Limerick U21's three in a row team of 2000-2002

thesultan

Possibly the greatest underdevelopment of players at the time. Had loads of talent but very few became stars..
Mark keane was as good a minor as Eoin Kelly.
Shaugnessy was near that level.
Geary and lucey I thought would lead their seniors.
A few only made brief appearances.
Eugene Mulcahy played on Mullane in 03 wasn't seen much after.
Eoin Foley another who never pushed on.
Patrick Firby played senior , the same year as his leaving cert.
Was Dave Keane disregarded too soon?

Gael85

thesultan wrote: »

Possibly the greatest underdevelopment of players at the time. Had loads of talent but very few became stars..
Mark keane was as good a minor as Eoin Kelly.
Shaugnessy was near that level.
Geary and lucey I thought would lead their seniors.
A few only made brief appearances.
Eugene Mulcahy played on Mullane in 03 wasn't seen much after.
Eoin Foley another who never pushed on.
Patrick Firby played senior , the same year as his leaving cert.
Was Dave Keane disregarded too soon?

O'Shaughnessy won all star in 2007.He was diagnosed with MS a few years. Still think played a bit of club hurling with Killmallock.

thesultan

I know of shaugnessy.

Simo08

Good article on that group here - https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/sport/209423/Limerick-s-U-21-hurling-hat.html

Damien Reale was a real classy corner back.

As far as I remember Dave Keane was only given one year? Then Padjoe Whelehan came and went inside 18 months followed by Joe McKenna and Richie Bennis all before the Justin McCarthy spell in 2008. Seems like a lot of chopping and changing with a settled team never been found. A seriously wasted generation of hurlers.

Browney7

Simo08 wrote: »

Good article on that group here - https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/sport/209423/Limerick-s-U-21-hurling-hat.html

Damien Reale was a real classy corner back.

As far as I remember Dave Keane was only given one year? Then Padjoe Whelehan came and went inside 18 months followed by Joe McKenna and Richie Bennis all before the Justin McCarthy spell in 2008. Seems like a lot of chopping and changing with a settled team never been found. A seriously wasted generation of hurlers.

There was a bit of everything for why they never achieved their potential. A lack of senior players that had been there before was probably crucial aswell - Ollie Moran was possibly the only senior player that would have held his own in a top county.

In hindsight, other counties may have been week at that grade too - beat Wexford and Galway in finals as opposed to Kilkennys and Corks. Huge expectation put on their shoulders by a county that craved success and they possibly thought they were "great men" before they did anything of significance.

Closest they came to a breakthrough was probably at home to cork in 2004 (?) When Corcoran got a score on his knees. That was a very strong Cork team who were denied 3 in a row by the start of the most complete hurling team of winners we're ever likely to see.

Also, a lot of them were excellent footballers too who tried to burn the candle at both ends (some even went 100% football for a year or two)

thesultan

Lost to Waterford after a replay in 2003 , thought it was a great opportunity for them

Simo08

thesultan wrote: »

Lost to Waterford after a replay in 2003 , thought it was a great opportunity for them

Cracker of a game 4-13 a piece. Wasn't televised due to fire safety regulations, replay was v poor. Waterford won 1-12 to 0-13. Paul Flynn got 1-7. Both team struggled after that, Waterford lost Munster final to cork then beaten by Wexford. Limerick struggled past Kerry before Offaly beat them by 7 or 8 points. Limerick never really kicked on after that. They got Munster and all Ireland finals in 07 but lost both by big margins. Really thought 08 would be a big year for em but they went downhill badly under Richie Bennis and the disaster that was the Justin McCarthy era.

JohnGonne1

Simo08 wrote: »

thesultan wrote: »

Lost to Waterford after a replay in 2003 , thought it was a great opportunity for them

Cracker of a game 4-13 a piece. Wasn't televised due to fire safety regulations, replay was v poor.  Waterford won 1-12 to 0-13. Paul Flynn got 1-7. Both team struggled after that, Waterford lost Munster final to cork then beaten by Wexford. Limerick struggled past Kerry before Offaly beat them by 7 or 8 points. Limerick never really kicked on after that. They got Munster and all Ireland finals in 07 but lost both by big margins. Really thought 08 would be a big year for em but they went downhill badly under Richie Bennis and the disaster that was the Justin McCarthy era.

I saw that Waterford game in Thurles - Shaughnessy scored an absolute brilliant goal, ball out to the corner, got there first, flicked the ball back over his markers head, went around him, cut in along the endline, and an absolute bullet into the goal. Some goal for an 18 year old!
I take the points above - perhaps it wasn't the most competitive period in that grade at that time, but they were a great team, and it's a real pity that the County Board didn't put in a strong management structure to coach them and bring them forward - by 2009, they were all gone, which would have been 27/28 years old

Speakerboxx

they were a fine hurling team. it was a real pity they didn't go on to win an All Ireland senior after that. But sometimes it can be very difficult to transfer success from underage level to senior level.

Mehapoy

It was funny, after 94-96 there was little coming through until that 3 in a row team but if anything Limerick went downhill even more after it and were arguably passed out by Clare and Waterford in Munster,
few reasons why, I think hurling players preparations, etc took a huge step forward from 98 onwards and Limerick were left behind,
The 3 teams had a lot of average to good players but very few real stars so there was maybe 20 players of similar ability, it became a conveyor belt of lads coming in and out of the team without any time to settle.
Many of the players themselves thought they had made it and were not putting in the work to make it as senior inter county players
In hindsight alot of the players blown up were not that good, for instance never done anything at minor level but we're well prepared at u21 which allowed them to look good

thesultan

One could say that the Limerick under 21 football team of that period and those you transferred to senior level had far better professional.

Hurling Rankings

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BOSTIK

HR,

That post is a great read.

I think Limerick harvested some decent backs from that group of players, Geary especially who was an unvarnished gem at centre back.

Interestingly Tipperary had similar experiences after winning an u21 3 in a row between 1979-81, when many players were expected to immediately swim at senior. By the time we eventually did break through in 1989 few enough of them were left, though 3 of them did form a formidable full forward line for a while.