RAGS TO RICHES
Flanagan is now a stalwart of Kiely’s champions having come from fringes
SEAMUS FLANAGAN is the hurling equivalent of the rags-to-riches story. When Limerick senior manager John Kiely came calling ahead of the 2018 season, he actually thought it was a wind-up.
Being invited on to the senior panel felt a touch surreal, like being handed a winning lottery ticket. After all, he was an unused panel member in the county’s previous All-Ireland under-21 triumph against Kilkenny.
So much so, he had to doublecheck with Kiely that he had the right man. ‘It was around October last year when I got that call, I actually asked John: “Do you have the right number? This is Seamus.”
‘He was like, “We’re putting together a panel of players”. I said that because that year I hadn’t featured on the 21s team that won the All-Ireland at all. I think I played five minutes in additional time against Galway. Hadn’t featured at all. And I was just like, “no way can he be asking me to come into this team”.’
He quickly got over the initial sense of shock to jump at the opportunity. With forwards like Shane Dowling, Kevin Downes and Peter Casey tied up with Na Piarsaigh’s club run, he jumped the queue to make his debut on a cold, late December Sunday in the Munster Hurling League, not knowing he’d be taking the first step towards an All-Star nomination and an All-Ireland medal.
‘I was more nervous over my first game against Cork in Mallow than I was for the All-Ireland final. Because it was my first time ever putting on a Limerick senior inter-county jersey. It was just such an honour for me and my family.
‘That game, I was so nervous. I remember being in the dressing room, Nickie Quaid beside me, and I’d say I was white as a ghost.
‘I remember the first ball that came in and I missed it. I was like, “I’m going to get whipped off here! This is going downhill fast”. It picked up after that. I think I got a couple of scores, got a goal at the end as well. Coming off, while it was my first game, I felt like I was after winning the All-Ireland.
‘It was madness. In your first year, that’s the thing of dreams, to win an All-Ireland.’
From a low-key debut in Mallow to Croke Park on final day wearing number 14 – some journey. In Dublin to promote the ‘First Class Rivals’ campaign, which will see eight key Fitzgibbon and Sigerson Cup games live streamed by Electric Ireland on its YouTube channel and GAA Now, the UCD radiography student paints a vivid picture of All-Ireland final day.
‘I remember running out and I actually couldn’t hear myself think, the eruption that you are met with when you come out. My God, I’ve never experienced anything like that, not even concerts or whatever I’ve been at, it was just a wall of sound that hits you as you walk out. Then you realise that’s the support there for you, they’re all cheering you on and it’s madness to think that… it’s one moment that I’d love to relive again in my life.’
If his performance in the roundrobin against Cork at Páirc Uí Chaoimh represented his breakout moment, hitting five inspired points into the bargain, in the final against Galway he was like a human dynamo, a whirlwind of energy and invention.
Just 21 years old, here he was, laying down a marker for all to see, knocking Galway man-mountain and All-Star centre-back Gearoid McInerney to the ground with a thumping, perfectly-timed challenge eight minutes in.
‘I can feel the shudders all the way up here on the seventh floor,’ proclaimed RTÉ commentator Marty Morrissey, capturing the moment perfectly.
As for the player himself? ‘I remember thinking “this is an opportunity here now, he’s coming out, put a halt to him” and the way the thing worked out, it got the crowd going and players around you.
‘Before the game it was all “Galway are the big physical team, they’re going to bully this young Limerick team into their second All-Ireland win”. We were just told that we’re just as strong, just as big as them, and let’s inflict that on them and let’s not be bullied.’
Just back from the team holiday to Mexico, a reward for an historic season, Limerick haven’t fully let up, not even on another continent. ‘We’ve been straight from our inter-county season to our club so our gym session kind
of continued so it was really just a case of getting into the fitness side of things.
‘Even in Mexico, we had a few sessions, we were kind of split into groups for gym sessions and we had a few beach sessions as well.’
It’s just over a fortnight now before Limerick kick off their Division 1A campaign. ‘We’re not looking at All-Ireland finals; we’re looking at that first League game against Wexford down in Wexford Park. Davy Fitz is going to bring a crowd to Wexford. His third year in charge, they are going to be looking for our heads.’
As for the year ahead, he feels Limerick’s fate is in their own hands.
‘People are saying that people can suss our game plan - our game plan is very hard to work out, because it’s just work rate, that’s all it is. It’s straight up work rate. Hooking, blocking, tackling.
‘How do you create a game plan that can work against that? You can’t. All you can do is try to match our work rate. We feel that no-one can match our work rate,
‘I’m just eager to get back into it. There’s been an awful lot of taking the cup here, taking the cup there, getting pulled and dragged left, right and centre. While that was enjoyable and we got great enjoyment out of it, I feel that everyone in the camp wants to get back into it because there’s just a hunger in the camp for more.
‘I don’t think this is the end of us, this is only the beginning of us.’