Land Hurler of the Year accolade

lashing out at Tipp’s Cathal Barrett, an incident that occurred before Limerick’s remarkable comeback from 10 points down had really got going — and one he says he learned a valuable lesson from.

Individual

“Yeah, it was a small bit wild. A bit stupid. That’s not making any excuses, I lost the head there for a few minutes. I was very lucky to stay on the field and I was thankful for that. I just had to say, ‘Cop onto yourself here’. It would be very embarrassing to be sent off. More that you let down the team, which is more important than any individual.

“So I had to have a little chat with myself and say, ‘Cop on’. You don’t want to be letting down the team, to be that person that did something stupid to cost the team winning a match or in that instance winning a Munster final. So I’d definitely take learnings from it.

“I knew myself it wasn’t acceptable, especially with what was on the line. We were going for three Munsters-in-a-row. I had to say, ‘Cop on, don’t be the person to make Limerick lose out on such an unbelievable achievement. To keep the head, keep the cool. Take whatever you’re given and use your brain’.”

Limerick’s recent All-Ireland win was much harder earned than the previous two, which they largely coasted to, and having suffered numerous injury setbacks to grind out victories over Clare, Galway and Kilkenny in particular, there was an extra layer of satisfaction.

“Winning every year is absolutely unreal but when you are hit with a good shot of problems there are some teams that may have lied down or thrown in the towel but what John (Kiely) said after the match, it just makes it all that sweeter, even some of the injuries we were dealt at the start of the year and throughout the year.

“The week before the final, just to be able to do it for those lads. It’s just an unreal feeling to get over the line but also, it shows the strength in depth of our squad that we have at the minute.”