Gearoid Hegarty has admitted he was “embarrassed” by the nature and consequence of the straight red card he was shown in Limerick’s second round defeat to Galway in the Allianz Hurling League, played in front of a home crowd and the LIT Gaelic Grounds last February.
It was Limerick’s second successive defeat of an ultimately unsuccessful league campaign, Hegarty sent off 10 minutes into the second after flicking his hurl at a Galway opponent in the aftermath of an ugly sideline scuffle.
With Limerick reduced to 14 men, Galway made the All-Ireland champions pay with seven unanswered points in the last ten minutes, winning 0-27 to Limerick's 1-18, their first home league defeat since Cork beat them there in February 2019.
Speaking on Monday as an ambassador for hurling championship sponsors Bord Gáis Energy, the Limerick forward openly admitted his regret and the lasting lesson he intends to make of it.
“Definitely, talking from my own sense, sure it was stupid,” said Hegarty. I was embarrassed. It’s a horrible feeling, I never got sent off before, a straight red, definitely not with Limerick anyway.
“You know, we were in the game at the time, and I felt like I was hurling really well, then I went off around 45 minutes, had to watch the last 25 minutes, knowing you’re after leaving your team mates down, everyone that’s after coming in to watch the game, my family, it’s just awkward, you don’t even want to go home and look them in the eye after doing something so stupid.
“And you do take great learnings from these things, and sometimes it’s nice if it happens in the league. It would be much worse if it happened in the championship.”
Limerick begin the defence of the Munster and All-Ireland titles on Sunday with a trip Pairc Ui Chaoimh to face Cork, a replay of their convincing All-Ireland win, and also a recent league clash. Hegarty was suspended for that game, which Cork won, and that’s likely to be a factor on Sunday too.
“We analyse every game after, no matter who. We’ve had a couple of interesting post-match analyses this year, the league hasn’t been super. Within the league, going from game to game, you don’t have much time to reflect on it. We didn’t have the best league, obviously, but looking back now, and looking forward to the championship, I actually think it was a brilliant league for us, you often hear the quote you learn a lot more in defeat than victory, and the amount of learning we’ve taken over the last few months or so, has been a lot.
“So I think we’re in a great place, to be honest, sometimes you do need a couple of losses to get back on the straight and narrow. It’s always strange this time of year, you never really know where you are until the real stuff kicks-off.
Hegarty also admitted to being in the best hurling shape of his life heading into Sunday’s game: “Yeah, I feel great. Last year going into the championship, I’d missed a good chunk of the league with a groin injury, kept me out for five or six weeks, and only had two or three weeks under my belt going into the championship. I’ve had a full pre-season, we’ve been back since January 2nd and I haven’t missed a training session. Feeling really good and can’t wait to get going.”
To mark the start of the championship this weekend, Bord Gáis Energy is launching The Gift of the GAAB, the search for Ireland’s most Hurling To The Core pundit from the army of fans who follow their counties’ fortunes through thick and thin.
