'Results will keep lads on the bus': Limerick football look to stop high turnover rate

'A big thing for us is that we have lost 15, 16 players each year over the last three years. There's been a massive turnover of players. The biggest thing over the next three or four years is to keep as much of this panel together as we can'

LEE-DING MAN: Limerick manager Jimmy Lee.

A hurry on nobody. Forty minutes have passed since the final whistle. The Gaelic Grounds field is a framed picture of tranquil cheer. Players mingle in their own local pods. 

Danny Neville chats to six or seven Ballysteen mates, Cillian Fahy and an elderly gentleman are locked in conversation. Jimmy Lee drifts from group to group. Of no interest to the manager is ushering lads back to the dressing-room.

Jimmy assumed the Limerick reins ahead of the 2024 season. Jimmy inherited a Limerick panel minus 19 of its members from the 2023 class. The results reflected this unhealthy level of player churn.

Limerick lost all seven of their Division 3 League outings. Relegation to the basement floor. Successive relegations, in fact. Limerick were, at that point, winless in 15 consecutive League outings. The advancement achieved by his brother Billy across six years of steps back but bigger strides forward was in freefall. 

Progress unwound, Limerick football once more mired in gloom.

Fast forward to early Sunday evening. A first four-in-a-row of championship wins in the one season since 1896. A ninth victory in 11 outings to celebrate. Of the 2,119 patrons that paid in, a healthy portion have packed out onto the field. Photos, hugs, kisses, and handshakes. Nobody in a hurry, everybody happy.

Cillian Fahy wears the title of Limerick captain. He approaches the conversation as such. He sees the immediate picture and the long-term picture. He impressively articulates his vision for Limerick football. That vision goes beyond this Sunday and a potential first championship victory at Croke Park in 127 years.

“You could see with the crowd that there were a lot of kids here, a lot of people that wouldn't normally come to football games were here. That is all a result of the year so far. Winning helps everything. Hopefully we can keep building it, not just this year, but more so over the next couple of years,” says the half-forward. 

Year-on-year development, even year-on-year stability, as referenced above, has been a problem area. 

The wind comes in and out of their sails at far too frequent intervals. Promotion to Division 2, relegation to Division 4. Progression to the 2022 Munster final followed, two years later, by a 17-point Tailteann Cup quarter-final pummeling by Sligo.

“On that, a big thing for us is that we have lost 15, 16 players each year over the last three years. There's been a massive turnover of players. The biggest thing for us over the next three or four years is to keep as much of this panel together as we can.

“A lot of young lads have come in this year, and it is going to be their team over the next five years, so we just need to make sure the standards are there and people want to be part of the group and want to keep coming back.

“This year is important, but in terms of a long-term view, that is nearly more important. Results will keep lads on the bus. The stuff going on in the background, everything is being done right and is a massive help.” 

GREEN MISSION: Limerick captain Cillian Fahy speaks to his teammates during the team huddle before the Tailteann Cup quarter-final. Pic: Tom Beary/Sportsfile

A primary school teacher by profession, Fahy is 11 seasons inside in the Limerick dressing-room. This present set-up, encompassing management and playing personnel, is the “best” he’s ever been involved in.

Fellow forward Peter Nash was in the door a year before Fahy. They made their championship debut the same afternoon in May 2015 against Clare. 

It was four years later, in 2019, before the pair tasted a first Munster championship win. It was 2022 before they played in a League or Championship final. And it was March 29 this year before they tasted final success, that in the Division 4 League decider.

That Division 4 campaign actually began with a draw against Longford and defeat at home to Wexford, stretching out to 17 games the county’s winless League run.

“Even at that point, I personally felt we were one win away from catching fire because there were a lot of good things being done from a coaching standpoint from very early in the year, you could see a defined plan, you could see a road to improvement in every single session,” says Nash.

“I have to give credit to management; they've put real direction around what the group wants to be about and how we want to play. In the twilight of your career, to see that and to be benefiting from it, and to be still looking to get better and having somebody provide a pathway for you to get better has been special.

“With how things are being done and run, you can see the foundations are there for the next couple of years already. That is another real energy giver for players. You would really hope that this would be a continuous build, taking real inspiration from Clare, that spent seven years in Division 2, taking inspiration from Louth, who beat us in a Division 3 final and then won Leinster a few years later. 

"That is who you want to emulate. This coaching team and being part of this set-up is showing you those things are achievable.” 

They make for Croke Park this Sunday. Wicklow stand between them and a first Tailteann Cup final appearance, the same Wicklow team they rescued a point off in Aughrim in mid-March to all but seal their first trip of the year to GAA HQ.

“Before this year, I'd only played in Croke Park once, so to get there twice this year is beyond our wildest dreams,” Fahy continued.

“When you haven't played there that often, your focus can come away from the game and you can kind of be overawed by the whole occasion. But we have the experience now of getting there, knowing we can perform there, and are not just going up to take part.” 

There’s history in their making Croker twice in the one campaign. 33-year-old Nash didn’t need history to validate his 12-year existence in green.

“I know for a lot of the group, we'd be generally proud to be associated with Limerick football, even if that wasn't the case. But that does add a real feeling of self-satisfaction.

“It has been a rollercoaster [with Limerick] but loved every minute of it and every extra minute I get I am going to savour it because nothing can replace this for me.”