Lucey calls for patience

IN 2007 Limerick reach the All-Ireland final, beating the likes of Tipperary and Waterford along the way.

But after a less-than-stellar Allianz National Hurling League campaign to date, was it a false dawn or genuine turnaround? That’s the question the success-starved Limerick supporters are asking themselves this week as Limerick prepare to take on Cork in the league quarter-final at the Gaelic Grounds.

Bear with us, pleads full-back and new team captain Stephen Lucey: “We have to seek to improve. We won nothing last year; as great as it was to get to an All-Ireland final we’ve nothing won, nothing won in ten years. The day of going places and playing well is gone, out the window — what’s the point just being there?

“There’s no point in being there to make up the numbers, there’s no point in playing well and losing — there’s no point going to training, no point doing anything, unless you’re winning stuff. One or two fellas are coming to the end of their careers, the time is now.”

What about Limerick boss Richie Bennis’ recent assessment that Limerick are still behind the big five counties in hurling (Kilkenny, Waterford, Cork, Galway, Tipperary)?

“I saw that, and I think it’s a fair assessment of where we are at the moment. We were beaten well by Tipp and Galway this year, beaten well by Kilkenny last year, Waterford have won three Munsters and a National League in the last few years [Cork have won two All-Irelands in the same period] — we haven’t won anything. You have to take that as a fair assessment by Richie.”

So what have Limerick gained from last year?

“Experience and confidence. We’ve gained a lot of experience of big games, experience of winning close matches which heretofore we hadn’t been doing.

“Tight games we lost down the years, to Tipp a couple of times, losing by a point, drawing matches we should have won, losing to Cork by a point — last year we came out on the right side of those games. We were ahead of Waterford last year by a good bit in the semi-final, they came back, made it very tight again, but we pulled away again; previously we mightn’t have done that. So that’s a plus.

“There are negatives too, teams are more wary of us now, they know what we’re capable of; we have to put all that into the mix and try to come up with something new, move forward from last year.”

As competitive as he is though, was he beginning to doubt he’d ever see Croke Park on a big day?

“Yeah, there are always doubts, that’s why the first game was so important last year. If you lose your first championship game every year for five years there’s bound to be an element of doubt there, and there was. There was a huge monkey on our backs last year, and to get over the first round – you saw it yourself, the crowds pouring onto the field after the third game against Tipp [Limerick won after two replays], that was massive relief, fantastic to finally get a win in the first round.

“That was where we were coming from; other teams wanted to win titles but that was our main aim last year. We did that, the season kind of blossomed from there, but again I want to emphasise, we won nothing.”

All that said, form so far this year has not been good; again, have patience, says Stephen. “We achieved what we wanted to achieve, got to the quarter-final, all the big teams are there.”

But did ye get there the way ye wanted to get there?

“Well we got there; there are lots of ways of getting to the quarter-final, we won the games we had to win but we blooded new players, tried out new players which was something we wanted to do as well.”

The Galway defeat was a particularly poor performance by Limerick, which Lucey accepts.

“We were all very disappointed, most disappointed in how we just handed the thing over to them. You could say we made it easy for them, we made them look good, but you can’t take away from how well they played.”

A notable absentee for that game — and all season — has been outstanding centre-back Brian Geary, out with the dreaded cruciate injury. Paudie O’Dwyer of Kilmallock has filled in, but Geary’s absence this Sunday could have a major bearing on the outcome.

“Brian is a big loss but he’s staying very positive, working very hard; he’s getting work done every day, he’s in the gym, working on weights, strengthening, he’s very much stuck into his rehab, and he’s on target to come back.”

Limerick face the winners of Clare and Waterford on June 22, but in the meantime this a big test for the side.