LAST UPDATE | 11 Apr 2022
LIMERICK FORWARD GEAROID Hegarty has admitted he was embarrassed by his red card against Galway in the Allianz Hurling League.
Hegarty was dismissed in the early stages of the second-half of the round 2 clash for striking Joseph Cooney.
Aaron Gillane and Seamus Flanagan were also red carded during the league campaign, which prompted question marks over Limerick’s discipline issues.
Hegarty said he learned a lot from his incident and struggled to face his family afterwards.
“Definitely. Talking in my own sense, it was stupid. I was embarrassed. It’s a horrible feeling. I’ve never gotten a straight red before, definitely not with Limerick anyway.
“We were in the game at the time and I felt like I was hurling really well at the time. Then to be sent off around 45 minutes and have to watch the lads for the last 25 minutes knowing you’re after leaving your team-mates down, knowing you’re after leaving down everyone that’s after coming in to watch the game.
Gearóid Hegarty of @LimerickCLG sees red. pic.twitter.com/f6lIojm13L
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) February 12, 2022
“My family were there watching it and it’s just awkward,” he added.
“You nearly don’t even want to go home and look them in the eye after doing something so stupid.
“You do take great learnings from these things. Sometimes it’s nice that they happen in the league because it would be much worse if it happened in the coming months.”
Limerick open their Munster SHC campaign against Cork on Sunday. John Kiely’s side were convincing winners in last year’s All-Ireland final but they suffered a nine-point defeat in their February league encounter.
It was a forgettable league for the Treaty, with their only spring win arriving against relegated Offaly.
“We’ve had a couple of interesting post-match analysis this year in the league,” said Hegarty.
“Obviously the league hasn’t been super but I was thinking about it and within the league you’re going from game to game in a very confined period and you don’t have too much time to reflect on it.
“It obviously wasn’t great, we didn’t have the best league ever. But now looking back on it now that we’re and looking forward to the championship I obviously think it was a brilliant league for us because we learned so much.
“You often hear the quote that you learn more from defeat than you do in victory, and the amount of learnings we’ve taken from the last two months or so with obviously a couple of losses thrown in there has been a lot.
“I think we’re in a great place to be honest with you because we have learned so much. Sometimes you do need a couple of losses to get back on the straight and narrow and we’ve learned a lot from the league so hopefully we’re in a good position going forward.
“It’s always strange at this time of the year because you don’t really know where you are until the real stuff kicks off.”
The 2020 Hurler of the Year and two-time All-Star is excited for the championship to start.
“I feel great, yeah,” he remarks. “Last year going into the championship I missed a good chunk of the league with a groin injury I got against Galway that kept me out for five or six weeks.
“I didn’t have too much training done going into the championship last year, only two or three weeks under my belt.
“I’ve had a full pre-season, we’re back since the first week of January and I haven’t missed a training session and feeling really good so I can’t wait to get going.”
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