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Liam Rushe backs Dublin to push Cork hard for place in All-Ireland SHC final
Liam Rushe believes that a fully focused Dublin can compete with Munster champions Cork and give themselves every chance of qualifying for this year's All-Ireland hurling final.
The Dubs put in a near-perfect performance to shock the all-conquering Limerick unit at Croke Park on Saturday to eliminate John Kiely's side and progress for a last-four decider against the Rebels for a place in this year's decider.
Dublin came through the Leinster round robin to progress to the knock-out phases but were unable to play with the consistency that they showed at Headquarters to defeat Limerick, having lost to both Galway and Kilkenny in this year's campaign.
They also showed frailties in other games, and conceded soft goals, allowing Wexford to score four despite coming out on top, while Kilkenny put five past them at Nowlan Park.
However, at Croke Park against the four-in-a-row Limerick side, the only real flaw in the performance was the early dismissal of captain Chris Crummey after just 15 minutes of the contest.
But if anything, the red card appeared to galvanise Niall Ó Ceallacháin's side who went on to record a 2-24 to 0-28 victory, coping with Limerick's intense final push to fight back in the closing stages.
On top of that, Dublin kept a clean sheet against the mighty Limerick side, which former player Rushe believes is the missing piece of this ever-emerging Dublin unit.
"They have conceded some howlers of goals, that has been the story so far," said Rushe, speaking on The Saturday Game.
"Against Wexford, they let Lee Chin wander through, and then again against Kilkenny, two or three mis-communications, easy goals, whereas today when they kept those out they were in the game.
"Because they have been strong in possession, strong on their own puck-out, strong on the opposition puck-out, so in everything that is measurable, they have been going well, they've just been a bit loose.
"Today I think they proved if they can carry that on again and get a few scores and keep Cork at bay, I think they will be right there."
Liam Rushe sums up Dublin's progression as Cork loom in the All-Ireland SHC semi-final, while Liam Sheedy discusses where Limerick go from here
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As for Limerick's exit, former Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy does not believe that it is time to press the panic button in the Treaty County, as he feels that he has seen signs this year that they are still one of the best teams in the country.
"I haven't seen a level of performance, like I've seen in a number of years, that I seen from Limerick on the 18th of May (when they beat Cork in the round robin).
"So that is what they are capable of doing. There is a great management team there and a great backroom team behind them, and I think Limerick will be back.
"That will hit them hard today, but no better man than John Kiely and Limerick to recover."
On the other hand, Sheedy believes that Galway are lacking leadership having made their exit with an under-par performance in their defeat to Tipperary.
Sheedy, in fact, felt that Galway threw in the towel in the second half of their quarter-final, as the Premier County ran out 1-28 to 2-17 winners at the Gaelic Grounds, and feels that manager Michéal O'Donoghue has his work cut out for him to turn the team into contenders next year.
"Overall, you have to say it was a very, very limp Galway performance," said Sheedy.
"They were two points down after 40 minutes, and in the 58th minute they were 12 points down, and they had a strong breeze in that second half.
"They looked to me like a team that really lacked leadership, so Michéal has a big job on his hands and he has to get the leaders in central positions in that team.
"I didn't see any leadership today, I actually thought the team threw in the towel late on when they felt the game was gone
"The last 12 times of the 15 times they've met in championship, there has been one score in the game. Galway have four of the last five so that was well below Galway's level of performance, I felt."
