Wayne’s world: Adare star set to meet old friends Ahane
Last year these two met in the quarter-final, and Adare won; the previous year they met in the first round, Ahane emerging as winners.
In 2001 Adare won their first title and Adare’s Wayne McNamara just 15, had made up his mind — this was for him.
“2001 was our first senior county title, that was the year I really caught the bug. When I saw the reaction to that, the open-top bus parade down the village, great craic, a great night, I decided — this is where I want to be some day. We were there last year,, my first county medal — now I want more.”
A non-stop midfielder, Wayne was outstanding in that match and helped Adare to the lion’s share of possession as they romped to a 0-14 to 0-5 win.
Already part of the Limerick panel, Wayne made his debut for Limerick this year, and in a disappointing season for the county, was one of the few players who emerged with reputation enhanced. Mixed feelings then.
“That was always the aim, big-time, to play with Limerick, as a young fella going to matches that’s always what I wanted to do. You’d see the crowds, the big day, you wanted to be part of that. It didn’t happen for me in the beginning, I didn’t make a Limerick team ‘til I was 18, minor, and only got in by the skin of my fingertips.”
Did it measure up to expectations?
“Yes, it did. I was on the panel last year, probably wasn’t ready for the team, but I always trained hard. The highlight of the year was the win over Waterford in the All-Ireland semi-final, that was amazing; I thought to myself, this is where I want to be, Croke Park, and whatever it takes to get back here, to play here, I’ll do it.”
So then, what happened this year, defeats in Munster to Clare (a match he missed through injury), in the All-Ireland qualifiers to Offaly?
“A small change in attitude. No matter how good a manager is, it’s up to the players to give 100%. I don’t want to knock anyone but I don’t think we did that this year, not 100%; 90%, or even 95%, that’s not going to cut it at intercounty level. I’ve watched the Offaly game a number of times and it disgusts me, to be honest, we never got going, no fire, no heart – dead.”
After that disappointment, then, it was a welcome return to club action.
“I loved it with Limerick, but it’s always nice to have something like that to come back to when you’re finished with the county. We played Claughaun in the first game this year, then met Murroe-Boher in the next round.
“We had a depleted team, just about got through that, then we went back to meet Western Gaels in Newcastle West and absolutely scraped through there, probably didn’t deserve to, to be honest. People say we should have won that by a lot more but they have a lot of really good players back there, a lot of good clubs, very underestimated. We knew we were facing a big challenge, they’d be really up for a match against Adare — we were happy with any kind of win in that one. Winning ugly, better than losing pretty!”
The semi-final, however, was the acid test.
“When we met Kilmallock, no-one gave us a chance, but we kept our heads down, focused on ourselves, got that right — that’s all you can do. I’ve hurled with a lot of their players, know them well — they have a lot more skilful hurlers than we have. Experience won it for us, I think, they were probably trying too hard. But they will come.”
And now, one final obstacle for Wayne and Adare. Ahane, familiar old Ahane.
“We have huge respect for them, a massive club. Reaching county finals is second nature to them, we know they’re not going to be overawed by this — if anything they have even more experience than us.”
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