick have never had any real truck with shooting wides. Their attitude is simple: ‘Ye can have the puckout, we’ll try and take the ball back of ye straight away.’ In Limerick’s eyes, they have always believed in the inherent statistical value that the team that takes the most shots normally wins. Limerick normally are that team but, this year, that wasn’t always the case.

Against Waterford in their first game in Munster, Limerick had four fewer shots, but they had a better conversion rate (61% -54%). Still, Limerick’s meagre tally of 1-18 that day was the lowest winning total right across the whole championship.

In the Munster final, Limerick had eight fewer shots than Clare but their conversion rate was far better (66%-52%), which was critical to their one-point win.

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Limerick always expect to have more shots. Against Cork and Tipperary, Limerick had nine more shots than their opponents. Yet on both days, Limerick averaged just a 58% conversion rate, when Cork’s was 77% and Tipp’s was 73%.

Three goals compared to just one green flag for Cork tilted the balance that afternoon for the All-Ireland champions. Yet a week earlier, when Cork also lost to Clare by one point, Cork had seven fewer shots than their opponents. Cork had a marginally better conversion rate (61%) compared to Clare’s 58%, but three goals that afternoon were critical in Cork getting as close to Clare as they got.

When Cork drew with Tipperary a couple of weeks earlier, their conversion rate was also 62%. Again, that afternoon, four goals were decisive in securing a point. 

Throughout the championship, there were only four occasions when a team hit 30 points (white flags) or more, but one of those was in the Tipp-Offaly rout, and Cork were the only team to do so in Munster — against Limerick.

That’s another positive but when Pat Ryan and his management look back on the season, they’ll realise that Cork took 16 fewer shots (combined) than the opposition in the two games they lost. And they only lost each game by one point.

Limerick showed this summer that it’s not always about having the most shots. They got out of jail with the amount of chances Clare missed in the Munster final, but in their other biggest games (against Tipp, Cork, Galway and Kilkenny) Limerick made sure that they had at least nine more shots than the opposition in every game.

And there is a lesson there for Cork going forward.