It’s high time that someone assumed the mantle of the ’73 team
Bennis is hoping for new heroes on Shannonside
‘IF WE HAD MET ANYONE BAR KILKENNY WE WOULD HAVE WON’
ASunday, NYONE in Croke Park on September 2, 2007, will never forget ‘The Roar’. That wall of noise when the Limerick players emerged from the tunnel on to the field. When the face of their manager and spiritual leader Richie Bennis appeared on the big screen, it nearly brought the house down.
The man in the middle of the maelstrom couldn’t fail to notice. It’s well over a half century now that Bennis has been heading to Croke Park for All-Ireland hurling final day. As the last man before John Kiely to lead his county to the decider, and a living, breathing link to Limerick’s last senior success in 1973, he admits that the reception caught him off guard that day. It was like nothing he has ever experienced, before or after.
‘I’ve been going to Croke Park for so long, have hardly missed an AllIreland since 1961 when I saw Dublin beaten by Tipperary. You could count the amount of All-Irelands I missed since then on one hand. And yes, it was the biggest roar that I ever witnessed.
‘I’d say it did more for Kilkenny than it did for us. It took us a while to realise where we were.’
He feels it wasn’t so much a case of the pre-match hype getting to the players, more so the whole sense of occasion contributing to a slow start that saw Kilkenny strike ruthlessly to find the net twice before Limerick settled.
‘Isn’t that why you train in the middle of winter, to go through all that hype? They just got two early goals. We had legislated how to counteract that but it didn’t fully work out. After nine minutes or so, we outscored them for the rest. The trouble was, it was all over.
‘If we had met any other team bar that Kilkenny team, we’d have won. I know so. Because this was the best Kilkenny team of all time – and they were at their best then.’
Eddie Brennan gave Seamus Hickey a lesson he would never forget, stealing in past the young corner-back who had been a revelation up to that point. Henry Shefflin was another who stuck the knife in, batting the ball to the net under pressure to give Kilkenny a lead they would never relinquish. The only counter-argument to Bennis’ assertion is that the four-in-a-row team that Brian Cody built arguably peaked the following September. On that occasion, they produced the closest thing to a flawless display of hurling, thumping Waterford by 3-30 to 1-13.
Bennis, who hit an extraordinary 10 points as a midfielder on the 1973 team that defeated Kilkenny in the final, would love nothing more than to see the baton passed to the current generation.
‘We’ve got too much mileage out of our ’73 team. It’s about time now we were replaced. First and foremost, the young fella on the street wouldn’t have a clue who Richie Bennis or Éamonn Cregan is. Okay, maybe I wouldn’t go that far but in our village now we’ve Cian Lynch, we’ve Aaron Gillane, we’ve Diarmaid Byrnes and the respect that they are getting. I’m involved with the Under-16s in Patrickswell – they are all trying to be Cian Lynch and Aaron Gillane. They’re taking frees like Aaron Gillane, all that kind of thing. I think it’s brilliant.’ He sees so much to admire in the form of the team all summer and how they are going about breaking down old barriers. In the first round of the Munster group series, they disposed of Tipperary. In beating Kilkenny in the All-Ireland quarter-final, they broke a Championship hoodoo dating back to 1973.
‘Though you wouldn’t rate this year’s Kilkenny in the same bracket as the team of 2007, it was a monkey off their back. Then beating Cork in Croke Park was another monkey off their back.’
It was the calm, methodical manner in which they stuck to the gameplan and reeled Cork in from six points down with six minutes of normal time to go that really impressed Bennis before winning an epic semi-final in extra-time.
‘We were all above in the stand and saying to each other, “We need a goal if we are to get back into this game.” But they plodded away, were very disciplined, brought it back point by point.’
Now Galway stand in their way, just like in 1980. Beating the AllIreland champions in the Division 1B promotion decider back in March was a significant moment in his eyes.
‘I was below in Salthill when we were nine points down coming up to half-time and I said to myself, “Here we go again… the same old Limerick story.” Galway brought in their top players in the second half but Limerick knuckled down and made good of the evening and won by four or five points. It definitely had a big say in what was to happen down the road.’
There are certainly echoes of the famous summer of 2007 in Limerick’s thrilling passage to next Sunday’s final.
The Munster campaign 11 years ago was lit up by Limerick’s remarkable trilogy involving Tipperary, a three-legged semi-final that saw Bennis and his players generate a deep connection with the supporters.
The team played seven games in reaching the final. This year, with the new round-robin, this Limerick team have already played seven. Bennis is a bit worried though about the bigger picture in terms of hurling’s three-year inter-county experiment with the new format.
‘The round robin is fantastic from a spectator’s point of view. But look at the clubs. The clubs haven’t had a match in 19 weeks. And Limerick won’t have a match for another few weeks.
‘So you’re trying to keep players occupied and interested. That won’t last for another three years. Something will suffer.’
He felt the same watching episode two of The Game, RTE’s superbly packaged three-part series on the history of hurling.
‘I’m a small bit disappointed. I thought there would be more on the clubs. I saw nothing at all. Whether it’s in the next episode, though I’m not sure with it coming up to the modern era. Clubs are being completely ignored. That’s where the GAA was. You represented your county through them first.’
He loved the old archive footage though, particularly of Limerick legend Mick Mackey.
‘It was the first time I saw a clip of him playing. I saw Christy Ring playing alright. I used to go to all the county finals down in Cork in the ’60s. And Christy was in his 40s at that stage.’
He’s not one for climbing the barricades at this point in life but if Limerick beat Galway, he expects more than a roar at the final whistle.
‘For the first time in a while Croke Park will be invaded. I can’t see them keeping the people out.’