Jamie Lee: Watching, and wondering, from Australia as Limerick footballers go again

A GRIPPER: Limerick footballer Jamie Lee celebrates with his manager - and father - Billy after their 2019 Munster SFC quarter-final against Tipperary at Semple Stadium. Picture: Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile

It was the kick that would jumpstart a special summer. Tipperary’s Conor Sweeney stood on the Gaelic Grounds sideline. They were trailing Limerick by a point with 20 seconds remaining. Make or break.

Jamie Lee sat in Sydney, staring at his phone in the dead of night praying for the ball to go wide. A year previous he kicked four points in Semple Stadium as his native county overcame the same opposition in a shock seven-point win. Amidst the bonanza of celebrations, the brief on-field embrace with his manager and father Billy protruded as the sort of moment that makes all the sacrifice worth it.

The following February, Lee bid farewell and set sail for Australia. There he watched Limerick bid to make it back-to-back wins over the Premier County. He knew what another Championship win would mean for his friends and family. For the county. The combination of nerves and stress was excruciating.

Then his phone froze.

“Just as he was about to kick it,” he recalls with a wry chuckle. He had to make do with well disposed updates for extra-time.

“I’ve a WhatsApp group with a few boys from home, they had to keep me updated. Then I text the mother and sister and they were chiming in as well. Ah, what a score. Maurice Fitzgerald stuff. You have to hold your hand up and say it was unreal, in fairness.

“Just sit back and say, ‘well done. That was out of the top drawer.’”

It was 2017 when his father first took charge of the senior side, but GAA has always been a family affair.

As a child, his primary motivation was a devotion to the game. There was also the occasional reward from his grandmother, Mary. At least there was when he played well.

“She used to come into the dressing room with sweets after matches. If you didn’t play well, you’d get a slap of the bag. If you played well, you would get two or three. She had her favourites too. My cousin Paul used to get five or six sweets after every game.”

That upbringing in Newcastle West instilled a passion and a pride. During Billy’s debut season, Limerick won just two games. On Sundays, Jamie worked in his uncle’s bar. When locals spotted him, they often asked ‘why do you bother playing with them?’ ‘Growing up it is all I wanted to do,’ he would always reply.

History is famously harsh on losers, yet 2020 confirmed something is brewing in Limerick. Due to Cavan and Tipperary’s heroics, they lurk as the forgotten story of last year. The fact is they won the McGrath Cup, the Division 4 League title, and were a width of the post away from the Munster Final.

The county’s academy, under the shrewd stewardship of Paul Kinnerk, is fully operational with numerous former players recruited to roll out game-based coaching strategies across the county.

The roots are established while at the top, last season showed things are starting to turn. For Jamie Lee, a bright future looms.

“It was great to see how they went overall. They had a great win up in Sligo, a hard place to go Markievicz Park but went there knowing they had to win and getting that done was fantastic. Then a good Championship win over Waterford. They are a young team with very good players coming through. It will stand to them in the long run.

“Look at the people involved in the academy, the likes of Andrew Lane. Pa (Ranahan), Stephen Kelly was with the 20s, the uncle Joe was with the minors. They are quality people.

You will see it in three- or four-years’ time. The players that come into the senior team, it will be massive.

“With the people involved it is going in the right direction.”

He is a self-confessed homebird.

“A mammy’s boy,” he freely acknowledges. That made leaving the country particularly hard. Eventually the nagging wonder at what lies behind was too strong to resist.

Homesickness never disappears but it has waned. The key, to everything, is having good people around you.

“I miss the family,” he says.

“My grandmother died three months ago. I had to watch that on Zoom, like anyone else out here you can’t go home or you won’t get back. That is going on all over the world, but it is still tough. You are not used to it. I do miss home but I would miss it a lot more if there was football going on.

“The first year is the hardest year. Just trying to get by. My cousin Paul and my friends here, Ross and Conor, were a huge help. I am settled now. A different lifestyle compared to living back in a small town. Meeting new people and seeing how they get on. It is nice to get away and broaden your horizons.”

A crucial tonic is Gaelic football. Just as it always has been. Lee plays with Cormac McAnallens. Every Sunday they troop out to western Sydney along with eight other clubs. Hosting competitions and offering community.

“A big help is the GAA out here, going out to Ingleburn where they play all the games is like being out home.

“People who are out here a long time, these are their home clubs now. The passion they bring to it is savage. I only played a bit last year and it is only the last two or three months I probably appreciated it. The pure passion they have for it is great to see.

“It never leaves you. I am grateful to have it. On the weekend you go out for a tournament, and you see the crowds out there. Gaelic football, hurling, and camogie all going on. Lots of people just out there to watch and enjoy it. It is like a connection to home.

You spend an hour on the field and it feels like a small part of Ireland is around you.

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