GEARÓID HEGARTY HAS revealed “the one thing that I really went after this year” to become an even better hurler for Limerick: patience.

A decade after making his championship debut against Tipperary, Hegarty is now a six-time All-Ireland SHC medallist and favourite to collect the Hurler of the Year award for a second time.

He has been named PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month for July following his starring performance in last month’s final defeat of Galway.

From a junior club, St Patrick’s, wing-forward Hegarty said he is constantly chasing improvement and identified one clear point of emphasis in his game in 2026.

“Trying to become a more patient person is a big one for me,” said Hegarty.

“I’m boiling that down to the smallest of moments in games, I’m boiling that down into the week of the game, leading into the game, I’m boiling that down into the whole year. Patience is something that I’ve tried to work on a lot this year, to become a more patient person in general. It’s probably the one thing that I really went after this year. I always like to go after something and that’s what I went after this year.

“I can think of games this year, like the game in Ennis against Clare, I don’t think I touched the ball for 10 or 15 minutes and once upon a time, when I was a bit younger, I definitely would have been panicking.

Working on my patience, trying to become a more patient person, you realise that catastrophising or freaking out definitely won’t help.

Hegarty will go down as one of the game’s greats but revealed that he’s also had to work on overcoming self-doubt:

I always have doubts. I had doubts after last year, would we ever get back to Croke Park — and just get back to Croke Park?

“These would be fleeting moments,” Hegarty added. “I’m not saying I’d be riddled with doubt but of course I’d have doubts, you’d have nerves before a game, you’d be doubting yourself. As I get a bit older, you learn how to deal with these things.”

Hegarty is due to get married shortly.

“What a risk it was to take, when I think about it now, getting married next week,” said Hegarty. “If we had lost the All-Ireland, you’d still be grieving, without a doubt.”

Hegarty is also looking forward to working on his golf handicap now that the season is over. He plays off three out of Castletroy Golf Club and is a former club Golfer of the Year.

If he wasn’t hurling, he’d surely be closer to scratch or beyond.

“Maybe, maybe, I’d like to maybe have a crack off it in a couple of years whenever the hurling ends, see how far we can get on that side of things,” said the former Limerick senior footballer, who has also played competitive rugby and soccer.

Meanwhile, Hegarty made a strong plea for hurling to be left alone and, in particular, for no VAR style technology to be introduced. Dublin football manager Ger Brennan is a strong advocate for VAR.

“I wouldn’t like to see anything coming in, I would certainly hate to see anything like VAR style come in,” he said. “I think it’s destroyed soccer. I think soccer is a brutal watch, to be honest with you, since they brought in VAR.”