LIMERICK’S LEAGUE CAMPAIGN was a mixed bag, with two wins, two defeats and a draw arriving from their five games.
It was always going to be difficult to top the 2020 season when they went unbeaten across pre-season, league and championship.
After failing to win any of their opening three games, they’ve started to motor in recent weeks and posted 0-33 and 3-26 in recent victories over Cork and Westmeath respectively.
Gearoid Hegarty feels John Kiely’s side are on the right track as the countdown begins to the Munster semi-final showdown with Cork on 3 July.
“I think it’s been a great league, being honest,” says Hegarty.
“We’ve had a couple of mixed results, but I think our performances have kind of been trending in the right direction. Realistically speaking, yes we’ve had a couple of losses, but that’s not always a terrible thing during the league.
“It’s not the worst thing in the world to have a loss that you can reflect on, and see where you went wrong, see what you can improve on.
“It’s not the worst thing to have a loss so early in the year, one that’s not going to have a huge impact on the championship going forward. It’s kind of nice to have a couple of key areas to identify and work on following a loss.”
He believes the Treaty are still on an upward trajectory and can surpass the heights they reached for their All-Ireland wins in 2018 and 2020.
“I think so, without a doubt. It’s nearly like a race, if you’re just trying to maintain your position you’ll be passed out. You’ve got to keep improving and stretching away. I do absolutely believe we have still a good bit of room for improvement.
“You look at our league performances so far this year, they’ve been a small bit inconsistent. We’ve had two losses and a couple of inconsistent performances here and there. So we do absolutely have massive room for improvement.”
He admitted Limerick took a look at their own tackling in the wake of the early rounds when they conceded a high free count. The All-Ireland champions shipped 32 points to frees in their first three games.
“We definitely looked at it after the first game or two that we were giving away too many frees, without a doubt. Look you can blame everybody bar yourself but at the end of the day we just had to look at ourselves.
“Realistically the majority of them were frees against us in the first two games and I know there were frustrations in the first couple of games in the league.
“But, realistically, when we went back and actually looked at it we’d always look at it on a Tuesday night after the game, we’d always reflect on the game that we’ve just played. Realistically the majority of them were frees.
“So the onus was on us to improve our tackling efficiency and I think we have done that very well over the last couple of games.”
A groin injury he picked up against Galway forced the 26-year-old to sit out the games against Waterford and Cork. He returned to action yesterday with a substitute appearance against Westmeath.
“I just took my time rehabbing it,” he explains. “In fairness the lads looked after me, making sure when I do come back, I was right.
“Because as you can imagine, if you go back too soon and then get another little knock, another two or three week injury, you’re nearly out of the first round of the championship. And it’s hard to get back into the team then. So that was it. It was nothing major.”
In the past, Deise star Austin Gleeson spoke about the pressure he put on himself in the seasons after his Hurler of the Year campaign.
Hegarty was aware that he may be more of a marked man in 2021 after landing the gong last winter. The St Patrick’s clubman will follow a similar routine to last season in order to get the best out of himself.
“That is something I would have had a conversation with Caroline [Currid] our sports psychologist in terms of just trying to replicate how I was feeling last year in terms of going into games,” he says.
“I was very laid back and I’ve spoken about how I wasn’t worrying about too much things, like say you didn’t get a good night’s sleep the night before a game or whatever. Just getting back into that mental state where you’re nice and relaxed going into a game.
“I feel like I’m still in that mindset so far. Obviously, championship hasn’t started yet and time will tell as to how we go this year. But honestly, it’s just focusing on what’s important.
“It’s about getting the most out of yourself in training on a Tuesday night and Friday night, making sure you’re looking after the gym side of things, your nutrition and sleep.
“Once all those boxes are ticked just forgetting about it until an hour or two before the game, just having the craic with the lads and trying to enjoy it as much.
“That’s what works for me, other things work for other players but that’s what I feel works best for me is just relaxing into the game and going from there. I talked in the past that I’m a very reflective person.
“I’d obviously have reflected on last year on what worked for me and what didn’t work for me. Obviously I’ll try keep onto what worked for me and try improve on a small few aspects as well. A work in progress. ”
The return of fans to games is a welcome development for the wing-forward and he’s hopeful bigger crowds can attend as the summer goes on.
“The sooner we get back to fans being at games the better. There were 22,500 people in Wembley yesterday watching England and Croatia.
“I know they are a small bit further down the line than we are. But I would hope that at minimum they go ahead with what is planned and maybe able to ramp it up a small bit.
“I don’t pay too much attention to it. There is so much negativity associated with it, you’re absolutely lynched if you have an opinion on these kind of things. But I would hope that the minimum is what they have proposed.
“As far as I know they are looking at full attendances in the later stages of the Euros, which is happening well before the later stages of the All-Ireland, so I would hope we can see decent attendances. I’m not expecting 82,000 people at an All-Ireland final in a couple of months but I would hope we can get decent attendances at games.”
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United are absolutely muck!!!
I agree, Daithi, and I’m a ManU fan. All that’s been holding them together was Ferguson. It’ll take a while to pick themselves up. Hope Van Gaal is given enough time!
Yeah, I think it’s a while off till they get themselves together!! Rooney was savagely bad!! Mata was poor. Evans, young, all were garbage!!
That’ll be two points dropped for Burnley come the end of season relegation battle. Bad result. Should be beating the likes of muck like United!
