Limerick's Dan Morrissey has claimed that Limerick's shock loss to Cork in this year's All-Ireland Championship can be put down to small margins on the day.
Cork defeated the previous All-Ireland holders, Limerick, by 1-28 to 0-29 on Sunday, July 7th. The result was also significant because it ended Limerick's quest for five-in-a-row, a feat that has never been achieved in the sport.
Limerick have achieved so much as a team, so the probability of an eventual loss was bound to show itself.
Morrissey, speaking at a GAA event to mark the 10-year anniversary of Samaritans as the GAA's Mental Health Partner, gave his reasons for Limerick's loss to their Munster rivals and put it down to "one per cent margins" on the day.
“To be honest, the two semi-finals and the final all came down to such fine margins. Even when you look at the final, it was a puck of a ball. And when you go through the last few years, some of the games we've played, we've been very lucky to come out on the right side of it," said Morrissey on the GAA website
"Last year's Munster Championship, we were a puck of a ball away in two games from being knocked out. Look, what goes around comes around sometimes. Sometimes the luck is on your side. This year, maybe that bit of luck just wasn't on our side. We had a couple of wides, missed a couple of goal chances—on other days, they might have gone in. At this level, it's such small margins. Literally just one per cent margins. Maybe Cork just got them that day against us.”
Cork’s Seamus Harnedy up against Dan Morrissey of Limerick (Image: By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)Morrissey was asked about having regrets this year and admitted that, as a player missing out on big prizes, there will always be regrets. He referenced the loss to Kilkenny in 2019, when Kilkenny defeated Limerick by 1-21 to 2-17, before Limerick’s current dominance.
“You'd always have some regrets,” Morrissey added. “No matter what year you lose or don’t win an All-Ireland, you're going to have some regrets. We still look back to 2019 with regrets.
“You'd always have regrets that we didn’t win this year. Just because it was a five-in-a-row... the regret isn't because we didn’t win a five-in-a-row, it's because we didn’t win an All-Ireland. You want to win an All-Ireland every year, whether it's going for one-in-a-row, three-in-a-row, or five-in-a-row."
A lot of chatter about winning the All-Ireland for the fifth time in a row is bound to have an effect on players, and it's assumed that it did on the Limerick squad. However, Morrissey does not believe that the quest for immortality in hurling got in their way this year.
Ultimately, Morrissey admits that one team is bound to be disappointed, and it just happened to be Limerick this year.
“I didn’t think the five-in-a-row got to us in any way. We did approach every game as it came. We never looked too far ahead or too far down the road. We have regrets, but it's the same any year. Only one team can win it at the end of the year. There are going to be seven, eight, nine other teams who are going to go home disappointed.”
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