Limerick’s Diarmaid Byrnes is currently neck-and-neck with Tony Kelly in the Hurler of the Year stakes. Unusually for a wing back he even engaged the Clare phenomenon in a shoot-out when the counties met a couple of weeks back, not surprisingly coming second best but still registering 0-9, eight from placed balls compared to the Banner hero’s stats of 0-16 and 11.
The neighbouring rivals played out a dramatic draw in Cusack Park, setting the stage for next week’s Munster final, a sold-out rematch in Thurles. Byrnes, speaking having received the PwC GAA-GPA Player of the Month award for April, was impressed by the atmosphere in Ennis.
“It was electric – it’s real tight down there and before the match the speakers were blaring; there was music; it was a real championship feel to it. We’ve played in a lot of packed houses, I suppose. Down in Cork it was close to full, in the Gaelic Grounds both days it was close to full but down in Ennis they’re really in on top of you. I really enjoy it to be honest.”
Since Limerick’s return to the top table, Byrnes has been a useful scoring option, taking long-range frees, but this season he has supplemented that talent with some massive points from play.
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“If the opportunity presents itself, you’re going to have a pop if you’re in the right zone,” he says, “and if you feel confident. I’m very fortunate to have lads around me [and] that I have been on the receiving end of a good few passes and that has helped me as well.”
His dynamism shored them up in the early stages of the first championship match against Cork, steadying the champions for launching the onslaught that followed to which he contributed six points. He followed that up with another six in the defeat of Waterford.
For the month of April, he scored 0-12, eight from play. Now he’s contemplating a fourth successive provincial title and looking forward to the full-on experience after two lockdown finals with no – or a much-reduced – attendance.
“It’s an opportunity to put another Munster medal in the back pocket. It’s 70 minutes of hurling and these things are there to be enjoyed really. I have a week and a bit and whether it be conversation at home with my parents or family, friends – you can see the atmosphere building and it’s something I’ll enjoy for the next week or so.”
By now, the listless league campaign with which Limerick opened their 2022 season has been forgotten but not the lessons it provided.
“We took a lot of learnings from the league. We had a bit of a chance, while the semi-finals and final were on, to work on things for the championship. We played a couple of super-competitive games, came out the wrong end of them result-wise but we could take learnings from them and I think we have done so [for] the last few championship games.”
He makes no secret of the fact that he enjoys downtime as well as the pursuit of sporting success even if he jokes about “chilling” by going to Thurles last weekend to take in the Limerick under-20s’ narrow defeat by Kilkenny in the All-Ireland final.
“I have to go to work next Monday to Friday [he works with AIB]. I have a Bank Holiday on the Monday of the following week after the Munster final. I’m back into work on the Tuesday so it [hurling] isn’t the be-all and end-all.
“It’s really enjoyable. I love what I do – don’t get me wrong and very fortunate to be part of it but, yeah, when you get time to chill out, to be relaxed, to be with friends and family, that’s important also.”
When asked if he follows the example of team-mate Gearóid Hegarty, who listens to high-performance podcasts to see “can he get an edge,” Byrnes is amused.
“I couldn’t think of anything worse to be honest! Listening to podcasts or radio. I don’t really like social media. I’m on Twitter, on Instagram, would be scrolling away but I don’t really pass much heed to anything I see. Podcasts, reading books – I’d prefer to get out and go for a walk to be honest.”
He does go home on the weekend of matches but his family know to steer clear of the “elephant in the room”.
He doesn’t particularly want to talk about the challenge of having to spend four idle weeks if Limerick win the Munster final, partly on the grounds that it could sound presumptuous, but when asked did the break affect them in 2019, coming as it did before what remains their only All-Ireland defeat since 2017 he responded.
“That day we lost by a point and there was a bit of a thing at the end of the game but if we ended up winning it we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.
“There is a bit of a gap there but if anything, it gives you a chance to work on things and if you had niggles, it gives lads a chance to come back on the field so there are pros and cons.”
* The other April winners were Miriam Walsh (Kilkenny) for camogie, Michelle Guckian (Leitrim) and Paul Conroy (Galway) for football.