Poor result for Burnley. Need to be beating their relegation rivals at home to have a chance of staying up!
Burnley started very well against Chelsea a couple of weeks ago but were well beaten eventually – could well be something similar today. Anything less will be disastrous for Utd.
Noticed that Burnley’s starting 11 is entirely British – something very rare nowadays
I wouldn’t have Evans in my local pub team.
What’s worse is we let Pique go because we thought he was the next big thing!
Although you never know a prolonged run in the first team may see him come good.
Ah now, with all the money he has he’d surely pay for a few rounds
Pique was always going to end up back at barca
Pique was always going to end up back at barca
There’s an echo in here.
And United fans with the usual ‘welcome to the biggest club in the world’ deluded
Good chance for united to pick up 3 points against the team backed for relegation…but I still worry about the back 3 (jones, Evans and blackett) I think this game is a perfect chance for jutciewicz (sorry, I can’t spell it) and ings to prove themselves against a fairly lacklustre defense
Relegation 6 pointer !!!
Utd done very well to get the draw that’s 2 points in the bag WOW!!!!
Could be the point that saves United from relegation come next May.
A dreadful performance by Utd – as bad as anything that they produced last season. 2 pts from 3 games against the giants of Swansea, Sunderland and Burnley. Hard to see them finish in the Top 6, could be much lower than last season if they don’t cop on soon.
It’s early days yet but they’d want to get their shit in gear sharpish!
It would be plain stupid to play Evans again – after his dire performance against MK Dons.
Time for him to move on….
Great squad player!
Poor mans john o Shea he is. O Shea could play in goal
Yoda are you?
I have a wee theory about to United’s poor start to the season so far, which I have yet to see written anywhere (I’m open to correction).
Players who have been at United for years appear to be lacking in confidence, particularly central midfielders and defenders.
I reckon that boasting about having so much to spend on new players was bad enough, but the worst idea was identifying areas we need to strengthen and then not having them strengthened by the start of the season!
Everybody knows we need a proper central defensive midfielder like Keane was. Hence all the hype about Vidal. Everybody also knows the likes of Evans and Jones are prone to being rubbish so we need to strengthen there too, hence the hype about Blind, Rojo, and Shaw. Our wingers have been singled out as blunt instruments, hence the long running saga over DiMaria.
Such speculation must have an impact on the egos of the existing players. Imagine playing in any of these positions over these past few weeks, knowing that the club are actively trying to find a better player in your position! Your confidence would be shot, especially when you’re (by association) being partly blamed for the worst season United have had in ages!! Most of us agree that there is a lot of dead wood still at United, but I’m sure they know who they are too.
I reckon these kinds of big transfers should ideally be completed before the season starts and leave the time between gameweek 1 and Deadline Day to strengthen the squad!
True Man Utd players would relish the competition.
Does Ronaldo ever accept that anybody is better than him?
In any professional job the bottom 10percent of performers should always be moved on!
True class always finds another level, and manages to raise their game.
Time to get rid of the passengers at United and keep the winners!
I agree. But shouldn’t they be moved on before the season starts? I suppose the World Cup has had a big impact on Uniteds ability to do that this year…
Most definitely, a period if transition should be just that!
Vidic should have never been allowed to go before a high class centre back was found.
Your talking about a club that still hasn’t replaced Keane or Scholes!
Spot on. And they hail Carrick as the Messiah when all he can do is pass backwards!!
He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!
“They all”? Who? His kids,never heard anyone say that about carrick.
Mainly the English media in fairness. Christ lads, this is feckin desperate stuff.
Good result for united.
Sean Dyche has to go. Poor result for Burnley :):):)
Di Maria looking great so far. Utterly ridiculous decision by Real to offload him.
For 60 odd million, great business by Madrid. Good player in fairness but Madrid tend to make few mistakes when selling players. Remember the furore when they sold Ozil for 50 million. Probably worth 20 now
Pure muck how is Anderson still getting a game
Bring back Moyes.
Just not creating enough chances. A team like burnley shouldn’t be coping as easy as they are at the moment.
Come on. No offemcr but its burnley and we kept a clean sheet but when we cant find a goal with 4 world class attackers it has to be the tactics #352is532
Should’ve won that,more injuries too. So much for 6 easy games to start.
Did not see game, too early here in Canada for me…. No such thing as easy games I would guess these days. Watching Man City game though, when is a blatant penalty not a penalty for smaller clubs though? Right in front of Ref and assistant too…. Stoke robbed……
We had a peno claim too with a few to go,handball in the box,I’m not even sure what’s a ball to hand/hand ball is anymore.
3-1 Utd for me.
Burnley 3-1 Utd?
2 – 0 to Burnley.
ManU’s glory days will not recommence for some years.
It takes a while to completely rebuild a team.
The foundations of the last ones were home grown.
Buying random players on the market is a lot more difficult as – who knows if they’ll gel.
You forgot your “mid table team” gem.
So easy to cancel United out.
No leader(s) or class….
The most scary statistic from this morning is that diMaria cost more than every player that has ever played for Burnley in its 100+ year history added together. And by some margin.
Can’t believe West Ham signed Song from Barca…..he’d be perfect for Utd
If MU now have a lengthy injury list I feel a bit sorry for van Gaal, it’s been hard enough anyway. Now for red thumbs, come on the blues.
Looks like a Oreo for each player in the Sky Sports pic!