“Listen to the roar, now,” said Marty Morrissey in the 57th minute of his RTÉ television commentary on the All-Ireland semi-final between Limerick and Galway.
He was referring to the introduction from the bench of the Hurler of the Year, Cian Lynch, 10 weeks after he had been forced off the pitch with a serious hamstring injury.
His return and that of Peter Casey, who tore a cruciate in last year’s All-Ireland final against Cork, emphasised the room for improvement on the Limerick panel, as they homed in on this year’s final.
Speaking at the county’s All-Ireland media event, Lynch talked about the quarter of an hour or so that marked his comeback from the injury that forced him off the pitch just 11 minutes into the Munster championship match against Waterford.
“Good to be back in contention, to get a few minutes [in the semi-final] was huge. Getting through it and getting the win was huge as well. I was delighted.”
It’s such a treacherous injury that working out when it is safe to resume can be perilous and time-consuming. Lynch’s impatience was also surfacing pretty quickly.
“After a week, I was mad for road but you have to be patient and get it right. The medical team and backroom staff were trying to get it right and to get me fully ready to go. Testing it going into a match — that’s when you really know how it’ll fare out and thank God I got through it.”
He also accepts that he wasn’t the best of patients when asked had Limerick’s matches in his enforced absence been a hard watch.
“Initially it was. The first game after the injury was hard. I wouldn’t be used to not being togged out and getting ready to go, but we’re such a tight-knit group, you still feel part of it.
“As the games went on, you want to keep pushing lads whether that’s through talking to them in the dressingroom or talking on the sideline. You just take opportunities to try something else, to get in the lads’ ears, giving them some advice.”
The sight of your leading player in dry dock for 10 weeks can’t have been an easy watch for manager John Kiely, either.
Lynch’s form last year was phenomenal. Skipping around the field from a nominal position at centre forward, his speed of thought and magical touch was the orchestration behind Limerick’s best performances.
After the 2021 final destruction of Cork, Irish Times hurling analyst and former Tipperary great Nick English summed up his season after a Man of the Match display.
“He was exceptional, scoring 0-6 from play and giving two beautiful passes for the Hegarty goals. His touch, awareness and bravery make him a phenomenal hurler.
“He’s only 25 but he has three All-Ireland medals and is on course to become one of the greatest hurlers ever seen, fulfilling the immense promise he’s shown all the way up through his Fitzgibbon Cup days with Mary I.
“Yesterday he was conducting the orchestra, running the show. When they have been under real pressure this year and particularly in the first half of the Munster final against Tipperary, when the ship was in danger of running aground, he was the one who kept it off the rocks. Hurler of the Year — without a shadow of a doubt.”
The injury might have helped enforce some downtime after a hectic start to this year. Lynch was pursuing a master’s degree in NUI Galway and helping them in the Fitzgibbon Cup.
A controversial decision to send him off three minutes from time in February’s final looked unlikely to derail the Galway college, who were leading by four at the time of the red card but in Lynch’s absence they conceded 1-4 to lose the title to University of Limerick.
The red card was challenged and rescinded but there was no way of restoring the Fitzgibbon to his team.
He was back in championship action this April when Limerick opened their Munster schedule with a rerun of last year’s All-Ireland final against Cork. A powerful display rapidly contextualised a disappointing league.
It was the second match in the campaign that threatened to jeopardise his championship. Early in Limerick’s first home match, against Waterford — then seen as their biggest rivals — the hamstring went. Did he grasp immediately the gravity of the situation?
“It felt sore enough and it was something you couldn’t really get up and walk off. You could guess that it was something you could do more damage with. The medical team and backroom team worked on it, I did the rehab and got through the few weeks.
“When you’re looking at an injury, you don’t want to make it worse or prolong it. That was the main thing — if you came back too early you were extending the rehab time further. It was about being patient.”
