Gearóid Hegarty Q&A: Limerick star wins second hurler of the year award

Hegarty has been named hurler of the year for a second time, adding to his 2020 award

Gearóid Hegarty is 'almost certain' Limerick's entire All-Ireland-winning panel will return for the 2027 season. Pic: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Q: Gearóid, what does winning the PwC Hurler of the Year for 2026 mean to you?

Gearóid Hegarty: It's a massive honour. Without a doubt, just a huge honour. It's extra special that I'm standing here this evening getting this award off the back of Limerick winning the All-Ireland. And look, that's the main thing. Tonight is the cherry on top of the cake. I don't even know if this makes sense, but I'm more into cakes than cherries if you know what I mean. Us winning the All-Ireland is everything. This is a really, really lovely bonus to receive this evening.

Q: It's been some year for you. Winning the All-Ireland, getting married, and now the PwC Hurler of the Year award.

GH: You couldn't have planned it out any better. It's just been the absolutely perfect year. It's almost pinch yourself stuff, to be honest with you, what's actually happened this year in my own life. Building a new house, getting married, winning the All-Ireland. If I'd sat down at the start of the year and tried to visualise what I wanted from the year, I don't even think it could have gone this well. But look, sometimes in life, everything nowadays, I feel like it's 100 miles an hour, especially when you're trying to play in your county, teaching during the day, and have some aspect of a normal life as well on top of all that. Everything is 100 miles an hour. Sometimes you have to stand back and actually appreciate the moment that you're in. I'm honoured to be here. Absolutely honoured to be here. A lot of times we can kind of brush over these things, but I'm honoured to be here. I never get sick of coming up to these awards. To be receiving a second Hurler of the Year award, the monumental aspect of that is not lost to me, put it that way.

Q: It'll be a bit of a different night than when you won the 2020 Hurler of the Year and there was no in-person All-Stars Awards due to Covid.

GH: From what I remember, I think I went up on a Wednesday or Thursday up to the RTÉ studios and it was all pre-recorded. Would I prefer to be doing it tonight the way we're doing it tonight? Of course I would, but in a way it was actually lovely because I went up and it was all pre-recorded the day or two beforehand and Friday night we actually went to my home house. I was still living at home at the time, my parents' house, and friends and family came over and we watched the RTÉ broadcast of the actual show at home sitting home on the couch with the fire on. So, in a way, we made the most of it.

Which, in fairness to my father, he ha`s always drilled that into me. You can always try and make the most of things. So, we made the most of that evening, it was lovely, but I'm also looking forward to doing it proper tonight with my parents and my wife and her parents.

Q: Nights like this mean as much to those who support you the most as they do to you, I'd imagine. People who understand the sacrifice and have made sacrifices of their own to help you along the way.

GH: You could argue that it means more to them, to be totally honest with you. The support that I have at home in my new house now with my wife and obviously at my home house with my own parents, it's not lost on me and my three sisters and my brother. My sister just had a baby there recently as well, so there's a lot going on. And I'm so proud of the support that they give me. It means a lot to me that they go to all the matches and they're just massive Limerick hurling fans. Obviously growing up in our house, we're a sports-mad household. Obviously, my father played for Limerick and we always had a huge interest in the matches. When I was growing up Limerick obviously weren't as successful as I would have liked. The 2013 Munster Final was the only time I saw Limerick winning something. So it just must be an amazing time to be a Limerick supporter. And I can see that in my own family and friends. So, it's brilliant.

Q: Like the rest of the Limerick team this year you raised your level on the previous two years. What made the difference?

GH: I always find that a tough question. What was the difference? We didn't necessarily do a huge amount different. You know what I mean? I don't really know, to be totally honest with you. I don't actually have an answer for that question. But look, sometimes you need a little bit of luck. We got a decent chunk of luck along the way this year, in the semi-final and the Munster final. Some years, you know, unfortunately, 2024 and 2025 didn't go for us.

Obviously 2024 was a bit different. We were coming off the back of winning four in a row, going for the five in a row. And then you had 2025 coming back after our first setback in a long, long time, and that didn't go for us either. So, we came back this year, and, look, it's no secret a lot of us are on the other side of thirty now, and we're pushing on. I always approach every single game the same way. I always say to my mother and father, you know, every single final, or Munster final, or going to the awards night like this, that you might never be in another one of these.

You might never have another one of these. It might be the last Munster final you get to. It might be the last All-Ireland final you get to. It might be the last time you go to Croke Park. It might be the last time you go to an All-Stars award. So look, I love that mentality, because it frees you up a bit to enjoy it. Because it just puts that thought in your head, that look, if this is the last time, enjoy it to the fullest.

So that was kind of my mindset towards every single game this year. Hopefully, it isn't the last time we experience all those things I just listed out, but look, if it is, we enjoyed it brilliantly, and we've had a great time.

Q: Will it be easy to replicate it all over again next year, do you think?

GH: It won't be easy. No, it won't be easy, for sure, but that's the challenge, and that is something that I absolutely love. I love to compete. Everything I do, I play golf on a Wednesday afternoon every single week with a couple of my buddies, and it is contested as fiercely as any training session or any match I play with Limerick, put it that way.

I love to compete, and I love to put myself out there and put myself up against the best of what other counties have to offer and see how you get on. It's what I've always done growing up, it's what I loved to do when I was a kid, and I still love doing it, I still love competing, and I hope I never lose that fire that I have in me.

Q: As far as I know all of you have committed again for 2027. John Kiely, obviously, but all of the players too? That surely says something about the appetite still in the group?

GH: Yeah, it does, of course it does. You've answered your own question there. I'm delighted, because a lot of the time if somebody steps away, they might ring you maybe a day before it breaks, or the morning before it breaks, but we're not involved really in those decisions. Ok, after the All-Ireland when we're out having a couple of pints fellas are chatting to each other, wondering will everybody come back next year? I'd always be pretty confident everybody would come back, but you never really know until we go back training, and you're hoping that you don't hear any breaking news or anything like that, because you're not involved and you don't sit down with the other lads and actually go through whether you're going to be coming back this year.

Fellas go back to their real lives, they go back home, they talk to their wives, their girlfriends, their family, and that's how they make those big decisions. So, look, as you said yourself, it looks like everybody's coming back again next year, which they are, I'm almost certain. Obviously, John, Paul and the management team are locked in for another year, so it's brilliant.

It's going to be another tough year. Every single year is tough, but we love the challenge so bring it on.