Once more Gearóid Hegarty saves the best until last 

TOP MAN: Gearóid Hegarty of Limerick celebrates with the Liam MacCarthy Cup after the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Final. Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Gearóid Hegarty was the most talked about hurler coming into this championship. Three months on, and as the curtain fell on the 2022 edition, Gearóid Hegarty still held that title.

Where the conversation had fixated on his discipline for much of the spring, the discussion yesterday revolved around his latest All-Ireland final masterclass.

Coming into the decider, the most Hegarty had contributed in a single championship game was 0-4. He’d been producing in fits and starts, but never reaching that state of flow he’s previously spoken about from his hurler of the year season in 2020.

He had delivered a goal for the ages in the Munster final, but not a whole pile else. Fast forward four weeks to the All-Ireland semi-final and the half-forward found himself in the unusual scenario of sitting in the stand during the game’s closing and clutch moments, his a performance that he was “very disappointed with” John Kiely told us yesterday.

But he did not disappoint on the day it most counts. He never does.

That earlier mentioned 0-4 tally had been bettered as early as the 18th minute, by which juncture Hegarty had stitched together 1-2. His fourth minute goal, in the words of Nicky English on Sky Sport, was a piece of magic very few players could have conjured up.

It was he who split the posts to put four between the teams after Kilkenny’s opening goal. It was he who punched the air with delight after providing Limerick’s 31st and last point one minute into second-half stoppages to leave five in the difference.

He signed off with 1-5, meaning that for a third consecutive All-Ireland final he finished as the game’s top-scorer from play.

0-7 in 2020 and 2-2 last year add up to 3-14 on All-Ireland final day in this decade alone for the 27–year-old.

Big-day poise beyond dispute.

Look beyond his scoring contribution and there was the usual flurry of assists, including one in the second-half to his wing-forward colleague Tom Morrissey. As a brief aside, Hegarty and Morrissey’s combined total across Limerick’s four All-Ireland finals now stands at a staggering 4-27 from play.

Right before he fed Morrissey for the aforementioned 52nd minute point, Hegarty had bullocked Adrian Mullen and the sliotar out over the Cusack Stand sideline. It was an act of authority that Limerick badly needed considering that moments earlier Seán Finn had had possession knocked away from him far too easily and then goalkeeper Nickie Quaid almost conceded a ‘65 from the simplest of back passes.

Limerick’s composure was rattled, and so crucial then was Hegarty rattling back.

“1-5, that's a decent return,” quipped John Kiely about his number 10.

“Gearóid was one of the guys that would have been very disappointed with his performance in the semi-final. He'd have been the first to put his hand up and say that.

“He was very honest in his work during the course of the last two weeks in training. Really, really honest and just led the charge. He knuckled down and didn't wallow in disappointment. He focused in on what he could do today and that's reflected in his performance. I'm delighted for him.” Brian Cody, meanwhile, couldn’t say he was surprised by Hegarty’s contribution, as much as he would have hoped that the 6’5 half-forward would endure a rare All-Ireland final off day.

“He’s a very, very good player and he’s done it many, many times at this stage,” said the Kilkenny boss.

To the man himself.

"We knew it was going to be as hard as it was, and by god it was. I'm just absolutely delighted. Listening to Dolores [O'Riordan] here in Croke Park in front of 82 and a half thousand people. It does not get any better than that I can tell you,” Hegarty remarked.

Another green pillar who was bowled over by a first All-Ireland final full house since pre-Covid times was Declan Hannon, the man who made history as the first to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup on four occasions.

“Today was unbelievable. The intensity of the game. I don’t know what it was like to watch but on the field it felt like a real physical game, ebbing and flowing.

“The crowd were in it from start to finish. Maybe the last few years we built up leads, maybe the games were over earlier. Even the noise, having a full house at Croke Park, you’d miss it so much. We thought last year the noise was good, but it was an extra level today.

“2018 was breaking through, like that was just carnage being honest. This year may rate higher,” Hannon concluded.