Tom Morrissey: ‘When you get Limerick jersey, you hold onto it’

Limerick forward Tom Morrissey believes manager John Kiely’s win-every-game attitude has meant that competition for starting places is cut-throat.

Morrissey has enjoyed a stellar season since establishing himself in the Limerick attack and he believes the manager’s decision to pick players on form has stood to him.

“I suppose the year started for me back in the Munster League. The team had a good Munster League, but I definitely, at the start of the year, got my jersey against Cork down in Mallow,” says Morrissey.

“It was actually last year, December 30, I think, it was really a chance for me. When you get the jersey, you hold onto it.

“John has really brought in that element of it: If you are playing well you will maintain that jersey. I think since then I have made that number 12 jersey a target of mine, that I want it for each game. At the minute, it seems to be going well for me on the pitch. Long may it continue.”

Against Kilkenny last Sunday week, nine of the Limerick starters had been on the All-Ireland U21-winning side of 2017. There is a growing argument that the demarcation lines between senior and U21 are becoming thinner and thinner. There was 2010, when five of the All-Ireland Tipperary team featured on the U21 side that beat Galway in their All-Ireland final the following weekend. In 2013, the average age of Clare’s victors was below 23.

Maturity comes quicker in hurling these days and, while Limerick have learned to their cost that reading too much into U21 success is an unreliable exercise, there is more than hope about this current group.

“When you finish your underage career, you know you need to step up to the next level,” says Morrissey, the captain of last year’s fine U21 side.

“I think as a group any of the young lads that were part of that U21 group and success last year realised that.

“It was in the past and it was underage and that there was a new challenge lying ahead of us.”

Not that U21 titles are 10-a-penny in Limerick, but they don’t exactly carry much weight when eight of the current 15 claimed such honours in 2015. They still had to earn their stripes playing alongside the older generation.

“I think we are just relishing the opportunity and, so far this year, we have extended that culture that was created and it really has brought a bit of belief and confidence. I think we are just looking forward to each challenge as it is at the moment, ‘bring the next one on’ type of mentality.

“Definitely, there is a step up and everyone has made it and are looking forward to just continuing it.”

The message from the camp is that the draw with Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh at the start of May is yesterday’s news. That’s not to say there won’t be a study of it.

“We’ll go over it as well and try and get learnings from it,” says Morrissey.

“There won’t be too much of a correlation. There’s a big difference between playing against a five-man forward line to a six-man forward line, so what learnings they will get from it, I’m not so sure, because this game is going to be completely different and take on a life of its own.”