In-form Lucey fired-up to overthrow Kingdom

STEPHEN LUCEY laughed when the question of his father Mick’s rugby exploits in Cork was raised, quipping that he himself was the black sheep of the family and wondering where he had gone wrong.

He is one of three dual players in the Limerick squad, a product of the U-21 football team which reached the All-Ireland final against Tyrone three years ago. And, he's able to boast not that he does of being on winning teams against Cork in minor, U-21 and senior football.

His eagerness to play for both teams has not been dulled by the problems he encounters, not least the fact that he is a medical student in Dublin at this stage facing into his final year of studies in UCD. On occasions, this places excessive demands on whatever leisure time he has at his disposal, hardly very much when one considers his involvement at U-21 and senior level in recent times. Of more concern to him has been an unfortunate run of injuries this year.

He was injured in Limerick's opening NHL game against Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and broke a finger in the hurling game with Dublin at the start of the match. Of greater concern, a troublesome ankle injury he picked up at the start of the year limited his involvement and on top of his Limerick commitments, he was involved with UCD in both the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cup competitions.

To sum it up, he says he hasn't played a full match all year without being injured, adding that he has never been fit in his life, except I wasn't sure if he was joking or not. All I know for certain is that he wasn't able to play with the hurling team in their Munster championship games with Waterford and that he aggravated a finger injury in the football semi-final against Clare that healed the week before.

"It's been a very bad year. I'm sick to the teeth of looking at matches. It was very frustrating watching the Waterford matches and really frustrating not starting against Cork. I was dying to play that day in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, even though I came on after 20 minutes. I was flying, I was raring to go," he commented. He missed out on Limerick's hurling campaign two years ago, when they almost beat Tipperary in the Munster final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. It followed a bit of a falling-out with then manager Eamonn Cregan, who had taken a stand on the issue of dual players. Stephen had been on the panel initially and came back for the All-Ireland quarter-final game against Wexford, but wasn't used. He regards that year as "a bit of a write-off".

Diplomatically, he didn't offer any view about Cregan's approach. But, he readily accepts that it's difficult to maintain a consistency in both games.

"You can, as long as you keep your skill levels up, especially for hurling," he states. "You need to be in tip-top shape for hurling. You can spend hours and hours in a ball alley and your skills would be flying it. The hard thing is to get those skills going in a match, so, your match practice is important as well.

"Other than that it's a question of time management. You can get fit doing either, it's just a case of getting the skill levels up."

Liam Kearns made an immediate impression the first time he met him recalling it was the week before Limerick took Cork on in the (2000) U-21 championship in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. He quickly realised that he was a disciplinarian, was well organised and strong into tactics. "We all kind of warmed to him straight away," he recalled. "We beat Cork in that game and it all snowballed from there."

Another thing they learned from Kearns was the importance of being mentally prepared for a game, "of getting themselves right." In time, they had gained sufficient confidence to believe that on a given day they could be good enough to beat anybody as long as "they had their own house in order". The manager "is a great believer in that", he points out.

The players are not only conscious of what's in front of him. They realise that the public at large will really sit up and take notice of them if they can manage to beat Kerry. This will be the third consecutive meeting of the counties in the championship. "Running them close in the Gaelic Grounds last year and in Killarney the year before and beating them in the League in between has prepared them for the challenge. We won't be over-awed by them

"Obviously Kerry are favourites. We're just going to have to put our shoulders to the wheel. We won't be over-awed by them."