GEARÓID HEGARTY BELIEVES Limerick’s player-driven culture has been a major contributing factor to their recent success.
John Kiely’s side are targeting a fifth All-Ireland title in-a-row this year. They opened their bid for a sixth consecutive Munster championship crown with a dramatic comeback win over Clare in Ennis yesterday.
Hegarty is speaking about Kiely’s impact when he branches into talk of the wider playing group. The three-time All-Star stresses the importance of calling one another out and making constructive criticism as Limerick look to maintain their high playing standards.
“We are massively player-driven. Every night at training, there’s different leaders that are constantly driving standards.
“That’s why I think we’ve been so successful over the years. Although it’s hard to call out lads that you’re so close to, if you don’t, that’s when things start to get a little bit lax.”
It’s a two-way street, he continues. “Everyone has been called out. There’s been no one that hasn’t been called out.
“You put in a bad performance or you’re questioned for your work-rate. I’m sure everyone has an example over the years where they’ve been… maybe in the bad books is the wrong word, but under the spotlight, and you have to respond to that.
“These things happen. You’re not going to be at your absolute best every single day. But you’re just constantly trying to put in your best possible performance in terms of work-rake, honesty, so on. If you can hold your hands up and say that you tried your best, that’s fair enough.”
Like his team-mates in recent weeks and months, Hegarty quells any Drive For Five chatter. If it started to creep into the camp, players would pull one another up on it.
It’s pointed out Kiely was re-appointed on a one-year extension last October, similar to Jim Gavin with Dublin in 2019. Is this a mission, or is there any difference?
“No, no, no,” Hegarty insists.
“There’s no point in even us thinking about those things because once you start. you’re going way off track, you’re not thinking about what’s in front of you, that’s when you start getting caught. That’s when you start not performing to your best, you start taking your eye off the ball.
“I’m sure ye hate when players say this, but all that matters to us is this weekend. All that mattered to us before yesterday was Clare. Everything else will take care of itself.
“We have no impact on things that happen out there. They’re completely things outside of the players’ control, so we would never, ever talk about things like that.”
Hegarty says yesterday’s 3-15 to 1-18 victory over Clare was “immensely satisfying” and puts them in a “great position” ahead of this weekend’s meeting with Tipperary at the Gaelic Grounds.
The Treaty were nine points down in the 52nd minute in Ennis, but they outscored their hosts 3-6 to 0-3 in a superb final quarter.
“We never think it’s gone,” the St Patrick’s man assures. “We’ve been in many a hole over the years that we’ve gotten ourselves out of.
“Clare are obviously a brilliant team and we rate them really, really highly. We knew it was going to be seriously tough.
“But, in saying that, we have massive confidence in ourselves coming down the stretch if we’re in the game. We have a lot of reference points of being in those really tight battles.
“I’ve talked about it so many times over the years, the confidence that we have in our squad. We always put a massive emphasis on the lads coming off the bench. Everybody that came on yesterday had a massive impact.”
Hegarty himself was hugely influential, scoring 0-3 in the first half and playing a hand in two goals amidst the comeback.
“I’m obviously very happy with how yesterday went. I probably didn’t start the championship brilliantly last year. The longer the year went on, I felt I was getting better and better and I nearly wished there was a few more games after we finished up last year because I was only finding my stride.
“I had a really good pre-season this year. I didn’t pick up any knocks and can only think of one training session that I missed and it was just a small niggle after the Dublin game.
“I knew I had the work done. You can take great confidence coming into the start of the championship when you have a serious bank of work that you can fall back on and you know that you’re as well prepared as you can possibly be. I was ready to go.”
