LIMERICK made hay as the sun shone at sweltering Croke Park throughout Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final.
Victory over battling Kilkenny secured three Liam MacCarthy Cups in-a-row and four in five glorious years for the Treatymen and manager John Kiely reminded his county to savour them and enjoy them because they’ve been a long time coming. And they won’t last forever.
Kiely visited Croke Park just once – the All-Ireland final against Galway in 1980 – during his childhood to cheer his county on and he didn’t return until he was in his 20s. His side ended a 45-year drought when they beat Galway in 2018 and are now established as top dogs in the caman code.
Barry Nash has been central to Limerick’s resurgence. The South Liberties clubman made his senior debut in 2016 and was given the onerous task of marking Kilkenny’s quicksilver TJ Reid in Sunday’s final. Reid top-scored with nine frees for the Cats - but didn’t manage a point from play.
“We lost an All-Ireland minor final to Kilkenny so, when we came into the senior ranks, there was a lot of determination there to get back to that All-Ireland final stage and bring back some silverware,” he said.
“From 2018 on we’ve been doing pretty well so hopefully we can keep going. A lot of the panel I would have played with at underage level and when we came into the senior panel the older lads made us all feel so welcome and we try and make younger lads now feel very welcome. That’s the bond that we have, it’s incredible and it really helps us get the success we have.”
Limerick’s success on Sunday came without the help of Cian Lynch, the man Nash described as “the best hurler in the country”. Nash was injured in training a week before the final.
“Cian is a massive leader and it was obviously hard to see him go down but John always says: ‘Next man up’,” he explained.
“That’s when somebody else has to take their opportunity and that’s what we do every time when somebody goes down. It’s next man up and you just have to get on with it.
“Cian’s message to us was: ‘Go out and enjoy it’. That’s what he always says, he speaks about enjoyment the whole time. You have to work hard in the game but enjoy every second of it.”
Only three counties – Kilkenny, Cork and Tipperary - had managed three All-Irelands on-the-trot before Sunday. The two-point success over Brian Cody’s side means that Kilkenny’s record four in-a-row is now within Limerick’s sights.
“We are a very ambitious group,” said Nash.
“We’ll be going back with our clubs next week and we’ll have club championship coming up and the lads will be going hard at that too but I know that when it comes round to January next year our heads will be screwed on and we’ll be ready to go again.”
Limerick were the better team throughout the first half on Sunday but they were only four points ahead at the interval. Kilkenny came charging back with goals from Billy Ryan and Martin Keoghan in the second half and when Richie Hogan split the posts from the right wing after 63 minutes the game was level and in the melting pot. Limerick’s experience kicked in and they didn’t panic.
“We’ve been there before,” said Nash.
“We have been in so many tight games this year so I suppose those games really stood to us coming into those final stages and I know the lads who were on the field were ready to take on the game and that’s what we did.
“Kilkenny are an incredible team and we knew it was going to be a battle right to the end and it was.”
