Fear of hearing Frank and Walters drove O'Donovan on

The song was blasted out in Croke Park after Cork’s 2024 All-Ireland semi-final win over Limerick.

Darragh O'Donovan: “In 10 days' time, everyone is going to be going toe-to-toe in the club championship. The Limerick club championship, it's full on. That is why the Limerick inter-county senior team is where it’s at." Pic: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

Darragh O’Donovan says avoiding The Frank and Walters After All being played over the Croke Park PA was a motivation for him this year.

The song was blasted out after Cork’s 2024 All-Ireland semi-final win over Limerick. That and last year’s loss to Dublin at the quarter-final stage last year compounded the pain for John Kiely’s men.

“I think it was two years of hurt,” says O’Donovan of Limerick’s inspiration. “Before that Dublin game, it was the Munster final (defeat to Cork), really, and it was like a bomb exploded. Mentally, it drained us.

“You're going back in the middle of November, no-one sees that stuff. The running, all the gym work. There's no hurleys. You're after playing Cork in the semi-final in ‘24, Dublin last year, and you're hearing The Frank and Walters in ’24 being played out and you’re hearing the Dublin song last year, you’re like, ‘I don’t want to hear that again in Croke Park. I want to hear Dreams by The Cranberries.’ 

“That was something in my mind anyway, and I know with a lot of our lads, with the younger lads in particular, they wanted to put their stamp on it.”

Asked if Limerick are hungry for more All-Ireland titles, O’Donovan replies: “There's never enough, like, is there? Much wants more, you know. We're all greedy, like. It's the biggest flaw of anyone, you know, and we'll enjoy this winter, and as we’ll go back to our clubs next week, we can forget about that.

“In 10 days' time, everyone is going to be going toe-to-toe in the club championship. The Limerick club championship, it's full on. That is why the Limerick inter-county senior team is where it’s at, like, because we’re going at it every week in the club championship.” 

Meanwhile, John Kiely admits he took great comfort from the fact his four final listed substitutes were O’Donovan, the Morrissey brothers Dan and Tom and David Reidy. Between them, the quartet had 20 All-Ireland medals before Sunday.

“I felt very secure when I typed it out during the week. When you see those last four names on your teamsheet and you know what they've done and what they've given, you feel very happy that you have them there.

“It means a great deal to you. You feel very secure in that you have a second wave to come so that was one part of it. But you also know that their presence on the bench is a huge pressure on the fellas on the pitch and every fella on that pitch knew there was somebody ready and waiting to go and grab his place the second he slipped up.” 

No player ever threw a strop about being dropped or not being promoted to the team, says Kiely. “I had no issue whatsoever this year with any player looking at me with those I should-have-been-on eyes, I-should-be-starting eyes. Nobody ever looked like that this year.” 

Limerick won the final quarter in all but one of their seven championship games, the odd one out being the round-robin defeat to Cork when Cian Lynch was sent off.

“They’re mindset tests, everyone knows they're mindset tests,” states Kiely. “They're also physical tests because these guys are not any younger and not getting any younger but Adrian O'Brien has done an incredible piece of work with them over the last couple of years in the gym and he just knows their bodies really, really well and he just got it spot on.

“That level of trust that's there between him and the players is a special piece. They trust Paul (Kinnerk) with what he does on the pitch, they trust Adrian with what he does with them in terms of loading and when you have that level of trust, I think it goes a long ways.”