Captain Damien champing at the bit

Limerick’s captain has had a mixed season, but has his sights set on beating Waterford, writes Diarmuid O’Flynn.

IT is a dark evening in Ballyagran with grey skies and rain pelting down on a Limerick U21 match between Hospital/Herbertstown and Croom.

The medical officer for Croom is Stephen Lucey, full-back for Limerick in tomorrow’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final against Waterford. He walks across the sodden pitch as the teams warm up, eases up behind a guy in a Hospital/Herbertstown tracksuit, gives him a nudge of a shoulder, staggers him slightly and joshes him gently. Damien Reale turns and grins. Rain or no rain he’s happy to be here, doing his bit for his club and exchanging banter with his line-mate on the Limerick team.

It’s been an eventful year for Damien Reale. It began with a surprise phonecall from another Limerick team-mate, James O’Brien. James is from Bruree, county champions for 2006 and was nominated by his club to the Limerick captaincy. Now James was asking Damien if he’d be vice-captain. Like the jolt from Stephen Lucey in Ballyagran it came out of left field, but on this occasion he was more than a little staggered. With James on the fringe of the team, this would mean that Damien would be captain whenever the Bruree-man didn’t make the starting 15.

“I was honoured. It’s something that will probably never happen to me again. I’d say Stephen McDonagh had something to do with it though.”

Stephen McDonagh, Bruree stalwart, the man whose jersey Damien now fills, a man who in his own inter-county playing days would eat barbed wire, “And wouldn’t stop at that!” reckons Damien, “Ah, Mac — was the toughest of all. He was a serious hurler; you never saw that man roasted when he was playing with Limerick. He loved the battle!”

There are many nowadays who would say the same about Damien Reale. Still only 26, this is his seventh season at senior level and in that time he has established a reputation as one of the premier corner-backs in the game, a speedy steely man-marker, one who, like the aforementioned Stephen, like most of the top corner-backs, lives on the edge. Sometimes he slips across that edge.

In the first Limerick championship game this year, Damien collected his second yellow card after 25 minutes. The team held out for the draw, but only by the skin of their teeth with a late goal from substitute Pat Tobin. Damien returned for that, lived on the edge with another yellow card, but played very well in an extra time draw. He remembers little of their third game against Tipperary.

“I remember the ball coming, it bounced out of my hand, then blackout. The first thing I remember afterwards is that I thought I had run into Stephen Lucey. As it turns out, it was Darragh Egan. Nothing intentional, I suppose he meant to pull me back alright but not what happened. It was unfortunate but these things happen – at least I’m here to talk to you today.”

The following week Damien was back training, a week later — the week of the Munster final — was giving interviews in the Gaelic Grounds, unaware that the hammer is about to fall.

On medical grounds, the concussion suffered in that hit against Tipp, ruled him out of the decider.

“I was absolutely gutted, I won’t pretend otherwise, days like that don’t come along too often. Meet the president, the whole aura that surrounds Munster final day — I was disappointed to miss that. Dave Boylan (team doctor) said to me, I had to think of the quarter-finals. At the time all I was thinking was ‘For f*ck sake Dave, it’s a Munster final! How many chances will I have of this?’

“I felt fine, looked fine, but who am I to argue with medical advice? Dave was adamant, and I suppose if I had played and anything had happened, it would have been back on him. I didn’t play, the day is gone and there is no point in cribbing about it now. Anyway, we got to the quarter-final, won that and now we are 70 minutes from the All-Ireland final.

He was missed in that Munster final, badly missed. Though not playing with any great fluidity Limerick were still holding their own 15 minutes into the second half. Then came calamity, in the intimidating form of Dan Shanahan. 3-1 the big Lismore-man scored in the second half, three big goals.

“From where I was I could see everything that was happening. I was standing beside Donie Ryan for most of the game, we were talking about different positions — who was on top, who was in trouble. You get to see the game from a different perspective, you see an awful lot more. You see the mistakes, and it’s very easy to think ‘Why didn’t he do this, why didn’t he do that?’ It’s completely different to being on the field; you don’t have the luxury there of being able to second-guess yourself. It was not nice to be there, hard to watch knowing you can do nothing about it.”

When people discuss the current Limerick team, talk inevitably turns to the three-in-a-row U21 team, and how they’ve disappointed since. Damien was an integral part of that team, played in all three years; no-one is more aware of the wasted years. “I think the beating we got below in Clare last year was the turning point. I walked out, I was afraid to lift my head up, afraid to look anyone in the eye. I was absolutely ashamed. Joe McKenna left, but in fairness to Joe it wasn’t his fault. I had great time for Joe, he tried a few things that didn’t work out but he was extremely professional, had everything well organised, did everything possible himself. This was down to the players, no-one else, it was desperate. You could argue ‘til the cows come home about fellas being in the wrong positions, the whole lot, but all through those years the players were shoving the blame onto the managers and taking no responsibility ourselves. But every manager couldn’t be wrong. In fairness to Joe, he walked away, kept his mouth shut, but that’s not the case with all the managers — there are other fellas there, to this day, mouthing about the team. But they had their chance, they made a balls of it; they should admit that, and shut up. This team has grown up and takes the whole thing very seriously now.”

Seriously, but with a pinch of fun, enjoying it a little more under the baton of Richie Bennis?

“Richie strikes me as a man that’s experiencing the whole thing over again, and loving it all over again. Everyone is relaxed with him, there’s no massive pressure, even though there was huge pressure there to deliver something this year. But himself and his whole backroom team brought a new approach, a new dimension. One thing about him, he doesn’t tell lies. He’s upfront with everything; if he has something to say he’ll come straight out and say it. There are no pulled punches, but it’s done without malice. He’s said himself, he’d throw what medals he has into the Shannon to win this All-Ireland this year. I think it means an awful lot to him to manage this team, and it shows. He doesn’t like people criticising the team, and it does get very bad within the county. Unreal at times what’s said, creamed by our own. You can understand alright the real Limerick supporter, those who travel with you through thick and thin — they’ve had a lot of disappointment, over the years. But the ones who criticise the most are the ones who travel the least.

“And they’re the same ones who are clapping you on the back when you start to win, all about you.”

What of tomorrow, can Limerick win? Already they’ve reached their early goals for the season, won a Munster championship match, reached an All-Ireland final. Is there a danger that they’ll be satisfied with that?

“F**k the goals!” he says, with feeling; “There’s no point in turning up in Croke Park for a semi-final and being happy to be there. We’re only 70 minutes from an All-Ireland final, that’s how I feel, that’s how the team feels, that’s how the management feels.

“My main goal is to win an All-Ireland, this might be the only chance we get. We’ll be going out hell-bent. We’ll throw the kitchen sink at it. They’re beatable; if you can stop them scoring goals, they’re beatable. Everyone talks about big Dan, but it’s all about work-rate for them, the likes of Stephen Molumphy, guys like that. A lot of Dan’s goals come from mistakes, and he’s brilliant at taking those. Make a mistake inside and if he’s there, forget about it. His confidence is sky-high. In fairness to Waterford they’re the team of the year. They won the league, won Munster, every credit is due to them, but tomorrow it’s going to be a different game. Against Cork there was a lot of free scoring, open spaces, it will be different tomorrow. Our game will be tightened up, a bit like the Munster final.

“It will be close-marking, dogged and in 70 minutes of hurling — anything can happen.”