ANOTHER ALL-IRELAND semi-final day where Cork just came up short.
For the third time in five seasons, Cork’s hurling journey ended at the last four stage but the pain of this one will linger a while given the winning position they had engineered in the finale.
A six-point advantage slipped out of their grasp in normal time and when extra-time arrived, Cork were short of the energy required to make another burst for the line.
“The fact that we were six points up in the 62nd minute and failed to close out the game was a critical point,” reflected a dejected John Meyler afterwards.
“Their goal, I don’t know was Kearney going down on the ball. We possibly could have got a foul there. Limerick drove on.
“You had Casey and Dowling come in and they made a massive contribution, in terms of driving Limerick forward. Going to extra-time, there was a point in it, but the penalty killed it. It put four between us. Again, they drove on. Pat Ryan got their third goal. They [Limerick subs] made a massive contribution there, in the end.”
In extra-time there was no doubt which team was packing more power.
“It is a small bit funny that when you draw a Leinster final, there is a replay,” said the Cork boss.
“I’m not making excuses. I’ve never made excuses. If you draw a Leinster final, you get a replay. You draw an All-Ireland semi-final at full-time, you don’t.
“They are the rules and we just have to play to them. We were extremely competitive for the 70 minutes, we just lost our way for those two minutes.
“They are small errors that possibly would have won us that game. But we need to be here all the time to learn by our mistakes.”
Key moments popped into Meyler’s mind. The loss of Daniel Kearney, one of the stars of the match, through injury. The superb intervention by Nickie Quaid to deny Seamus Harnedy when a goal chance had been created late on.
“Daniel Kearney’s contribution was incredible. You are trying to keep those, we have a lot of young fellas in the subs. Robbie O’Flynn came on, Jack O’Connor came, Tim O’Mahony is 21 years of age. They have a long way to go.
“Please God, they’ll win an U21 All-Ireland, which would develop them. Limerick have more senior younger players if you know what I mean. They made that difference.
“You don’t get chances because Limerick are coming, they want to play in an All-Ireland final. They were extremely good today. I take my hat off to them.
“They were competitive in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, in the league, also. They’ve matured, as well. We have too. They are probably a small bit further than us in terms of their senior younger players, the likes of Kyle Hayes, Cian Lynch had a massive contribution, Morrissey and those. That’s the gap.”
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