Limerick's William O'Donoghue shies away from ‘legends’ tag

Citing an Enda McEvoy piece in this newspaper before the final round in late May, O’Donoghue explains how they sensed opinion had changed about them during the Munster Championship

EXTRAORDINARY FEAT: Limerick’s William O'Donoghue celebrates after the game. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie

There is no prompt for comparisons, merely a request to react to becoming a four-in-a-row All-Ireland champion, but William O’Donoghue’s instinct is to baulk at the historic magnitude of the achievement.

Suddenly, this great Limerick team is being listed alongside the outstanding Cork team of the 1940s and a Kilkenny side of the late 2000s that he admired as a teenager and it feels overwhelming.

“I know it’s a cliché, we wouldn’t see ourselves in that frame,” says the Na Piarsaigh man. “We’re just trying to go out every day and represent the group, represent Limerick the best we can.

“I’m not saying that lightly as in we’re just sticking to procedure – I’m not. I grew up adoring those Kilkenny players and they were obviously some of the best players to ever play the game. You have to understand that we were just kids who admired them as well. We don’t see ourselves as on par with that. We’re just trying to create our own bit of history.

“I feel like a bit of a fraud drawing comparison (with Kilkenny) but it’s an amazing feat for Limerick and for kids to look up to something that is happening within their own county.” 

Winning both an All-Ireland final and semi-final by nine points masks the fine margins that existed in the Munster SHC which they came through with a combined score difference of three points in five matches. O’Donoghue can’t stress enough how much Limerick were pushed this season.

“Kilkenny could have won the last two All-Irelands. They had us fairly on the ropes in the first half – they were outtackling us, outscoring us, playing better hurling. A puck of the ball last year could have done it for them. Clare could have beaten us in two Munster finals.

“Cork could easily have drawn with us and gotten through. Tipp, Galway… it’s incredibly naïve to think that just because we have won that we’re just going to come out and win the first half and second half. It’s incredibly naïve, it’s such a strong championship.

“To try and pick faults in it like ‘oh, Limerick aren’t blowing teams away’ – we’re not signing up to blow teams away. We’re signing up to try and win games and if we can hit our targets and do what we want to do, we’re okay with that. This isn’t for anybody else. We’re not going to be runaway trains.” 

After a patchy win over Waterford the first day out in Munster, Kiely claimed Limerick were subject to a “softening up exercise” to try and build them up as a means of knocking them down. “I thought we probably were, yeah. Listen, you’ve (the media) to come up with topical stuff. We’re no fools either. Of course, ye want to spice up the championship and (create) the doomsday.” 

By the time the Munster final had come around and Limerick had completed a five-in-a-row, Darragh O’Donovan was exclaiming “everybody said we were done and buried”. 

Citing an Enda McEvoy piece in this newspaper before the final round in late May, O’Donoghue explains how they sensed opinion had changed about them during the course of the round-robin stages.

“I’m not on Twitter but something was sent to me about an article after we drew with Tipp about 16 of the 20 who featured over half a decade previously in the All-Ireland featured this weekend – ‘too many, far too many’. I’m not going to name him but I know him. And I’m sure he will probably write something incredibly complimentary now but that’s where it moves to.

“You’re the best team in the world and then when you’re on the cusp of being knocked out… that’s sport. Not that journalism is about... we can’t expect to be given an easy ride all the time. You have to take the good with the bad and at the end of the day you’re going to write as cutting stuff as ye can whether it be good or bad. It’s all a part of it and taken in good spirit.” 

On its own, winning a Munster title on home soil for the second time in four years would have been enough but in the context of it being a close shave and the tight encounters that preceded it, the triumph meant even more.

“It’s the most important day in the calendar for me,” says O’Donoghue. “It’s an incredible day for our families. I think people from Munster really appreciate the Munster championship. I think if you roll into the Gaelic Grounds the day we played Cork or the day we played Clare, that’s as good a 70 minutes of entertainment as you’re going to witness, experience or be a part of.

“Are you telling me that a one-point win over Cork and then a one-point win over Clare back-to-back wasn’t going to stand to us? Of course it did. I’m not saying it makes you but it hardens you.” 

Following both those games, the Limerick players and management took to enjoying a few beers and listening to music on the edge of the TUS Gaelic Grounds pitch. The craic was so good that on one occasion O’Donoghue, living nearby, had to run home for extra supplies.

“I think one journalist said it was boring. It looks like that, very mundane, but when we got into town, it’s hopping and you’re not going to get a seat in a bar whereas there’s a keg under the stand and get to chill out under the Mackey Stand, the sun was splitting the rocks and we had a speaker going, put the chairs in a big circle and sat there for three or four hours enjoying each other’s company. They’re special moments, as special as the dressing room after a match.” 

For journalists who were still working in the Mackey Stand press box as the tunes ranged from Dermot Kennedy to the late Tina Turner, it offered a shaft of light into what makes this Limerick camp not a team but a family, as Cian Lynch said from the Hogan Stand on Sunday.

O’Donoghue points to the times that bond strengthened as they lost Seán Finn, Declan Hannon and only recently Richie English and Jimmy Quilty to knee injuries as well as Mark Quinlan. “It’s horrible. It doesn’t get any easier. It’s not like we’re numb of feeling. We’re absolutely hurt for the lads – Seán, Declan, Richie, Jimmy, Mark.

“Mark Quinlan pulled a hamstring trying to get back training. Even last Saturday or whatever day it was when he had no chance of getting back or doing anything, it was lashing rain and we were playing a 15-on-15 and Mark was doing his best to just get back 40% jogging or whatever it was.

“I remember seeing him going around the goals at one stage during the game and to me that’s a mark of the group as anything else, the men who are injured, what they give to the group. It’s easy for us to do on All-Ireland final day when you get a bit of credit for it but stuff that you guys don’t see is the real mark of this group.”