Declan Hannon wants to change Limerick's Ennis record

Limerick had a "tough video analysis session" following the league semi-final loss to Kilkenny.

Wed, 17 Apr, 2024 - 06:00

John Fogarty

A championship win in Cusack Park – it’s the one thing missing from this Limerick group’s glittering CV.

Victories have come in the homes of all three of their Munster rivals but they have yet to sack Ennis whereas Tipperary have twice done so in the round-robin era.

Limerick did claim a point there two years ago but two prior to that, an 11-point scutching saw Clare claim a Munster final spot at their expense.

It's a record captain Declan Hannon obviously hopes to change this Sunday but it’s one that for him personally goes back to a 15-point drubbing in the 2009 U21 Munster semi-final.

“I suppose they are just a really good team,” he says of the previous two visits. “It is obviously a really tough place to go, but on top of that they are a fantastic team who are skillful, work hard, well set up. They have a lot of positives so they do in their set-up so it makes it very difficult for anyone, any team to go there.

“I think we, 2018, we were going nicely and then got hammered by Clare below in Ennis. It could have derailed our season but we came back from it, which is fine. Then we drew with them in 2022, but we haven’t had much success there, even underage coming along.

"I remember being there for minor and U20s games and just got annihilated, like. It is probably down to the standard of where they are at the minute.”

After being nine months out with a knee injury, 31-year-old Hannon says he’s like a “young fella again” and experiencing “a new lease of life” after returning against Galway last month.

Out since going off against Clare in last June’s Munster final, it’s been the longest spell the Adare man has been out of the team since Kiely made him captain for the 2018 season.

He admits to feeling like an imposter when Limerick beat Kilkenny in last July’s All-Ireland final.

“You would feel like that a bit, yeah. You want to be involved, like. And if you're not even able to tog out you're kind of sitting there thinking, 'am I in the way?'

"You're in the dressing room standing there and thinking, ‘Am I win the way here, like? I need to get out of the way and let the lads get ready for the match'.

“We had experience the year before of lads having injuries in key parts. Seánie Finn did his cruciate, Jimmy Quility did his cruciate, Richie English did his cruciate so there was a bunch there that were in the same boat so we could look at each other and start crying or something! At least there was someone else there in the same scenario, which probably made it a little bit easier, I think.

“Again, Limerick getting to All-Ireland finals doesn't happen every year. If you look back over the years it's fairly rare. So that's the other thing, when you get there you want to be involved. Look, that's sport, it's part of it. You take the good and the bad.”

Hannon admits to having only watched “bits and pieces” of Clare’s Division 1 final win over Kilkenny.

“I don’t actually enjoy watching games. I don’t know why. I suppose we’re five nights a week training or whatever that if there’s an evening off I just tend not to do anything hurling-related.”

The aftermath of losing to Kilkenny in the semi-final before still seems to be ringing in his ears.

“After every game, we would do a review of what went right and what went wrong. Unfortunately, a lot of what we did were the wrong things, wrong option-taking. Just not at the level to win a semi-final or any game. So yeah it was a tough video analysis session, that’s for sure. One we don’t want to be in again this year.”