New look Tipp ease past scratch Limerick outfit

GAA: Munster Senior Football McGrath Cup Group B Round 1

Limerick 0-4

Tipperary 0-15

Report: Stephen Barry at Mick Neville Park, Rathkeale

MATCH DIGEST

Player of the Match: Paddy O’Keeffe (Tipperary)

SCORERS – Limerick: Shane Cross 0-2 (1 free); Sam Colgan, Evan Curry 0-1 each.

Tipperary: Seán O’Connor, Paddy O’Keeffe 0-4 each; Charlie King 0-3; Cian Smith 0-2; James Morris, Eoin Craddock 0-1 each.

The Tipperary footballers continue to show positive pre-season signs, albeit this facile McGrath Cup victory was achieved against a scratch Limerick side on Friday night.

Under 20 graduates Paddy O’Keeffe (0-4) and Charlie King (0-3) took their opportunities to lay down a marker, while Seán O’Connor added four points before being called ashore. Both O’Connor and O’Keeffe provided an attacking focal point for several more scores.

Tipp led 0-9 to 0-1 at half-time, and though errors crept into their game thereafter, they finished eleven point winners. It said something of the intensity of this match that the first free didn’t arrive until the 22nd minute. Indeed, only one free was scored across the sixty minutes as Tipp’s 0-15 total came entirely from play. There was no goal or orange flag, either, as the Premier were content to exploit the defensive gaps for one-pointers.

Limerick’s greater priority was a challenge match against Meath as Jimmy Lee fielded just two of last year’s Treaty squad. None of his Tailteann Cup final starting side featured. A bout of illness running through the camp further limited them to three available subs; two outfielders and a sub-keeper.

New Blue & Gold manager Niall Fitzgerald demonstrated his trust in Tipperary’s youth by populating half his team with those who’d played U20 football under his stewardship over the past three years.

That included a first senior involvement for Holycross/Ballycahill dual recruit Eoin Craddock, who won Munster U20 Hurling and Fitzgibbon Cup titles in 2024.

Still, more of the Tipp team had championship experience. It showed in their greater ability to transition attacks into shots with seven to Limerick’s one inside a dozen minutes.

Craddock made an immediate impact by intercepting the first Treaty attack and tracking the ball downfield, where he received the return pass from O’Keeffe to kick the opener.

The Treaty did get the ball forward at times, but when Fintáin McNamara got in on goal, Jack O’Neill stripped the ball.

The Tipp corner-back helped to create the next point with a powerful surge before O’Connor found Cian Smith’s clever reverse run for a fine left-footed effort.

After their first miss, Cathal Deely won two subsequent kick-outs, providing for Smith’s second point and O’Connor’s first, which Craddock assisted.

Limerick gained their only point of the half in the thirteenth minute. Oisín Moss and Rory O’Brien laid the groundwork for Shane Cross to escape along the endline to fist between the posts.

Tipp gobbled up a handful of turnovers to reel off all five points from there to the break. O’Connor was somehow left alone in a pocket of space to kick a stylish point. Eoin O’Connell picked off a Limerick pass for a rapid counterattack, which ended with Killian Butler spotting James Morris to tap over. The entire full-forward line were then involved in O’Keeffe’s opener.

Tipp got their closest sight of goal when O’Connor squared for Deely, but the eye-catching Aaron Neville ripped possession from the centre-forward’s grasp.

Impressive running by Kieran Costello and O’Neill allowed O’Keeffe to take on his marker for the next point. Deely’s tackling earned a final turnover of the half as King worked the ball to O’Connor, who tiptoed inside the hard-to-see 40-metre arc for a one-pointer. Their lead was eight at midway.

Ballina rising star King emerged as the standout performer of the second half, delivering three points from wing-back. Butler picked out King’s incisive run for a handpassed point before O’Keeffe was sharp to the breaking ball for his third.

Limerick began to gain a foothold with a sustained period of possession. Cross converted the only pointed free before substitute Sam Colgan slotted a wonderful score after surviving Morris’s tackle.

O’Connor invited King to cut onto his left for his second. The Clonmel Commercials full-forward then finished off his own score in his final act after being located by Jack Harney. His replacement, Daithí Hogan, made an immediate impact with a speedy give-and-go with Luke Boland. Fellow substitute Mark Russell came on the loop and shifted the ball to the right man for O’Keeffe’s fourth point.

Hogan and O’Keeffe were involved again as King left a Limerick defender for dust to handpass Tipp’s final score in the 50th minute.

At the other end, Colgan’s confidence was high as his outside-of-the-boot cross-field pass to Neville paid off for an Evan Curry point. There was no further score for the final ten minutes.

It was a sloppier second-half performance by Tipp, although Limerick never looked capable of threatening their double-digit cushion. The Premier still kicked six points from six second-half attempts until a sequence of stoppage-time misses.

A four-day turnaround separated them from a bigger test against Cork on Tuesday evening (last evening), while the Rebels host Limerick on Saturday in the final Group B game. The table-toppers will advance to a final on Saturday, January 17th.

TEAMS – Limerick: Jamie Dolan (6); Aaron Neville (8), Ciarán Uwatse (6), Craig O’Connell (6); Tom Lloyd (6), Oisín Moss (6), Lee Woulfe (6); Sam Quigley (6), Seán Clancy (Capt 6); Evan Curry (7), Rory O’Brien (6), Cillian Meade (6); Fintáin McNamara (6), Shane Cross (7), Pádraic Phelan (6).

Subs: Ronan McElligott (6) for Dolan (HT); Sam Colgan (7) for Quigley (36); Cian O’Sullivan (6) for Clancy (47).

Tipperary: Shane Garland (Kilsheelan/Kilcash 6); Jack Harney (Moyle Rovers 7), Eoin O’Connell (Loughmore/Castleiney 7), Jack O’Neill (Ardfinnan 7); Charlie King (Ballina 8), James Morris (Clonmel Commercials 7), Luke Boland (Moyle Rovers 6); Joe Higgins (Clonmel Commercials 6), Kieran Costello (Thurles Sarsfields 7); Eoin Craddock (Holycross/Ballycahill 7), Cathal Deely (Clonmel Commercials 7), Killian Butler (Moyle Rovers 7); Cian Smith (Clonmel Commercials 7), Seán O’Connor (Clonmel Commercials 8), Paddy O’Keeffe (Moyle Rovers 8).

Subs: Ben Comerford (Grangemockler/Ballyneale 6) for Deely (37); Ben Carey (Ballylooby/Castlegrace 6) for Smith (45); Daithí Hogan (St Patrick’s 7) for O’Connor (45); Mark Russell (Aherlow 6) for Butler (45); Niall Heffernan (Golden Kilfeacle 6) for Boland (47); Manus McFadden (Grangemockler/Ballyneale 6) for Harney (52).

Referee: Brendan Griffin (Kerry).