A spirited Dublin were denied as Limerick have moved into their first Allianz Hurling League final since 2006 after a dominant second half display.
Limerick were leading by a point at half-time, but the All-Ireland champions made the most of the wind advantage after the break without ever really hitting top gear.
Sub Seamus Flanagan’s 61st minute goal sealed it despite a late Dublin rally.
It maintains Limerick’s good form on the back of their breakthrough last August as they stand just 70 minutes now from picking up their first League crown since 1997 having lost just one of their last 11 League and Championship games
Despite having the wind at their backs in the first half, Dublin played a sweeper with Sean Moran dropping from centre-back as the spare defender while Daire Gray picked up Limerick centre-forward Kyle Hayes.
Shane Barrett started at wing-back after replacing Fergal Whitely in the published line-up, leaving Tom Condon as Limerick’s extra man at the other end.Cian Boland was also drafted in at wing-forward ahead of Jake Malone but both Malone and Whitely saw action in the first half as Dublin picked up a series of injuries which forced manager Mattie Kenny to use his bench far earlier than he would have expected or wanted to.
Oisin O’Rorke was forced off first and his replacement Paul Ryan slotted three points from frees while Tomas Connolly, in as a blood sub for Gray, hit another.
As the curtain raiser at Nowlan Park, a drab atmosphere surrounded the game, which never really took off despite there rarely being any more than a point between the sides in the first half.
Danny Sutcliffe impressed at centre-forward for Dublin with three first half points, a tally matched by Graeme Mulcahy at the other end, while Aaron Gillane continued his good form with a couple of points though the second really ought to have been a goal as he blazed over from close range after fine work by Hayes.
It proved to be Limerick’s final score of the half, at the end of which they led 0-10 to 0-9 and looked set to kick on with the elements in their favour in the second half.
Dublin struggled to fashion scoring chances playing into the breeze when numerically disadvantaged up front and Limerick pushed three points clear by 44th minute and though Dublin quickly cut it to one, a blast of 1-5 without reply buried them.
The goal was brilliantly worked and was vintage Limerick with Sean Finn passing to Diarmaid Byrnes, who picked out Cian Lynch with a long delivery. Lynch fielded brilliantly and, rather than clip an easy point, played a perfectly weighted pass to Flanagan for the opening goal.
Shortly afterwards Dublin responded with a well-taken goal from sub Ronan Hayes with six minutes remaining and though Byrnes responded with his fifth point of the day from wing-back, it was their final score as Kenny’s side reeled off the last four points without threatening Limerick’s supremacy.
LIMERICK: N Quaid; T Condon, S Finn, R English; D Byrnes (0-5, 0-4f), D Morrissey, P O’Loughlin; C Lynch (0-1), D O’Donovan (0-2); T Morrissey (0-1), K Hayes, G Hegarty (0-1); A Gillane (0-5, 0-3f), P Casey (0-1), G Mulcahy (0-3).
Subs: D Dempsey for T Morrissey (53), S Flanagan (1-0) for Mulcahy (55), C Boylan for Hegarty (59), M Casey for Condon (65), B Murphy for Hayes (67).
DUBLIN: A Nolan; D O’Connell, E O’Donnell, P Smyth; S Moran (0-1f); S Barrett, D Gray, C Crummey (0-1); R McBride, S Treacy; C Boland, D Sutcliffe (0-3), E Dillon (0-3), J Hetherton, O O’Rorke.
Subs: P Ryan (0-6f) for O’Rorke (11), T Connolly (0-1) for Gray (blood, 14), F Whitely for Treacy (21), J Malone for McBride (26), R Hayes (1-0) for Hetherton (43), D Treacy (0-1) for Boland (51).
REFEREE: J Keenan (Wicklow).
