Faster, higher, stronger: Hayes and Limerick reach new heights
KYLE HAYES, CIAN LYNCH AND LIMERICK BRING OLYMPIC IDEAL TO THE HURLING PITCH
‘Gone will be the talk of the Mackeys – not that they weren’t and aren’t great – now the children will talk of the Bennises, they’ll talk of the Hartigans, they’ll talk of the Cregans, with the same reverence with which they have spoken of the Mackeys, the Ryans and all the others of the great glorious hurling past of Limerick.’
THOSE were the words of Micheál O’Hehir on radio commentary on All-Ireland final day of 1973. The distinctive voice of Gaelic games captured the sense of achievement in Limerick’s first senior hurling title since 1940, and that milestone era when a team inspired by the iconic Mick Mackey won four successive Munster crowns between 1933 and ’36.
Well, after Sunday’s Munster final, they’ll talk of Kyle Hayes and Cian Lynch and a new generation whose feats will stand the test of time.
This Friday afternoon, the opening ceremony of the Olympics takes place in Tokyo. Judging by the action on Sunday, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Kyle Hayes come thundering into shot, bouncing the sliotar off the ground one-handed while carrying the Tricolour with the other.
After all, hurling was an unofficial sport at the 1904 Olympics in St Louis, Missouri, in the United States when, according to record, Fenian FC (Chicago) beat Innisfails (St Louis).
Three weeks of a break to the All-Ireland semi-final is plenty of time to jet out and back for a cultural exhibition.
Because this was a weekend when Kyle Hayes, Cian Lynch and Limerick brought the Olympic spirit of ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ – ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’ – to the hurling pitch.
Back in the 1990s, Guinness built a billboard campaign around the slogan, ‘This man can break hearts at 70 yards.’
And then Limerick half-back Ciaran Carey plucked the ball from the sky inside his own 65 in the dramatic endgame of a Munster semi-final against reigning All-Ireland champions Clare and went on a run on a scorching hot summer Sunday that surely earned the originator of that phrase a Christmas bonus.
It’s a score showcased on RTÉ’s greatest GAA moments, the Patrickswell player slaloming through the Clare defence with a dizzying mix of pace and balance.
And yet there was a sense that the game has never seen anything like the action sequence when another Limerick half-back, Hayes, broke onto the ball inside his own 65 under the main stand at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. He broadened the definition of a goalscoring opportunity – one of the buzzwords of 2021 in light of the new sin bin rule – to unseen levels.
Never before has hurling had a goalscoring wing-back. That’s not to be confused with a wingback who has managed to put the ball in the net on a rare occasion, rather a player whose range of athletic and hurling ability – a 6’5” stride that eats up the ground – actually brings a consistent goal threat to a defensive position.
In last year’s All-Ireland semifinal against Galway, he swept in from deep in the second half and was only blocked from close range; in the final against Waterford, he went galloping up along the Cusack Stand side in the first half before his stinging shot drew a brilliant reaction save from Stephen O’Keeffe.
The game has never seen a goal like he scored to round off a period of hurling from Limerick that was the pinnacle of the champions’ play this past five seasons under John Kiely – blitzing Tipperary to turn a 10-point half-time deficit into a five-point lead when Hayes shook the net.
To be in the stadium for that moment and witness it first-hand was special – the roar going up more in keeping with ‘a crowd of 70 or 80,000’ as captain Declan Hannon alluded to afterwards, rather than the 7,000 or so spectators allowed to attend.
It wasn’t just the pace and daring of the play that electrified the stadium, but the skill to bounce the ball one-handed off the pristine sod and back into his hand at full pace – not once, but twice – to allow him put the ball back into his hand to strike.
By virtue of the sleight of hand needed to execute that skill at such pace, his hurley was actually upside down as he struck the ball so venomously beyond Hogan in goal, more akin to a shoulder-high bat to avoid the hook from Dan McCormack.
Upside down, right way up – no matter. Faster, higher, further. Lynch is another unique player, the type of which the game has never seen and who is helping to elevate it to new heights.
His play evokes a kind of magical realism, the literary genre that mixes fantastical elements with earthy roots to form an altered way of looking at the world and that produced a string of best sellers.
There are so many things happening and being computed at the same time – TJ Reid is another who seems to operate in that same plane, David Clifford too in Gaelic football – that the ball and player just move in perfect sync.
It’s as if hurling’s original freestyler comes with a detachable or double-jointed wrist in the way he can turn it almost at right angles to pop a handpass away at such a speed that’s it’s hard to discern where the contact starts and finishes – just look at the fluid motion of the pass to set Hayes in motion for the goal.
Limerick have form when it comes to pushing the boundaries of the game.
Mackey has been credited in some quarters with inventing the solo run and was hurling’s first superstar. Sean Finn has been the game’s best corner-back for some time now, Gearóid Hegarty is Hurler of the Year and there is room within a carefully constructed tactical system to play with a joie de vivre.
The opening quote is from Henry Martin’s meticulously researched tome on Limerick hurling, whose title ‘Unlimited Heartbreak’ reflected the sense of loss down the decades.
Loss since the days of Mackey and company, and the 1973 AllIreland that stood alone from 1940 until this bounteous period of success.
They’ve won two All-Irelands, two National Leagues and now a hat-trick of Munster Cups – the name of Mick Mackey to be bestowed on the trophy from next year.
One of the famous stories from 1973 was of a young JP McManus, then chairman of the South Liberties club, being pulled in through a dressing room window at Croke Park to join the winning team, before his own journey would take him into the world of high finance.
On Sunday, he was there, in suit and summer hat, still wedded to a team that adults and children will be talking about for some time to come.
“The game has never seen a goal like this”
“They have form for pushing limits”