An unusual county final scenario on the face of it, the moon hanging low over the Gaelic Grounds as the crowd spilled onto the field at the final whistle in chilly darkness.

However, this Limerick SHC final was another day at the office for experienced Na Piarsaigh, as they sent out a warning to other clubs with designs on provincial and All-Ireland honours with a brisk dismissal of brave Doon.

The men in red began each half with a goal and didn’t die easily, but Na Piarsaigh’s quality and calmness were aces that couldn’t be trumped.

They weren’t flattered by their winning margin, which was distorted somewhat by an injury-time goal scored by their opponents.

Afterwards, Na Piarsaigh manager Paul Beary admitted that winning the title the same year Limerick ended their inter-county famine made it even more special: “It probably does. A few people said that to me, that it’d be sweet to win the county final in the year Limerick won an All-Ireland after a 45-year gap, and it’s fantastic for the lads, it’s a great achievement for them.”

His opposite number with Doon was both gracious and frank.

“First off, congratulations to Na Piarsaigh, who are probably the best club team in the country, not just Limerick,” said Tom Murphy.

“We fought hard, in fairness, we kept at them and kept at them, but the quality they have meant they kept chipping away.

“Every time we came at them they kept plugging away with scores.

“They have a couple of All-Stars in their team — we have a couple ourselves — but at the end of the day, we just didn’t have quite enough.”

True, but Doon left it all on the field. They started by defending the Ennis Road end and Pat Ryan finished to the net from close range on two minutes, giving them a 1-0 to no score lead and energising the 7,526 in attendance.

Na Piarsaigh settled with points from the two Dempseys, Alan and David, but Barry Murphy’s two frees for Doon had the underdogs slightly ahead, 1-2 to 0-4, at the end of the first quarter.

Doon county man Darragh O’Donovan was getting through a lot of work; Na Piarsaigh weren’t involving their big names to the same extent but Alan Dempsey’s smooth striking from range kept them in touch. He nudged the favourites in front on 22 minutes, only for Dean Coleman to level on the puck-out. Na Piarsaigh showed their experience, however, with the closing three scores of the half, two of them Shane Dowling frees, to lead 0-11 to 1-5 at the break.

Murphy knifed through for Doon seconds after the resumption, parting to Dean Coleman to touch home a terrific goal, levelling matters, but Dowling pointed two frees in response and began to exert his influence. David Dempsey then batted a cross from Peter Casey to the net superbly to push Na Piarsaigh 1-13 to 2-5 ahead.

Doon responded through Pat Ryan and Barry Murphy (free) to stay in touch but the city men then hit three in a row before another Murphy free on 45 minutes made it 2-8 to 1-16. When Adrian Breen slammed home Na Piarsaigh’s second goal, however, the game was up.

Murphy’s late flicked Doon goal was a consolation.

Afterwards Beary said conceding an early goal in each half had maybe worked in Na Piarsaigh’s favour: “It certainly wasn’t planned, and it was disappointing, really, and from that perspective it was the same in the second half. But it maybe put us on high alert, and their next score from play came in the 20th minute.

“We were conscious of not conceding frees, and it worked out well for us after that, but it was really only in the final third of the game that we pulled away — we got some very good scores in that closing period, in fairness.”

Murphy was glad of those goals but acknowledged that their opponents were never going to be overly upset by those setbacks.

“We got a great start to both halves, in fairness, but there was a long way to go on both occasions,” said the Doon manager. “And Na Piarsaigh weren’t rattled, they kept plugging away and plugging away. They don’t get nervous. At the end of the day they were the better team and we weren’t good enough. They have huge experience. They’ve been at this point, in finals, loads of times, and it’s our first county final in 18 years, so we have to take what we can out of this. We didn’t get over the line on this occasion, but we’ll be back. We have a young team and this will stand to them, absolutely.”

Beary agreed about his side’s experience: “This is it, and the lads have been there and done that, obviously. We have great talent in the forward line, and that’s what we want to exploit as much as possible, to maximise our scoring threat.

And I think we did that in the second half. Kevin Downes, for instance, had a great battle with Richie English, and they probably neutralised each other to a great extent, but we also had a great contribution from Adrian Breen and Peter Casey, who have been very good for us all season.

“But the work rate of the forwards was outstanding. It’s well known, the threat they pose from play, but the work they put in was fantastic.

“We have targets we want the players to hit in each game in terms of their work, and the attitude and the ethic of the players trumps everything.” The Limerick city side now face into the provincial series, where they have a terrific record, and the Tipperary champions will be their first opponents. Their manager pointed out, however, that there’s a county title to enjoy first.

“There probably is some exterior pressure in terms of what we can do in Munster, but we’re going to celebrate the win tonight, we’ll celebrate it tomorrow. It’s our 50th anniversary as a club, it’s our fifth title, so we’ll enjoy it.

“But Clonoulty-Rossmore are waiting for us in the long grass, we know that.”

Scorers for Na Piarsaigh:

S. Dowling (0-12, 7f , 1 65); A. Breen (1-2); D. Dempsey (1-1); A. Dempsey (0-4): P. Casey (0-3).

Scorers for Doon:

B. Murphy (1-7, 0-7f); P. Ryan, D. Coleman (1-1 each); D. O’Donovan (0-1).

NA PIARSAIGH:

P. Kennedy, J. Boylan, M. Casey, K. Kennedy, R. Lynch, W. O’Donoghue (c), C. King, A. Dempsey, G. Brown, D. Dempsey, S. Dowling, C. Boylan, A. Breen, K. Downes, P. Casey.

Subs:

C. Houlihan for A. Dempsey (52); M. Foley for King, K. Ryan for C. Boylan (both 60).

DOON:

C. McNamara, B. McPartland, R. English (c), S. Ryan, D. Moloney, M. O’Brien, E. Kiely, J. Ryan J. Hayes, P. Cummins, D. O’Donovan, D. Stapleton, D. Coleman, P. Ryan, B. Murphy.

Subs:

M. Ryan for J. Hayes (HT); J. Cummins for P. Cummins (44); J. Ryan for Stapleton (57).

Ref:

J. O’Mahony (Kildimo/Pallaskenry).