Limerick’s learning curve

“Ancora imparo,” quoted Limerick wing-back Gavin O’Mahony this week.

Words of true wisdom written by an aged Michelangelo, translated from the Italian as ‘Yet I am learning.’

Gavin is still only 25 but he’s one of the more experienced players on the Limerick team which faces Kilkenny. Doesn’t matter, says Gavin, whether it’s veterans Brian Gavin and Donal ‘Dodge’ O’Grady or teenagers Shane Dowling and Declan Hannon.

“Ancora imparo — we’re all in that mode, all still learning and that’s what makes the panel what it is,” he said.

“The likes of Dodge and Brian, they’ve been around a long time but there are no airs and graces. They’re learning as well, rowing in with everything we’re doing. It’s a very exciting time to be part of Limerick hurling, very enjoyable.”

Adding to Gavin’s enjoyment is the fact his club, Kilmallock, are also going well. In fact he captained them to county honours in 2010, a title they are now determined to regain.

In this year’s county championship, Kilmallock’s big wins over Knockainey and Murroe-Boher have mirrored Limerick’s All-Ireland qualifier wins against Laois and Antrim, a campaign culminating in a hugely satisfying win over Clare in the final qualifier.

“That’s what you want, a run of top-quality games at this time of the year, and when you’re winning you’re building momentum,” he said.

“After every match we’ve learned something about ourselves, something we could work on for the next day — the Tipperary match especially [first round Munster championship loss]. We learned an awful lot that day and we felt if we could improve in just a few areas, we’d have a great chance again.

“Even in the big wins over Laois and Antrim we learned things about ourselves. Then came the Clare match and though it was great to win we weren’t happy at all with our performance, we just chipped away at the scoreboard and that was probably the key, we kept things ticking over.

“It was always going to have that bite in it anyway, that rawness, almost like a Munster championship, and the fact that we had played them four times this year already and failed to beat them was a factor. The league final was a big game and after losing that [to Clare], we put a lot of pressure on ourselves coming into the last game. You’d know it in training, the way fellas were going at it, the way they were talking — it was a huge game for us.

“That’s over now, it’s gone, another huge challenge ahead. Hopefully we’ll have learned enough about ourselves again from that match to be ready for this and that’s all we can do, worry about ourselves.”

Part of the learning process for Gavin has been to get used to playing alongside a new centre-back, former star midfielder Donal ‘Dodge’ O’Grady — seamless, he says.

“Dodge is coolness personified, never any panic, just next ball and get on with it. It’s very reassuring to play alongside someone with that kind of experience.

“He reads the game very well, pulls the strings back there, controls the puckouts, covers the area. I suppose at this stage any of the six backs are comfortable with each other, well settled; we know each other’s play, know how we’re going to react, what a fella is going to do with the ball, and that makes it a small bit easier.”

They wouldn’t want to get too comfortable with each other against Kilkenny, a team renowned at this stage for hitting the opposition with full intensity right from the first whistle. The Limerick full-back trio especially will need to be on their guard, a much-maligned line sure to be targeted by the Cats. Unfair criticism, says Gavin.

“Within the panel itself, there’s huge confidence in the full-back line, in Stephen Walsh, Richie McCarthy and Tom Condon.

“You hear these throwaway comments from people in the street about this fella and that fella, ‘he shouldn’t be here’ — we know our own capabilities but the capabilities of the full-back line especially. The only thing to judge it on is performance, and in training and in matches the full-back line is growing, brilliant against Clare. Go back to that game, the last ball — Stephen went up and grabbed it. Inspirational stuff. The first job on an inside back is to prevent scores and the boys have been doing that very effectively.

“There’s no big heroic stuff, they win the ball, throw it out to someone in a better position to clear.

“They’re not flashy but they keep their men quiet.”

So, ancora imparo; for this Limerick team on this occasion, another quote from another wise man, Horace. in Latin this time — carpe diem boys, carpe diem.