Limerick Ladies ease past Kerry in Munster senior 'B' championship

"THE most pleasing aspect was the introduction of the younger players on the panel into a competitive setup,” was joint-manager Seán Kiely's biggest reward as Limerick's Ladies footballers opened the championship chapter of their season with a runaway 5-21 to 0-10 victory over Kerry's second side in Abbeyfeale on Saturday afternoon.

The win qualifies Limerick for the Munster senior 'B' championship decider against Cork, the only other entrants in the competition following Clare's withdrawal, although the sides will have to face up to each in their round robin fixture this coming weekend.

Although the winners started nervously, shooting four early wides as well as failing to put away a few goal chances, there was only going to be one winner once the powerful central spine of Karen O'Leary, Deborah Murphy and Máiréad Kavanagh ripped gaping holes through the heart of the Kingdom's defence going into the second quarter.

However, it took until the minutes leading up to the break before Limerick's dominance was reflected on the scoreboard when the first of the side's five goals was buried in the net.

Coming after a frustrating defeat to Carlow in the Division Four National League final, the result restore Limerick's focus on the season ahead where the main goal is to go one better than last year's heartbreak defeat in the All-Ireland Junior final to Down.

Of particular significance to Kiely and his backroom team was fielding 26 players over the hour with none of the substitions having any detrimental effect on the overall performance.

Kerry made use of the breeze for Melanie Higgins to get them off the mark inside a minute as Limerick shot a pair of wides before O'Leary equalised.

Once O'Leary's dominance in the middle and Murphy's direction of the attack made their mark on the game, the scores finally began to flow as Murphy, Áine Cleary, Kavanagh and McNamara put them ahead by four points.

Emma Cotter broke the sequence with a fisted reply before Murphy answered off a free and she sent over another after Megan O'Connor answered on the run.

However, by this stage Limerick's dominance up the middle was really beginning to tell as Grace Lee, a pair from Murphy, Maedhbh McNamara and Ellie Woulfe stretched the advantage to nine.

Then, whatever advantage the Kingdom had of keeping the gap within manageable propostrions disappeared when McNamara ran onto Cleary's lay-off to slot to the net and she was followed by two Kavanagh strikes and O'Leary to leave Limerick ahead 1-15 to 0-3 at the break.

It didn't get any better for Kerry on the restart, as Aoibhin Murphy pointed and O'Leary ran onto Kavanagh's pass to rattle home goal number two all inside a minute before their opponents finally lifted the foot off the pedal.

Given more space to build on possession, Higgins struck twice and added a third following Gráinne Musgrave point before Cotter answered Cleary's reply but that rally was completely wiped out when Kavanagh ran onto the pass to blast to the net and then, following Cotter again finding the target, Cathy Mee and Kavanagh found the target.

With the subs now piling in from both benches, Higgins picked off what turned out to be Kerry's final score before Lauren Ryan replied for Limerick.

Mee then piled on the agony with her dipping shot floating under Emma Glynn's crossbar and Murphy adding the fifth goal, an individual effort off a power solo before intercepting the resulting kick-out to end the game with her point.

SCORERS: LIMERICK: Máiréad Kavanagh 1-4, Deborah Murphy 0-5 (2 frees), Karen O'Leary, Aoibhin Murphy 1-2 each, Maedhbh McNamara, Cathy Mee 1-1 each, Áine Cleary 0-2, Caoimhe McNamara, Grace Lee, Ellie Woulfe, Lauren Ryan each.

LIMERICK: Sophie Hennessy; Sarah Dillon, Joanne McGuire, Róisín Browne; Grace Mullane, Leah Coughlan, Grace Lee; Maedhbh McNamara, Karen O'Leary; Kate Kennedy, Deborah Murphy, Caoimhe McNamara; Ellie Woulfe, Mairéad Kavanagh, Áine Cleary. SUBS: Ailish Kiely for Sophie Hennessy (half-time). Yvonne Lee for Joanne McGuire (half-time). Lorna Ryan for Grace Lee (half-time). Róisín Ambrose for Maedhbh McNamare (half-time). Aoibhin Murphy for Deborah Murphy (half-time). Miachaela Cumes for Ellie Woulfe (half-time). Cathy Mee for Kate Kennedy (42 minutes), Katie Heelan for Karen O'Leary (44 minutes), Fiona Brdshaw for Grace Mullane (45 minutes), Iris Kennelly for Áine Cleary (45 minutes), Caoimhe Sheehan for Sarah Dillon (51 minutes).

KERRY: Katie Hannan; Ciara Hudson, Cathy Johnson, Lily Cox; Emma O'Keeffe, Sarah Murphy, Kiera Furey; Cara Gannon, Katie Mahony; Melanie Higgins, Megan O'Connor, Norma Mahony; Emma Cotter, Megan Sheehy, Gráinne Musgrave. SUBS: Emma Glynn for Katie Hannan (half-time), Saoirse Murphy for Cathy Johnson (half-time), Cathy Johnson for Cara Gannon (45 minutes), Sophie Norris for Gráinne Musgrave (54 minutes), Cara Gannon for Katie Mahony (54 minutes), Katie Hannan for Ciara Hudson (57 minutes).

REFEREE: Paddy Smith (Waterford)