It was an unusually themed postseason appointment for Dan Morrissey.
For the past four years, he and his Limerick team-mates have been accustomed to lapping up the plaudits after claiming an All-Ireland title.
Instead, the county had to watch as neighbours and keen rivals over the past couple of years, Clare, carried off the Liam MacCarthy.
At Thursday’s Croke Park promotion for the GAA’s mental health partnership with the Samaritans, he appeared to lay one anxiety to rest when asked would five-time All-Ireland winning manager John Kiely be staying on for a ninth year.
“Yeah, that’s my understanding. I haven’t heard anything different. I hope it is the same management team and backroom team again. We haven’t been told anything different so I presume it will be.”
Limerick’s year, which had opened with hopes high of a first hurling five-in-a-row, concluded when Cork pipped them the All-Ireland semi-final, having already beaten them in the round-robin match in Munster.
The margins were thin in both contests and Morrissey hasn’t had the heart to review July’s semi-final defeat.
“I haven’t watched the game back and I don’t think I will. It was a tough few weeks, yeah, especially watching the final and not knowing who you’d rather see win. And especially when I suppose we’ve been so used to playing in the final for the past few years.
“Look, life goes on, there’s a new season to come. Try to learn from the mistakes we made this year. Things we can improve on.”
A reflective player, 31 this year, who is an accountant and tax adviser with drinks group C & C, he accepts that narrow margins rarely fall in the same direction all the time.
“When you go through the last few years, some of the games that we played we’ve been very lucky to come out the right side. Last year’s Munster championship, we were a puck of a ball away in two games from being knocked out.
“Sometimes the luck is on your side. This year, maybe that bit of luck just wasn’t on our side. We had a couple of wides, missed a couple of goal chances – other days, they might have gone in. At this level it is such small margins. Literally just one per cent margins. Maybe Cork just got them that day against us.”
Had they not lost to Kilkenny in 2019, they might have been celebrating a sixth successive title last year rather than a fourth.
“You’d always have some regrets, no matter what year you lose or you don’t win an All-Ireland. We still look back to 2019 with regrets. You want to win an All-Ireland every year whether it’s going for one-in-a-row, three-in-a-row, or five-in-a-row.”
In the initial top-table discussion with the GAA’s community and health manager, Colin Regan, he spoke about the importance of having interests outside of hurling and acknowledged that the broadening of his interests as he has become older has contributed to his excellent form in recent years – he has been an All Star in two of the recent four All-Ireland wins – because there is something more than hurling in his life.
“Yeah, I think it definitely does help. I know when I first broke into the panel, I was putting myself under awful pressure. Every single training session you were treating nearly as an All-Ireland final. You were making sure you weren’t going to be dropped if they were cutting the panel. You wanted to try to force your way into a 26 and then into a 15.
“When you’ve been on the panel for a number of years you can maybe be that more relaxed which brings out a better performance in you.”
It must have been strange to watch Clare win this year’s All-Ireland after Limerick had beaten them twice and by a comfortable six-point margin in the Munster final.
“It was and it wasn’t. There’s very, very little between the top five or six teams. I know we were probably on top for a few years but some of the games we played were very close.
“To play eight games at a consistent level is a very hard thing to do. There are going to be dips. Clare maybe had a bit of a dip against us in the Munster final so it’s really just about timing your run, I suppose.”
Nothing was going to keep him from attending the final, though, and maintaining an impressive sequence.
“I haven’t missed an All-Ireland final since 1999 when my Dad brought me to my first one when I was six. I go up every year and have obviously been lucky enough to play in a few of them.
“When we lost to Cork I was humming and hawing whether I would go to the final. I just said I wanted to keep that record going, especially the fact that 2020 was behind closed doors so there are very few people who could have said they were here in 2020.
“I’d say I’m one of the few people in the country who have been to – I think this was my 25th or 26th in a row plus replays – around 29 hurling All-Irelands in a row.”
Consolation in a disappointing year.
♦ Dan Morrissey was speaking at the launch of the 10th anniversary of the GAA’s association with mental health partners, Samaritans Ireland, in Croke Park on Thursday.
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