GEARÓID HEGARTY, LIKE his team-mates, doesn’t particularly care that people may be getting a bit sick of Limerick winning.
In fact, they relish it.
The Treaty are targeting their fourth All-Ireland senior hurling championship title in-a-row this summer, with a fifth consecutive Munster crown up for grabs.
“I grew up in the era of the great Kilkenny team in the 2000s,” Hegarty says, “and even in my household, no matter who they were playing, you were always supporting the opposition. Obviously Limerick were in the All-Ireland final in 2007 and I was here for it.
“That is the team you want to be. You want to be the team that everybody wants to lose. There’s a reason for that. Because obviously they’ve been successful, as we’ve been for the last few years.
“We relish that position. We take it on and we use it as a positive. We don’t shy away from it. I know exactly what you’re on about [people getting sick of Limerick] because I remember that about Kilkenny when I was growing up, believe me!”
“It’s a massive compliment,” the 2020 Hurler of the Year and three-time All-Star adds.
“We don’t use it as motivation. There’s enough motivation internally. We never focus on the opposition too much or anything outside our group. I’m sure you’ve heard it from John [Kiely] or any player who has done interviews over the years, it’s all about the group. There’s just so much competition internally, that is all the motivation you need.”
Hegarty, in his eighth season, firmly believes this is the deepest Limerick squad he’s been involved with. The emergence of good underage players has strengthened the panel, freshened things up and upped the ante.
“John, without a doubt, runs a meritocracy in terms of if you’re training well, you get the starting jersey. John does not care what you’ve done in the past, it’s all about night on night in training what are you doing, what are you showing, what are you showing in matches.
“If you’re lucky enough to get a starting jersey, you better go out and do enough on the field to hold onto it for the next time. That’s the way he runs the ship and all the players know that, simple as.”
None more so than Hegarty himself. The St Patrick’s forward admits he is “always in fear” of losing his starting position. “You’re never 100% sure that you’re gonna be named.”
All of that combined drives him, and Limerick, on.
Amidst all the accolades and silverware, the hunger never wanes. The motivation. The will to win and etch their names into greatness forevermore.
“We want to win everything,” Hegarty concludes. “At times, in a bad way, I’m extremely competitive. I’m lucky that we have a panel of extremely competitive guys. That’s where the motivation comes from, that’s where the hunger comes from.
“The hunger comes from me going to training knowing that if you don’t perform, you won’t be starting. The management team don’t look too far into the past. They don’t care what your name is or what you’ve done, what accolades you’ve won, how many All-Irelands you’ve won. They don’t care if it’s your first year on the panel or your tenth year on the panel. They care about how you’re performing right now.
“Referencing some of the young lads who’ve come onto the panel in the last number of years, the competition is incredible. You don’t want to lose your starting jersey to anybody. That’s what keeps us hungry and definitely what keeps me hungry.”
And so it continues; the “new challenge” of facing a Davy Fitzgerald-managed Waterford at Semple Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Hegarty predicts a “rip-roaring” encounter.
One to relish. This is what he lives for.
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