Honesty key to progress, says Limerick's Hickey

Limerick corner-back Seamus Hickey believes that the honesty which his side have displayed both on and off the pitch this year has been key in their progress through to next Sunday's All-Ireland SHC final against Kilkenny.

After the Shannonsiders lost to Kilkenny in the National Hurling League earlier this year, the Limerick players had a behind closed-doors meeting away from the management.

Hickey believes that a lot of positives came from this meeting and that the management respected them even more as a result of it.

"Without a doubt Richie (Bennis) and Gary (Kirby) deserve an awful lot of credit but as players we sat down and talked things through," Hickey explained.

"It was very low-key and very casual. It was just a 'what do you think?' kind of a session. It was about airing your opinions and what do you think of the whole situation.

"It's from those sort of meetings that you realise you all want the same thing and as players you know when the fella beside you is willing to die for the jersey the same as you are - the common goals drive you on.

"We also collectively recognise our shortcomings. It was a very productive meeting without a doubt and things went on from there."

The 19-year-old Hickey is in his second season as a senior hurler and believes that this brutal honesty which he and his team-mates are exhibiting this year has been crucial to prolonging their championship run.

After the Munster final loss to Waterford, the Limerick players once again took a look at themselves and Hickey feels that they are a stronger unit as a result.

"We had to be (hard on each other). To be honest we fell away and we didn't do ourselves justice (in that game) so you have to be honest with yourself and say we weren't good enough," he admitted.

"We weren't good enough, Waterford deserved to win the Munster final and we had to say it was the concentration factor.

"We couldn't start making excuses about the Tipperary games because we played well in the Tipperary games, we had no excuses so we came out of the Waterford game saying it's not good enough - we have to lift our performance and I think we responded to that.

"Against Clare first of all and then against Waterford, we learned from our mistakes and I think any day you learn from your mistakes is a good day."

Hickey has slotted into the left-corner back role extremely well this season and the Murroe clubman believes that each player on the panel has to accept responsibility for whatever short-comings they have, and that is their duty also to try and rectify them.

"It's very easy to shift responsibility around the place. You can walk off a field and say 'oh it's his fault.' We decided, as players, that we have responsibilities to bare and that we are the ones that hit the ball over the bar or hit the ball wide as the case may be or whatever.

"We said at the start of the year that listen, we are going to put in an enormous effort and I think that we have done that. The honesty from the players is really key to the whole thing."