HE WAS ONE of four players who lined out on the Limerick team lost heavily to Cork during Justin McCarthy’s acrimonious last year in charge of the county senior side in 2010.
But last Sunday 23 year-old Paul Browne was able to savour the occasion and sense of achievement on a Limerick team that got the better of the Rebels.
Browne, Nickie Quaid, David Breen and Graeme Mulcahy were the survivors from the humbling 13-point Munster semi-final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh three years ago that went on to play during last Sunday’s magical game for the county in the Gaelic Grounds.
With several of Limerick’s established players having been jettisoned by McCarthy after the crushing 24-point defeat to Tipperary in the 2009 All-Ireland semi-final, 2010 transpired to be a difficult and gruelling campaign for the players left behind.
However those memories were washed away for Browne and his colleagues as the delirious Limerick fans invaded the pitch after they claimed the Munster senior crown for the first time in 17 years last Sunday.
“It was a difficult time,” recalled Browne. “It has been a long journey. There were a few of us there that stuck around. It was difficult for either side. It wasn’t a nice time to be hurling but look we’re over it now.
“Look to be honest it was my first year on the panel (in 2009) and I just said I’d hold around. If I didn’t, I thought I mightn’t get the chance again.
“We’ve come a long way since 2009 even. We got a nice clipping off Tipperary up in a semi-final in Croke Park. Maybe it might have seemed fanciful to think about winning Munster.
But as young fella in Munster you grow up watching the Munster championship and that’s all you want to play. You’re just hoping that if you put all the hard work and effort in, it’ll pay off.”
Pitch Invasion
Celebrating with the invading Limerick fans on Sunday was something for the Bruff club man Browne to appreciate.
“I remember looking over at Gavin (O’Mahony) on Sunday near the end and we both knew that it was kind of game over. We looked over and saw a little kid running out onto the pitch and his father caught him by the collar. He yanked him out of there fairly lively. I was laughing.
“It’s the stuff dreams are made of, the crowd swallowing you up and it was only afterwards I only saw how many people were on the pitch. The whole place was covered.”
“I was sitting above in the stand in the 2011 Munster U21 final watching it and obviously so happy for the boys on the pitch but at the same time jealous that it wasn’t me. That was an amazing match and amazing scenes but Sunday was a new level again.”
INPHO/James Crombie
And Browne, who has just recently completed his Business and Sport degree in LIT, heaped praise on the contribution of manager John Allen to the Limerick cause this year.
“He’s a hugely calm man and there could he chaos going on all around him. He never changes. He’s so calm, he’s so well spoken and so softly spoken. He’s an excellent motivator.
“You never really think about it until Donal Og Cusack said it on the Sunday Game what a good psychological motivator he is. He does it so well, so astutely and he doesn’t give anything away. He still has a great way of getting you in the right frame of mind for what’s coming up.”
