Golden balls: Limerick hurlers gave everything they had during and after All-Ireland final
THE scenes in Croke Park on Saturday when Tyrone players went over to their supporters was like déjà vu for Limerick fans apart from the white jerseys and red shorts.
Three weeks earlier the All-Ireland hurling champions did a lap of honour too. It is not unusual for Limerick players to stay on the field long after the final whistle to sign autographs and pose for photos. This wasn’t possible in Croke Park due to Covid and the strange meshing stewards put up.
But after giving their all on the pitch they still wanted to give more back to fans lucky enough to be in Croker. This photo captures Kyle Hayes throwing sliotars into the crowd. He was one of many players to give a priceless memento from the day.
Ger O’Connell, kitman, left Limerick with two holdall bags full of sliotars that morning. He arrived back in Pallasgreen with a lot less.
“I had between 300 and 400 sliotars going up. When they run onto the field for the warm-up you lose between 30 to 40 straight away. They go into the crowd and won’t come back. After the warm up finishes they are picked up and collected and taken back to the sideline,” explained Ger.
Those sliotars can’t be bought in shops. They are ordered through the respective county boards. And a new order will have to be put in by Limerick.
“When the final whistle blew it was just an outpouring of emotion. All ages came down to the side of the pitch. They wanted something to take home as a memento. The bag of sliotars was there. Young fellows are always looking for sliotars. It took off from that and the lads started throwing them into the crowd. You hate to say no to them. Socks were even thrown in!” smiled Ger.
Once a holdall was empty, county secretary Mike O’Riordan gave the order to get the second bag which was in the dressing room. Kyle Hayes, William O’Donoghue, Dan and Tom Morrissey, and more weren’t long emptying it.
“It just took off. It was nice to see it,” said Ger.
One man who might not be too happy is Nickie Quaid. In a piece in the Irish Examiner he revealed that he is so paranoid about sliotars that he spends a couple of weeks before a big game “storing good sliotars away like a squirrel would set aside their best nuts”.
And the man tasked with minding those “nuts” is Ger.
“The first bag I sort out and put on the van is Nickie’s. He likes ones with narrow rims. Nickie’s sliotars are precious. A good few of them were saved so I’ll have them when we start back again,” said Ger.
Few witness Ger arriving in his van first to get ready for the players training on a winter’s night in Rathkeale or LIT Gaelic Grounds.
But the glory days like August 22 in Croke Park don’t happen without him or his kind.