Hickey calls for personal touch

Seamus Hickey has called for Limerick to put a personal development plan in place for each of their up-and-coming players so the county can maximise the talent coming through the underage ranks.

The defender believes at least five of Limerick’s minor side which lost last Sunday’s final to Kilkenny can make the step-up to senior. They include Ronan Lynch, Cian Lynch, Barry Nash, Andrew La Touche Cosgrove and his own Murroe-Boher club-mate Conor Byrne, who is minor again next year.

“I see a load of potential and a load of talent there so that’s five straight away but again, you take it with a measure of calm that these guys aren’t ready to come on and light up senior. They need to be brought in to nurture and develop, instead of bringing them in and expecting them to hurl. I would like to see a proper plan in place for personal development rather than they throw you into the mix and see how you do.”

In Dublin yesterday to receive the Opel GAA/GPA player of the month for August, Hickey admits he felt like leaving Croke Park on Sunday after the minors lost.

“I just feel bitterly disappointed for them. I’d nearly want to call each and every one of them up and say ‘It’s alright, life goes on’. You win some, you lose some and it’s up to the individual how you respond. It becomes how driven are you to become a senior? How driven are you to become the best you can be? Do you want to improve now or did you get to an All-Ireland final and, to be honest now, that’s as much as I want to do? It becomes a very individual thing from here.

“When I came out of minor it was a step. I knew where I wanted to go and I was very, very driven about it and I got very, very lucky in a lot of ways between one thing and another, between when I was called up and I was able to get into the team. But you have to be able to roll with those opportunities, so it’s a question now of where those guys want to go and there’s a lot of very talented guys on that team.”

Hickey is enthused by how former senior managers like Eamon Cregan and Joe McKenna’s influence at underage level has kept the starlets on an even keel.

“These guys don’t think they’re the best thing since sliced bread. These guys are coming from I’d say a very balanced programme of hurling where winning is just natural and comes natural to them. They don’t think they are special.”

Hickey did stick around for the senior final and found himself punching arms when Paddy Stapleton scored a late point for Tipperary. “When you’ve hurled with these lads — and I’ve hurled with so many Kilkenny lads as well like Kieran Joyce — you’d actually have an attachment to these guys and you’d love to see them do well. Then the excitement of the game takes over as well.”

He has a fancy for Tipperary to take Kilkenny in the replay. “I think Tipp are going to take an awful lot from that game, a lot of heart from it. They didn’t doubt themselves when a lot of people did and it’s really stacking up now, their confidence is brilliant. I think they can get better from last Sunday and I believe they will, and they’ll want to be more clinical in front of goal. They have room for improvement.

“I fully expect Kilkenny to produce the exact same performance, they are the most consistent team in the championship bar none.

“They delivered in every game this year and have learned from every year.”