In attendance at the launch of Bord Gáis Energy’s ‘That’s Hurling Energy’ campaign is Bord Gáis Energy ambassador and Limerick hurler Gearóid Hegarty at Croke Park in Dublin. The new campaign marks Bord Gáis Energy’s 15 years of involvement in inter county hurling and celebrates the excitement, spirit and passion that makes the GAA All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship and its fans so unique. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
By John Harrington
Even when Limerick trailed Clare by nine points after 52 minutes of Sunday’s Munster SHC quarter-final, Gearoid Hegarty was convinced the reigning All-Ireland champions would find a way to win the game.
They’d been out-hurled fairly comprehensively by Clare up to that point, but, such is the self-assurance they’ve developed from winning four All-Irelands in a row, they always believe they can find a way regardless of the circumstances.
“Yeah, look, we've been in many a hole over the years that we've gotten ourselves out of,” says Hegarty.
“We know coming up against Clare, they're obviously a brilliant team and we rate them really, really highly. We have massive respect for them and we knew it was going to be seriously tough there yesterday.
“But, in saying that, we have massive confidence in ourselves that coming down the stretch if we're in the game because we've been there so many times we know how to win games now. We have a lot of experience and a lot of reference points of being in those really, really tight battles over the years.
“We've been in bad situations where we're down a couple of points with however many minutes to go. I've talked about it so many times over the years, the confidence that we have in our squad. It's a 20-man game nowadays and we always put a massive emphasis on the lads coming off the bench.
“And if you look at the lads that came on yesterday... (Conor) Boylan had a massive impact, obviously Donnacha (Ó Dálaigh) got a goal, Adam English did really, really well when he got going. Sean (Finn) had to come on for Mike after a few minutes who got injured. Everybody who came on yesterday had a massive impact and drove us, kept driving us over the line.
“There's a lot that goes into it, it's not just the lads that start. There really is a massive emphasis on the lads that do come on. They were so important again yesterday.”
Donnacha Ó Dalaigh of Limerick celebrates after scoring his side's second goal during the Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 1 match between Clare and Limerick at Cusack Park in Ennis, Clare. Photo by John Sheridan/Sportsfile.
The Limerick bench made a big impact alright, but no one player had a bigger influence on the match than Hegarty himself.
He was one of the few Limerick players who took the fight to Clare even when the tide was surging against them.
He scored three points from the half-forward line and then shifted the game on its axis when he was moved into the full-forward line and created Limerick’s second and third goals.
Hegarty was the only player who started last year’s All-Ireland Final for Limerick not to be nominated for a PwC All-Star, so did he put himself under any pressure to hit the ground running in this year’s championship?
“I wouldn't say I was putting pressure on myself, no. I'm obviously very happy with how yesterday went. I probably didn't start the championship brilliantly last year.
“The longer the year went on I felt I was getting better and better and I nearly wished there was a few more games after we finished up last year because I was only finding my stride.
“Obviously I'm happy with how yesterday went. You always want to get off to a good start if you can. I had a really good pre-season this year.
“I didn't pick up any knocks and can only think of one training session that I missed and it was just a small niggle after the Dublin game. I missed the Tuesday night after that game. Bar that, I don't think I missed any training session so I knew I had the work done.
“You can take great confidence coming into the start of the championship when you know that the work is done. That you have a serious bank of work that you can fall back on and you know that you're as well prepared as you can possibly be.
“You can take great satisfaction and confidence and calmness going into a game like that knowing that you have prepared yourself to the best of your ability. I was ready to go yesterday and I was really looking forward to that game.”
Gearoid Hegarty of Limerick after the Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 1 match between Clare and Limerick at Cusack Park in Ennis, Clare. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile.
Hegarty accepts that Limerick’s final quarter goal-rush against Clare doesn’t paper over the fact that they were out-hurled for 50-odd minutes prior to that and is expecting the team’s video analysis session tomorrow night to highlight areas they need to work on before Sunday’s clash with Tipperary.
John Kiely won’t have to convince the players they have significant room for improvement, because they’re their own biggest critics.
One of the reasons Limerick have won so much is because they have a player-driven culture where constructive criticism is welcomed and players have no problem calling one another out if they feel like standards are not being met.
“Yeah, definitely,” says Hegarty. “You have to. That's why I think we've been so successful over the years. Although it's hard to call out lads that you're so close to, if you don't, that's when things start to get a little bit lax.
“Everyone has been called out. There's been no one that hasn't been called out. You put in a bad performance or you're questioned for your work-rate or whatever.
“I'm sure everyone has an example over the years where they... maybe in the bad books is the wrong word, but you've been under the spotlight and you have to respond to that. These things happen.
“It's a long year, you've a load of games to play. You're not going to be at your absolute best every single day. But you're just constantly trying to put in your best possible performance in terms of work-rake, honesty, so on and so forth.
“If you can hold your hands up and say that you tried your best, that's fair enough. I'm sure everybody has been in the bad books at some stage in their career.
“It's a long career, with all these different games that you play. You just have to respond as best you can, whenever you can.”
Talk about the prospect of becoming the first ever county to win five All-Ireland hurling titles in a row will intensify with every match that Limerick win in this year’s championship, but Hegarty doesn’t believe the players will be distracted by it.
“No, no, no. There's no point in even us thinking about those things because once you start thinking about those things, you're going way off track,” he says.
“You're not thinking about what's in front of you, that's when you start getting caught. You know what I mean?
“That's when you start not performing to your best, you start taking your eye off the ball. You know what I mean? I'm sure ye hate when players say this, but all that matters to us is this weekend.
“All that mattered to us before yesterday was playing Clare in Ennis in the first round of championship, trying to get two points whatever way you can.
“All that matters now is recovering, reviewing it tomorrow night and getting fresh for Sunday again, and putting in another big performance, trying to get four points on the board.
“Everything else will take care of itself to be honest with you. That has nothing to do with us anyway, we have no impact on things that happen out there. They're completely outside of the players' control. So we would never ever talk about things like that. We wouldn't talk about things like that at all.
“As I said, we're massively player-driven. You have to stay in the moment as best you can, you can't even be looking down the line. We even view the Clare/Tipp games as one block, and the other two games as another block. We haven't even mentioned the other games yet.
“This week now is kind of the end of the first phase of the Munster championship for us. We get a little mini break. Try to get a good performance again, this weekend, obviously try win, get four points on the board and you're in a great position. And that's the way it has to be.
“I know it's a cliche, but that's what you have to do. Once you start thinking about other things, you take your eye off the ball, that's when you get beaten.”