September date with destiny a ‘massive carrot’ for Limerick

LIMERICK have nothing to lose Sunday in Croke Park, no pressure on their shoulders – that seems to be the common refrain this week.

Stragglers in Munster, where they were beaten by Waterford in their opening round after a replay, strugglers thereafter through the qualifiers, even their most loyal supporters have been pleasantly surprised the Shannonsiders have made it this far in the championship – bonus territory now.

Just don’t try telling that to Stephen Lucey. Unusual in the modern game, Lucy is a dual star, but he has already suffered on the double this season with the footballers alone, narrowly beaten in the Munster final by Cork, then pipped again in the final round of the qualifiers by Meath. Nothing to lose?

Au contraire, he says – Limerick are no different to Tipperary this Sunday, they too have everything to lose. Pressure off? Hardly.

“You can’t go out with that attitude. There’s an opportunity there to beat Tipperary in Croke Park and get to an All-Ireland final. That’s a massive, massive carrot for us. It’s a really important game — people will say it’s a great year because we got to an All-Ireland semi-final, but we haven’t really played that well. We were beaten by Waterford, that was very, very disappointing. We didn’t do ourselves justice either day and we haven’t been playing well. So if we get beaten by Tipperary you’re wondering — you were in a semi-final, was it a good year? Maybe not, you know?

“It’s very, very important to go out and give a good performance. We’ve played Tipperary I don’t know how many times in the last few years and we know each other inside out so there’ll be no shortage of motivation. They’ve got the better of us a couple of times in the last few years and we’re certainly looking forward to it. They’re kind of our neighbours in Munster and it’ll be a very, very tough game.”

Speaking in Dublin at the launch of the Guinness 250 Celebration fan giveaway, in which 250 lucky fans will get to see this year’s All-Ireland senior hurling final in pampered luxury, Lucey barely had time to lick his wounds from the football loss to Meath before trying to get his head around the hurling semi-final. A bit of a mental and emotional juggling act, but then?

“There are a lot of factors involved. It depends on where you are playing on the team and what the circumstances are. I don’t know if you would be able to do it with Cork or Dublin because the management have to be accommodating. You have to steer clear of injuries and if your form dips you might have to reconsider playing the two of them. We said to Limerick manager Justin McCarthy at the start of the year that we wanted to give it a try. He had concerns and Mickey Ned had concerns and we said we’d address it again if our form dips or we are getting injuries. Thankfully it didn’t come to that — we didn’t get many injuries and we played reasonably okay.

“It all depends — I couldn’t say that everyone can go and do it. It depends on individuals and their circumstances, like what job they are in. If you are on a building site would you be physically able to train? Or if you were on shift-work, doing nights? If you were married with kids would your wife be happy with you going off left, right and centre? There are no weekends away either — I haven’t been away all year. I’m not complaining, I can do all that in November. It’s a real honour to have the chance to play with both panels, something you’ll be able to look back on in years to come.

“Having said that, playing is one thing, winning is another — we haven’t done too much of that. That’s why the football was very disappointing, and if we go out to Tipp, then it will be worse.”

So, then, nothing to lose? A year of sacrifice and nothing tangible yet to show for it — what do you think?