Limerick tune up for league with defeat of Waterford

Limerick 0-23 

Waterford 0-15 

Limerick warmed up for the National League campaign by beating Waterford to win their fourth Munster Hurling League of the past six editions.

In front of 1,957 fans at a chilly but calm Mallow, Aidan O’Connor scored 0-11, including three from play, from centre-forward, while William O'Donoghue collected the trophy.

Limerick get a bye week to open their league campaign, while Waterford travel back to Cork again next Sunday to face Ben O’Connor’s charges.

Peter Queally handed first starts of the season to Conor Prunty, Shane Bennett, and Jamie Barron among five changes from their landslide victory over Kerry.

John Kiely accommodated his returning Fitzgibbon Cup contingent with six changes from their midweek victory over Cork. 

There was a proud moment for the Fitzgerald family as Monaleen brothers Joe and Matthew were selected to start together. 

Joe robbed the sliotar to point within 30 seconds of his first start.

Waterford twice nudged ahead through a long-range free from captain Billy Nolan and Seán Mackey, who was dropping from the inside line to create an extra body around the middle third.

Limerick began to get on top by overpowering the Déise in that middle sector to reel off four unanswered points. 

Shane O’Brien was enjoying the better of his match-up with Conor Prunty, striking three points in the space of seven minutes.

They made it a 0-6 to 0-1 streak through Gearóid Hegarty, O’Connor, and a standout Fintan Fitzgerald point, after fine fielding by Matthew Fitzgerald.

From there, Waterford got to grips with the Treaty puck-out and began to break even in the centre. 

They steadied with a Reuben Halloran free and Jamie Barron point to narrow the gap to two, 0-8 to 0-6, after 15 minutes of hurling.

Smart play from Fintan Fitzgerald created a Limerick goal chance. Hegarty exploited the overlap to send O’Brien through, but the full-forward lost his hurley in catching the sliotar and his kicked attempt was blocked by PJ Fanning for a 65, which O’Connor converted.

Defender Barry Murphy limped off at that juncture, replaced by Seán Finn.

There were signs of progress as Limerick tidied up their shooting from the Cork encounter. 

They had 10 wides by the 26th minute that day. Here, it took until the 26th minute for their first wide, while Waterford had eight in the first half.

Waterford had back-to-back points from a Halloran free and Jack Fagan to close the gap to the minimum. 

After O’Connor’s fourth and Halloran’s fifth cancelled each other out, that’s how it remained at half-time; 0-11 to 0-10.

Halloran brought them level for the first time in 26 minutes, but fuelled by five half-time changes, Limerick kicked on with six points on the spin. O’Connor accounted for five of those, with four frees, one of which he won himself, and one from play. 

Substitute Ethan Hurley contributed the other.

The game lost all sense of competitiveness from there as Waterford didn’t put together consecutive points in the entire second half. 

Apart from Halloran and Nolan frees, wing-back Bennett (0-2) was the only man to score from play.

Limerick had further points from subs Hurley, Cathal O’Neill, and Adam English, who drew a save from Nolan and was hooked with another goal chance. 

O’Neill also teed up a lovely score for Hegarty.

Scorers for Limerick: A O’Connor (0-11, 7f, 1 65); S O’Brien (0-3); G Hegarty, E Hurley (0-2 each); J Fitzgerald, D Ó Dálaigh, F Fitzgerald, A English, C O’Neill (0-1 each).

Scorers for Waterford: R Halloran (0-7, 6f); B Nolan (2f), S Bennett (0-2 each); J Fagan, J Twomey, J Barron, S Mackey (0-1 each).

LIMERICK: C Ryan; E Stokes, V Harrington, B Murphy; D Langan, W O’Donoghue, M Fitzgerald; J Fitzgerald, D O’Donovan; G Hegarty, A O’Connor, J English; F Fitzgerald, S O’Brien, D Ó Dálaigh.

Subs: S Finn for Murphy (17, inj), N Quaid for Ryan (h-t), C Coughlan for Langan (h-t), E Hurley for J Fitzgerald (h-t), T Morrissey for English (h-t), C O’Neill for F Fitzgerald (h-t), H Flanagan for Ó Dálaigh (42), O O’Farrell for O’Brien (42), A English for O’Donovan (49), D O’Shea for M Fitzgerald (49), C Thomas for Harrington (49).

WATERFORD: B Nolan; M Power, C Prunty, PJ Fanning; J Fagan, M Fitzgerald, Shane Bennett; D Lyons, T Barron; S Fitzgerald, R Halloran, J Twomey; J Barron, C Treen, S Mackey.

Subs: J Power for Twomey (43), B Lynch for M Fitzgerald (49), M Mahony for Treen (50), M Mullaney for S Fitzgerald (55), J Lacey for Lyons (57), E Spellman for Bennett (59).

Referee: J Bugler (Clare).