Tighter roster has Lucey primed

All-Ireland SHC Final Countdown:Once he was the most enthusiastic dual player in the country, lining out for about a dozen teams in 2001.

When Limerick decided to force players to make a choice in 2004, Stephen Lucey resented the ultimatum and protested his ability to play both games but, like many dual players before him, he eventually discovered it wasn't realistic.

At the beginning of last year he resigned himself to the incompatibility of football, hurling and his career as a junior doctor.

"I was doing paediatrics at the time and was on call one in four nights so you wouldn't get much sleep because you were the only one for casualty and the wards.

"You'd miss a night's training, you'd miss a night's sleep and you'd go training the next night and you wouldn't be fit to move. You'd be absolutely shagged - you couldn't do the running.

"After six or seven weeks in February I just couldn't do it any more. We had a great five or six years with Liam Kearns at under-21 and senior and it's definitely a huge regret that that group of players didn't achieve a Munster (senior) title."

His father, Mick, had been a noted rugby player with UCC and Cork Constitution but hurling had a practical appeal: "The hurling pitch is 500 yards away, which is shorter than heading off down the road to Garryowen."

At school in Roscrea although he played rugby he also struck up a friendship with Paddy O'Brien of Toomevara and later Tipperary and the two of them pucked around, keeping the young Lucey supplied with hurling.

A full back for most of his years, he was deployed at centrefield for his two years - 2000 and 2001 - as part of the famous three-in-a-row under-21 All-Irelands and also played there at times for UCD.

At the same time a senior career that started alarmingly at corner back against Cork in 2000 - when Lucey came up against the All Star Seánie McGrath in his pomp - missed out on the good year of 2001 and proceeded through what has been until this season a troubled decade for Limerick hurling that saw managers come and go at the rate of one a year.

Richie Bennis stepped in after the meltdown in Ennis in 2006, a 17-point defeat by Clare, followed by manager Joe McKenna's departure. Lucey believes the problems had started earlier when a promising National League final appearance turned to dust in the first round against Tipperary.

"People talk about the defeat in Ennis but I go farther back to the match in Tipperary, which destroyed us last year. You doubt yourself but you pick yourself back up again. You can't be hung up on under-21s. That seems a lifetime ago now and we've got to perform at senior level."

He says one of Bennis's biggest contributions has been to raise confidence: "Even when he's telling a fella where he's going wrong and criticising him he does qualify it by saying, 'I'm not getting at you here. I'm just calling a spade a spade - this is what you're doing wrong, will you do it right,' and that's a nice way of delivering a message."

Lucey accepts the silverware shower at underage little prepared him or his team-mates for the bleak years that followed.

"There were times when you'd think 'what are we at here?', especially in some of the defeats we suffered down through the years, some of the bad ones, especially in Clare last year. 'What are we playing at?'"

An All-Ireland final against Kilkenny is a symmetrical end to the season. The counties' National League fixture marked a low point of the early season but also a turning point for Limerick.

"We went down to Kilkenny and we weren't mentally prepared. They gave us a trimming that day and were very sharp. But I don't think Kilkenny players can afford not to be on their game because of the pressure for places. Richie tore into us after the match, said we'd want to make our mind up over what we wanted to do this year. Things came together after that."

Stephen Lucey

Age: 27

Height: 6ft 2in

Weight: 14st 2lbs

Club: Croom

Honours: 2 All-Ireland Under-21 HC (2000 and 2001), 2 Munster Under-21 HC (2000 and 2001), 1 Munster Under-21 FC (2000), 1 Fitzgibbon Cup with UCD (2001).