Waterford Minor’s Bow Out

Waterford’s interest in this year’s Munster Minor Hurling Championship came to an end on Thursday evening when they lost out to Limerick who had nine points to spare at the end of the hour.

The defeat for Waterford means that they are the first side to exit this year’s championship despite playing three games, losing all three by a big margin, while Limerick are through to a semifinal appearance against neighbours Clare in Ennis at the end of June, where a win would give them a place in the provincial final for the fifth year in a row.

The winners will be happy with the nine point winning margin in this game as they went into the game with big expectations following their narrow loss to Tipperary in the quarter finals, but never reached the standards in which they showed in that game in this one.

Limerick got off to a great start in this game as they hit four points in the opening five minutes with Rory Duff, Paul O’Brien, Ronan Connolly and Dylan O’Shea all getting their names on the scoresheet.

However the home side took their foot off the pedal after this as Waterford hit back to level matters at 0-5 to 1-2 as Ian Beecher and Billy Power hit points and Thomas Douglas blasted a penalty to the net following a foul on Iarlaith Daly, one of the rising stars of the game within Waterford, with twenty three minutes played.

Limerick however would finish the half the stronger of the two sides as they landed the next four scores unanswered by the Waterford players, as Paul O’Brien put over three further points to his earlier contribution and Dylan O’Shea hit one as Limerick went to the dressing rooms holding a 0-9 to 1-2 lead.

On the restart, it was Waterford that proved to be the better side as Billy Power narrowed the difference on the scoreboard with a brace of scores after which Thomas Douglas hit the woodwork. Another brace from the Clonea club man cut the difference to one (0-10 to 1-6), but Waterford could not build of the good work that they had put in early in the second half.

 In the last twenty minutes, the home side proved to be the stronger of the two sides as David Woulfe shot a brace of scores while Dylan O’Shea and Ronan Connolly shot one each while Paul O’Brien continued to be accurate with his striking from placed balls for any indiscipline shown by the Waterford defense.

Limerick: 1. Daithi Heffernan; Conor Flahive, Conor Nicholas, Ciaran Barry; Mikey O’Brien, Jerome Boylan, Dan Minehan; Michael O’Grady, Rory Duff; Paul O’Riordan, Paul O’Brien, David Woulfe; Dylan O’Shea, Ronan Connolly, Ryan Tobin. Subs: Brian O’Grady for Mikey O’Brien (13), Eoin Sheehan for Paul O’Riordan (41), Jack Ryan for Rory Duff (41), Calvin Carroll for Ryan Tobin (48).

Scorers: Paul O’Brien 0-10 (8fs, 1 65’), Dylan O’Shea 0-3, David Woulfe, Ronan Connolly 0-2 each, Dan Minehan, Rory Duff 0-1 each.

Waterford: Eoghan Browne; Dan Booth, Matt Noonan, Tadhg Foley; Mairtín Power, Tom Barron, Luke O’Brien; Sean Whelan-Barrett, Edward Cullen; Conor Whelan, Iarlaith Daly, Ian Beecher; Tom Looby, Thomas Douglas, Billy Power. Subs: Niall O’Keeffe for Tom Looby (h-t), John Devine for Conor Whelan (h-t), Sean Carton for Thomas Douglas (49),  Kyle Bennett for Ian Beecher (56), Evan McGrath for Billy Power (56).

Scorers: Billy Power 0-5 (4fs), Thomas Douglas 1-0 (1-0 pen), Iarlaith Daly, Ian Beecher 0-1 each.

Referee: John McCormack (Tipperary)