Back at Croke Park but not in green, nor can Declan Hannon even call himself a Limerick player any more.
He lives in Dublin, most of the time, so the trip to GAA headquarters to promote the upcoming Club Summit on February 7th is a relatively short hop. It brings back conflicting memories, of all the All-Ireland wins there when he was captain and the ones that got away too.
Looking out the window he can see the pitch where it all ended for him last June, with defeat to Dublin. Hannon came on with a little under 20 minutes to go, the scores tied at 0-18 apiece. A man up, few could imagine a world where Limerick weren’t looking ahead that evening to an All-Ireland semi-final.
They lost, of course, and Hannon retired a few months later. The circus starts all over again this weekend, albeit without Limerick who are on a bye weekend for the opening round of the league.
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Hannon is looking forward to watching the games, any game.
“It’s funny, it’s only when you stop playing, I’ve found anyway, that you have way more of a grá to go and watch matches,” he says. “When you’re playing, you’re kind of five nights a week at it. You’re so consumed by training and matches that you want a break from it.”
Even if he hadn’t retired, Limerick’s five-time All-Ireland winning captain would be on a watching brief now anyhow.
“I actually tore my PCL, which is the back of your knee, in a club game, after the intercounty season,” he explains. “That’s a slow recovery now at the minute but other than that, I’m pretty much okay.”
Along with Hannon, Séamus Flanagan and Shane Dowling will also be absent from the Limerick dressing room this season. The pair were released from the panel along with Jason Gillane, Micheal Houlihan, Fergal O’Connor and Cian Scully. Colin Ryan, who regained the All-Ireland Poc Fada title on the Cooley Peninsula last August, has come in the door as a goalkeeper and started last Saturday’s Munster Hurling League final win over Waterford.
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It was a largely experimental line-up containing a number of players who will be on Fitzgibbon Cup duty in coming days. UL face DCU on Wednesday, a repeat of last season’s final, in the final round of group games. Elsewhere, Mary I will play ATU Galway. John Kiely will have eyes and ears reporting from both games.
“There’s a fair share of Limerick lads involved,” says Hannon.
He doesn’t view it as any sort of transition period though and expects a crew of established players to lead the fight again for league and championship success in 2026.
He is thinking of Cian Lynch for starters, the man who replaced him as captain early last year.
“Not a bother on him,” enthuses Hannon of Lynch as captain. “It won’t weigh heavily on him anyway, that’s for sure. And he’s loads of experience, he would have captained other teams down the years as well. So absolutely, not a bother on him. Hopefully we’ll see him lifting a few trophies this year.”
Even after two barren seasons, in All-Ireland terms, Limerick are still joint favourites to regain the MacCarthy Cup.
“I can imagine they’ll probably look to give the league a good rattle,” says Hannon. “Last year, the league was disappointing from us. I think we only won two games. We drew one and lost the remainder. That was a disappointing league. I think it’s important to have a strong league, even for lads to put their hands up and maybe try to get their place cemented for the championship.”
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Hannon himself reckons he’s come to terms with retirement. He started a new role in work over winter which has kept him busy.
“That’s between Limerick and Dublin so I’m probably in Dublin about 80 per cent of the time,” he says.
There’s been no shortage of coaching requests presumably from teams around the capital?
“A few all right,” smiles the Adare man. “I think I’d be a bad coach! My brother ran a camp for the club there during the summer. He asked me would I come and help out. I was brutal! Oh God, I don’t know if it’s for me. But it’s great to give back to the underage, especially in the club. Just to try to keep them involved. That’s a massive thing because there’s a lot of drop-off when it gets to kind of under-16s, minors.”
And Limerick for Liam?
“I’ll be interested to see how they bounce back, and every faith that they will,” says Hannon.
