AS THE DREAM died and the post-mortem began, John Allen defended his decision to name Declan Hannon as Limerick’s free-taker.
And, Allen said, the stats back him up.
On his first Championship visit to Croke Park, Hannon missed three frees and a 65′ in the first half as Clare raced into a seven-point lead in the first of this year’s All-Ireland hurling semi-finals.
In the end that gap proved too big to bridge as they went on to win 1-22 to 0-18 and set up a meeting with Cork in the decider on 8 September.
The closest Limerick came after the break was when Shane Dowling, on as sub for Seanie Tobin, took over free-taking duties from Hannon and pointed three in three minutes to cut the gap to four.
Though he was only on the pitch for 40 minutes Dowling finished as Limerick’s top scorer with six points — five frees and a 65′ — adding fuel to the fire of those who believed he should have played from the start.
Hannon meanwhile finished with two, both frees, and was subbed in the 50th minute.
Allen admitted that he thought about making a change earlier in a bid to offset Hannon’s erratic start but defended the 20-year-old who, he said, was red-hot in training last week.
“I do frees every night with the guys before training and Declan’s striking this week was superb. It was the best of all the year. His striking was 10/10 every time.
Shane’s striking was very good as well but in the stats over the course of the nights we were taking frees, Declan was ahead of Shane most nights. Nicky [English] said in his column in the paper that he felt that our best free-taker was on the line but statistically speaking, our best free-taker was on the field starting.
Once they fell behind Limerick were always chasing the game, Allen said, and he spent a long period in conversation with his selectors on the sideline before they finally went down to the dressing room at half-time.
“We were being beaten in lots of areas. We certainly weren’t winning in too many areas.
“It was a matter really of trying to find how to bypass the sweeper. We rejigged our six forwards, well four of them, just in the hope that maybe somebody would find some new spark in a new role.
“We were on the field for quite a while because we were seven points down and we weren’t playing too well so it was a fairly serious place to be.”
Although he didn’t notice any signs of nerves in the dressing room beforehand, Allen pointed to the five-week break since the Munster final as part of the problem Limerick failed to handle.
“I wouldn’t use it as an excuse. It’s not an excuse but it certainly isn’t ideal.
Whatever momentum you have — if you were talking about the Premiership and there were five weeks between games — form goes out the window as such. How do you keep players in that form? Whatever confidence they had coming off the Munster final is way gone.It’s not an excuse but it certainly wasn’t ideal. It’s too long.
It’s one thing to lose giving your all but to not perform and lose is devastating.Hard luck limerick.
As a very disappointed limerickman , we didnt perform on the day and the best team won. But that photo is a great example of sportmanship, well done colm ryan. Luomneach abu and well done clare
I agree! Great points were scored especially by Colin Ryan, who’s a maths teacher in the school I went to! I’m sure he’ll be back with his head held high!
In truth, we never looked like catching Clare! A lot of the time, we overplay the ball and run into a cul de sac! This looked a lot like the Munster final, when Clare worked the ball up the field and a lot of the time we didn’t! Gutted really at the fact we didn’t perform but still a great turnout nonetheless!
Good luck to Clare in the final! Ye deserve it!
You can’t teach composure.Limerick totally lacked it and let the occasion get to them.My only hope is that the experience will stand to them into the future.Meantime this Clare team has grabbed their opportunity and I hope they power on in the final.
The gaa are a total joke, Allen makes a great point about the 5 week break, how could limerick replicate the intensity of games Clare had in the qualifiers, have to feel sorry for them but delighted as a Clare man!
Actually another thought just hit me!
Why does Declan Hannon play at full forward and David Breen at 10? I was very confused witht this tactical change made by Allen! because they play much better the other way around! The epitomization made by this is that Hannon, apart from missing those frees and the 65, was almost anonymous thanks to some great Clare defending! And Breen, who played at 10, kept overplaying and running with ball on hurley towards goal, outlining what I said earlier! If they’d gone back to their original positions they had since 2011, who knows?
Sorry John but reality doesnt match up, Declan is a super super player and has a huge future but he doesnt look comfortable on frees, he missed scoreable frees in the league, fitzgibbon, and championship, while in matches Dowling has been hitting the bulls eye 99.9% of the time, when he plays,