History and Croke Park beckons for Limerick footballers

Irish Examiner

8 hours ago

Táilteann Cup: Limerick 4-21 (4-2-17) Wexford 2-19 (2-6-7).
TO-ING, fro-ing, six green flags, eight more in orange, and a sizeable piece of history at the end of all that.
Limerick's fourth consecutive win of the Tailteann Cup has them back on the road to Croker. It was Wexford who they also trumped when last visiting GAA HQ on March 29 for the Division 3 League decider. And therein is your piece of history; no Limerick football team has ever visited Croke Park twice in the one season.
Limerick's fourth consecutive win of the Tailteann Cup has them on the road to Croke Park for a first championship appearance since the 2011 All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Kerry. Fermanagh, Kildare, and Wicklow and their potential semi-final opponents.
And although unverified as of yet, there may be history too in Limerick recording four championship wins on the bounce. That too is believed to be a welcome first.
Irrespective of how next Sunday pans out for Jimmy Lee's side, this 2025 season of theirs has already exceeded external expectations and reclaimed the backward steps of a 2024 annus horribilis where they lost 10 of their 13 outings and suffered relegation to the League's basement tier.
This ongoing campaign is unrecognisable by comparison. Since Wexford bettered them in the League's second round on February 2, they've recorded nine victories and a draw, and come off second best only once, that to Cork in the Munster quarter-final.
A strange and enjoyable first-half. Wexford, with a strong wind, powered five clear inside five minutes. They then fell six behind, only to recover and wipe out that gap for an interval stalemate.
Wexford won the first four Limerick restarts. The latter three were promptly returned between the posts. Jack Higgins rose orange, Seán Nolan and Páiric Hughes rose white. Added to the opening kick of Higgins 40 or seconds in and Wexford's smart start had the scoreboard reading 0-5 to 0-0.
Limerick's response was to wrestle back control of their kickout, take control also of the Wexford kickout, kick 1-6 without reply in the process, and hold Wexford scoreless for an entire quarter of an hour.
James Naughton and Danny Neville were twisting and turning the Wexford defence inside out when cutting in from the Mackey Stand side.
Their opening goal on 16 minutes involved Neville taking advantage of a slip to slip inside the cover, offloading across the large parallelogram to where Cillian Fahy palmed home. Neville was provider turned finisher for their second five minutes later. Fahy bagged his second and Limerick's third in 10 minutes on 26 minutes. An 11-point swing, Limerick now six to the good.
LEE-DING MAN: Limerick manager Jimmy Lee.
Wexford's opening five minutes, as mentioned, produced five points. Their closing five minutes produced 1-5. Higgins to Ben Brosnan to Seán Nolan for the goal. Nolan's two-point equaliser arrived 17 seconds shy of the hooter. It represented his second and Wexford's fifth orange flag of the half.
In the 25 minutes between their busy bookending of the half, all they had for sustenance was Niall Hughes and Mark Rossiter kicks from the beyond the arc.
Another orange flag pulled back the curtain on the second period, James Naughton supplying Limerick's first of the day. Limerick had further wind billowed into their sails when Wexford half-time sub Seán Ryan was black carded on 43 minutes.
The 14-men Model County actually clawed the deficit back to the minimum during Ryan's 10 minutes in the bin, Mark Rossiter barreling his way through before executing a fine finish. 3-13 to 2-15. That was as close as this quarter-final came in the second 35 minutes.
Cillian Fahy answered with his second and the Treaty's fourth major. Their lead swelled from there. Goalkeeper Josh Ryan capped the day and continued a restorative season when coming forward for an audacious two-pointer. History at the end of a harum-scarum 70 minutes.
Scorers for Limerick: J Naughton (0-9, 0-3 frees, tp free); D Neville (2-2); C Fahy (2-0); E Rigter (0-3); J Ryan (tp), P Maher (0-2 each); M McCarthy, D O'Hagan, R Childs (0-1 each).
Scorers for Wexford: S Nolan (1-7, 2 tp, 0-2 frees); M Rossiter (1-3, tp); N Hughes (0-4, 2 tp); J Higgins (0-3, tp); E Porter, P Hughes (0-1 each).
LIMERICK: J Ryan; J Hassett, D O'Doherty, M McCarthy; P Maher, I Corbett, T McCarthy; T Childs, D O'Hagan; J Naughton, E Rigter, C Fahy; P Nash, D Neville, K Ryan.
Subs: T Ó Siochrú for McCarthy (two mins, inj); R Childs for O'Hagan (50); D Murray for T Childs, R O'Brien for Neville (both 59); C Ó Duinn for Ó Siochrú (65); A Meade for Maher (68).
WEXFORD: D Brooks; E Porter, G Sheehan, M Furlong; P Hughes, G Malone, D Furlong; L Coleman, N Hughes; M Kinsella, J Higgins, M Rossiter; S Nolan, R Brooks, B Brosnan.
Subs: S Ryan for R Brooks, K O'Grady for B Brosnan (both HT); R Martin for Kinsella, C Walsh for D Furlong (both 59); C Kehoe for Malone (64).
Referee: B Griffin (Kerry).
ENDS