The hair?
“It’s an auld good luck charm. After Sunday now we’ll maybe give it the chop. I just grew it last year and ever since I’ve left it there. I’m waiting for someone just to rip it out! A Galway player said their manager told them to take a pull off it. But they didn’t pull it anyway.
Pressure on the team as a fancied side?
“There is a lot of expectation. But we know we’re up against it with Kilkenny. You can’t take it away from them, minor, senior, U21 over the years, they’re always there at Croke Park, they’re well used to it. Like, we haven’t won a minor since 1984 and 2005 was the last time a Limerick team was in a minor final so it’s an uphill battle.
Hawkeye controversy last year?
“Hawkeye was part of it but we didn’t play to our full potential on the day. There’ll always be hurt there, thinking we could have got to an All-Ireland final last year and could have won it. But it didn’t happen and Hawkeye you can’t say it knocked us out. We lost in extra-time fair and square.”
Kept training after losing?
“We trained right up until the week before the All-Ireland until we were told that there was no chance of it. We had hope, you know, we were training as hard as we’d ever trained, thinking we were going to get a replay but it never happened.
Influence of your uncles – Ciaran and Pa Carey?
“The whole lot of them, they’re always onto me, ringing me, saying this and that. Pa, my uncle was on the minor in ’84, my grand uncle, Eamonn Carey, was on it ’58, the last time before ’84 that they won it.
“They’re always influencing me, giving me a phone call before the match, telling me what to do. They’re role models for me, they’re very good in fairness.”
Soccer background?
“I played up in Dublin with St Kevin’s Boys, for two years. Not at the moment now with hurling and the Leaving Cert. Twice a week I was travelling up, it was U14’s and 15’s. I was playing minor as well at the time so I was trying to keep it all going. With Kevin’s I was kind of midfield, right midfield. It was an unreal experience.”
Transfer to England?
“Most of the lads I was playing with are over in England. There’s a few lads, Jack Byrne sure is at Man City and Alex O’Hanlon at Liverpool. They are always giving you hope. My father, a few scouts came over to him saying, ‘yeah, we’ll have a look at him’. But they never follow it through.
“This time last year, the Munster final, the same day, there was a trial on. It was an automatic choice. How many times are Limerick going to play in a Munster final, you know? So I missed out. But I got a sweeter win with the Munster final.”
