Treaty pursuit of immortality certainly worth showcasing
IN a week in which billionaire businessman JP McManus donated the International Rugby Experience to Limerick City and County Council, it’s worth imagining what the hurling version would look like. One centred around the achievements of this current generation.
What would feature in another fully immersive, multi-sensory experience?
Like its oval-ball counterpart, it could feature six floors. If 2024 goes to plan, one dedicated to each of Limerick’s six All-Irelands.
The story of hurling’s only ever five-in-a-row would be enough to bring them flocking. As for exhibits? The jersey of Declan Hannon would have to be one. The only player in the history of the game to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup four times as captain – thus far. Five times if you count the shared trophy lift with Cian Lynch last July after injury ruled him out from the match-day squad. The number six jersey, too, has its own resonance for a team who have shaken off the game’ traditional approach, Hannon the centre-back equivalent of a false nine, dropping off constantly into pockets of space to link the play together with those trademark clipped 20- and 30-metre passes, Limerick working those defensive triangles of passing before releasing it to the inside line.
Paul Kinnerk’s whiteboard could be another. The thinking man’s coach who caused a flutter during Covid when using water breaks as mini-coaching tutorials. The lecturer and researcher who is clearly central to the team’s carefully calibrated tactical set-up, a lesson in intelligent design.
Nickie Quaid’s goalkeeping hurley could be another prop. He is a survivor of the strike days who was celebrated for his season-defining save from Séamus Harnedy in 2018. From Unlimited Heartbreak to modern dynasty.
Perhaps a hologram’s recreation of the Cian Lynch chop pick-up or a highlights reel of the unique skills of the two-time Hurler of the Year. Or Kyle Hayes’ lung-busting solo run from the 2021 Munster final when he confirmed his status as the game’s first wing-back to carry a goal threat by bouncing the ball off the turf — twice — before banging the ball to the net with the bas of the hurley turned upside down. Aaron Gillane’s goal collection or Gearóid Hegarty’s All-Ireland final hits would also fit in neatly.
Clare might be league champions but the holders didn’t look too fussed by their semi-final no-show against Kilkenny, happy to fly out to a five-day training camp in Portugal and regroup ahead of Sunday’s seismic Munster opener away to Clare at Cusack Park.
Sponsor and long-time hurling supporter McManus was only recently in the winner’s enclosure as owner of Grand National winner I Am Maximus and right now, it still looks and feels like this is Limerick’s world.
It’s the ‘Drive for Five’ — only done by the Dublin footballers in the history of the All-Ireland football or hurling Championship — that lends another layer to this one.
And this team have already pushed the boundaries in getting to this point. In scoring levels — witness the 36 points in the Munster opener against Clare in 2020 that doubled as a league final — or the 3-18 in the first half of the 2021 All-Ireland final against Cork.
Hegarty is a self-proclaimed number one fan of Tiger Woods. It’s only a couple of years ago that the Limerick player chanced his arm in following his hero around at the JP McManus ProAm at Adare Manor and sidled up to him beside the 11th tee-box to chance a brief conversation.
If ever there is a salutary tale in how sporting greatness has a shelf life though, it was Woods at The Masters.
Walking around the slopes of Augusta as if in imitation of the T-800 robot that Arnie made famous in Terminator — all stiff joints and metal parts. Except the back strapping, the heat rubs and the sweat pumping out of him as he finished his round showed him to be all too human.
He offered yet another reminder of how even greatness can come to an inglorious end.
As for Limerick?
Now the age profile of this team suggests that is more a postcard from the future than the present — Lynch (below), for example, is just 28.
While Clare supporters — and plenty of neutrals — would perhaps like to see a changing of the guard and this era of Limerick dominance end, the opportunity to go where no hurling team has ever gone before has the capacity to elevate this Championship to another level.
A sell-out at Cusack Park in Ennis — what better way to start.
Now April still feels like a fortnight too early for such a massive fixture. It was all slightly surreal to be at the official launch of the Munster Championships at the Cahir House Hotel on a typically mucky Thursday afternoon in March when players and managers were rolled out to talk about summer before the clocks had gone forward.
Now at least, there is some sense of the summer approaching. Fantasy Hurling teams are being picked, the first Championship line-outs are rolling in ready to be dissected, and sunshine — yes, that rarely seen yellow globe in the sky — is forecast to make an appearance.
In Leinster, a clue as to whether Wexford can rise again under native manager Keith Rossiter will be offered up at Wexford Park where they host Dublin in a match that looks freighted with significance for the final table.
For Kilkenny, the ageless wonder that is TJ Reid will continue his year-on-year battle for supremacy at the top of the alltime scoring charts with Cork’s Patrick Horgan. The Joe McDonagh Cup fires up with every one of the five tiered hurling competitions in action this weekend. A few tasty football clashes aside, hurling is the big show in town for the next month or so. Particularly Limerick’s bid for hurling immortality.
Whether or not all the pieces fall into place, there’s enough already to suggest Limerick hurling would benefit from its own museum piece. An exhibition that would capture the county’s hurling history, from Mick Mackey’s golden generation of the 1930s up to present day.
Summer’s end will tell if the five-in-a-row will be a central part of it all.