'TOO MUCH OF MY TIME WAS SPENT ON HURLING' - GEARóID HEGARTY ON FINDING HIS FLOW

WHEN THE MUNSTER FINAL was in turmoil, hissing and spitting flames, there was ice inside the helmet of Gearóid Hegarty.

In the long line of street hurlers and tricksters to decorate the game’s history, the image in the popular imagination of the knacky, wristy hurler is the more compact figure. A Ring. A Deane. A Carey. A McFetridge.

Men like Hegarty aren’t thought of in the same way, but he produced a delicate tap from the ground up into his hand that produced wizardry that would send the needle of The Cian Lynch Scale into the red.

“I would have played a bit of football for Limerick in my teens, but hurling has always… I have had a hurley in my hand since I was… there’s pictures of me as a baby with a hurl in my hand. Since as long as I can remember. It’s always been my favourite sport,” says Hegarty.

“Even to this day, when I go for a walk with the dogs (two Golden Retrievers), I bring my hurley with me. I can always practise a few flicks and tricks along the way. That’s the way I am, that’s the way I play.”

In a month’s time he will be celebrating his 30th birthday and his peak has coincided with the peak of the greatest team that hurling may have ever seen. A fifth consecutive Liam MacCarthy would confirm it. In the meantime, they have Cork to get past in Sunday’s semi-final.

After being omitted from the All-Stars long list last year, Hegarty is playing as well as ever. The Munster round-robin sequence brought 0-9 across four games and his spectacular 1-2 in the Munster final yielded the Man of the Match award.

His goal, a daisy-cutter of a ground pull that caught Clare goalkeeper Eibhear Quilligan cold, followed by a monstrous drive from downtown, and his first a brave swing from the sideline, all were standout scores.

“I would have been happy enough about my Munster final performance, but I wasn’t ecstatic. I am always not satisfied with the games I play,” he says.

“Looking back, there were always opportunities to get on more ball. To support a fella off the shoulder. I am never happy, to be honest. Never satisfied with how a game has gone.

“I will always feel that there was a little bit more in me, in certain elements. It’s a good mindset to be in, I am always trying to see what I can get out of a game.”

After the win, some Limerick players said that despite this being their sixth consecutive Munster title, it felt as fresh as their first.

Their determination to stay in the moment and live out the present feels like another asset they have.

“In Thurles you get dropped away from the stadium and have to walk in through the crowds,” he says.

The last day, there were thousands of fans lining the walk from the stadium to the dressing rooms to cheer in their heroes. It almost borders on daunting for Hegarty.

“Sometimes when you are nervous on the bus, you are looking at lads having a pint in their hand, you’d think, ’Jesus, I’d nearly prefer to be with them than us.’

“But it’s just nerves. I wonder what it would be like to watch these games from the stands. But when you go out there, go through your warm-up before the game, sometimes you think you would love to be a fly on the wall and watching it.”

Wherever he goes, in or outside of Limerick, he is asked about the potential of the five-in-a-row.

Some feel that at a time when they might need an emotional crutch most, it is no longer there since their high-profile sports psychologist Caroline Currid left the set-up last October.

While Hegarty insists she is not involved in any capacity, she has left a legacy.

“The biggest compliment I could pay her is that we have not missed her, because of all the work she has done with us over the years,” he says.

“She has done so much work that we are a completely different team to the team she came into.”

Years back, Hegarty had spoken of using visualisation techniques in order to perform on the big days, specifically the 2018 All Ireland semi-final.

It’s not something he does any more. He knows the benefits, but he doesn’t reach for it. Likewise when he is asked about the business-speak jargon KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), he isn’t all that fussed.

Experience, growing up, and maturing are his great tutors now. Building a house has been a great distraction, as has establishing his career as a teacher.

Staying injury-free has also been a great help.

“As you get older, the small things don’t bother me as they did before. I have definitely relaxed over the years. I think Covid was a massive thing I think to be honest with you, in terms of seeing the bigger picture,” he says.

“I know it’s a cliché, but you could relax and there is a lot more to life outside of hurling. That’s certainly something that I have gotten better at over the last couple of years. I was probably too much focussed. Too much of my time was spent on hurling, even when I wasn’t at training or wasn’t at matches. Everything was geared towards hurling.

“Whereas, when you get older, it’s not that it ‘gets in the way’, but hurling is so, so important. A lot of things that would be on your mind, hurling would take them off your mind.”

Sunday is heading for a Croke Park sell-out. Hurling, Cork hurling, will be on his mind then.

2024-07-02T22:04:05Z dg43tfdfdgfd