By John Harrington

Great expectations tend to go hand in hand with great talent.

That’s a truism that 21-year-old Limerick hurler Ronan Lynch and many of his peers have discovered the hard way.

Lynch is one of the most high-profile members of a gifted generation of young Limerick hurlers who have starred for their county at underage level.

He was just 15 years old when he made his Limerick minor debut, and would go on to win two Munster titles in that grade.

He’s been even more prolific as an U-21, winning two Munster titles and two All-Ireland titles, and was also an All-Ireland winner with his club Na Piarsaigh in 2016.

His generation of young Limerick hurlers have already achieved incredible things, and yet for some people that’s not enough.

The Limerick hurling public is ravenous for success in the senior grade, and even though Lynch and others like him are still finding their feet at that level, they’ve shipped some criticism from within the county.

Patience seems to be in short supply, and Lynch admits it has been tough to deal with the expectation that has been placed on their young shoulders.

“For me, the expectation on young people in every regard across the board, in life and in hurling, it’s very tough between the ages of maybe 18 and 21,” he told GAA.ie.

“That's maybe when you’re becoming more prominent or well known on the sports scene…there are so many things that are tough for young people these days, and sport probably shouldn’t be one of them.

“It should be something you’re enjoying, but between social media, college, or relationships and stuff like that, it’s a tough time for young people.

“When you’re coming out of minor and you’re a brilliant minor and some people are saying ‘this lad is going to go all the way’ and the next thing, a couple of bad games and people are saying ‘this guy’s form is gone…will he make it…it’s another fella gone’.

“That can be tough to deal with when you’re 18, 19, 20 years of age.

“If that happened to Joe Canning or Seamus Callanan or TJ Reid now, they’re 28 or 29 years of age, they have the experience of having gone through this.

“If they have a couple of bad games, they can deal with that. But if you’re an 18 or 19-year-old who has so many things going on in their life, and then you have this other little bit of pressure in your sporting life, that’s extremely difficult to deal with.

“That’s probably why you see so many people struggling…that’s why they say it’s so difficult to transfer from Under-21s to senior level.”

The majority of the Limerick U-21 team that won last year’s All-Ireland title so impressively are already members of the senior county team.

The future for Limerick hurling does look bright, but the step-up from U-21 to senior inter-county hurling is a considerable one and made more difficult when so many are expected to do it together.

Lynch knows he and his fellow up and coming Limerick hurlers face a challenge to make the grade as senior inter-county hurlers, but it’s a challenge he’s up for.

“The level of consistency that you have to perform at senior level at inter-county is phenomenal,” says Lynch.

“When you play Under-21, you’re up against the best lads at that age in the country. But when you go senior, you’re up against the best players in the country full stop.

“So it’s hard to move into that level of consistency, and with all the other things going on in your life. So it is a tough time for myself or young people.

“But I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. Things that are tough are things that are worth doing.

“It is a challenge to get into your county senior team, and it’s a huge challenge for Limerick to go and win an All-Ireland.

“And as much pressure as young people are under, I think the young people we have in Limerick and Na Piarsaigh are very good young people and I have an awful lot of belief in them.

“The opportunity is there for us, but it’s up to the people involved with the teams to nurture those players, and it’s up to the players to decide if they want it or not.

“No one is going to be given an inter-county career filled with medals and say ‘off you go, it’s going to be handy’.

“You have to decide yourself, because it’s going to be tough, there’s going to be bad days, ‘do I want to commit to that?’.

“I think there’s a lot of young people in Limerick who are going to do that, and people that will help them as well.”

By any metric, Ronan Lynch is already a hugely successful hurler. He’s won a Harty Cup medal, two Munster Minor medals, two Munster U-21 medals, two All-Ireland U-21 medals, two Limerick County Senior Championship medals, one Munster Club Championship medal, and one All-Ireland Club Championship medal.

And on Sunday, he’ll be a key man for Na Piarsaigh as they bid to win another provincial title when they go head to head with Ballygunner of Waterford in the AIB Munster Club SHC Final.

“I've been very lucky,” says Lynch. “There's plenty of people who go through their whole career and might never win a county championship or a Harty Cup or anything like that.

“I've been very, very lucky with what I've won. I understand how lucky I've been and how successful I am, but I'd much prefer to look back when I'm finished and think about it then.

“The time is now to win and be successful. It's just trying to push yourself and push your team-mates to be as successful as you can in that time period and then after you can look back and enjoy what you've won.

It’s yet another long year of hurling for a young player who scarcely had a break from the game between club, college, and inter-county commitments over the course of the last number of years, but Lynch isn’t complaining.

“It's a long haul really, but at the end of the day it's what you love doing,” he said.

“If I was told when I was 12 when you're really idolising big hurling players, if I was told I'd be hurling four or five days a week with Limerick senior or U-21 teams or club senior teams in Munster championship games, I'd bite your hand off in the morning. I'd tell you I'd do it for 20 years.

“It's a fantastic sport to be involved in. It's a fantastic area of life to be involved in. It teaches you so much and I don't think I'd swap it for anything in the world. It's just what I love doing.”