Shane O’Brien feels the hurt of last year’s All-Ireland SHC exit can help fuel Limerick in 2025.
John Kiely’s side were beaten by Cork in an epic semi-final last July – ending their ambitions of becoming the first team to achieve five All-Ireland senior hurling titles in a row.
But O’Brien believes the group can use the pain of that loss to navigate a path back to hurling’s summit this season.
“Yeah, definitely it’s something players will tap into over the next few months,” he says.
“There was obviously huge disappointment in the dressingroom, just from our own performance. We were clearly beaten by a better Cork team on the day and it’s something that I think we’ll try to rectify in the next couple of months and hopefully come back and go a few steps further than last year.”
Their task has been made significantly more challenging following the loss of goalkeeper Nickie Quaid, who suffered a cruciate knee ligament tear in November.
The battle for the number one jersey is now between Jason Gillane, Conor Hanley Clarke and the recently recalled former Limerick forward Shane Dowling, who has reinvented himself as a goalkeeper with his club Na Piarsaigh.
O’Brien played alongside Gillane, brother of Aaron, on Mary Immaculate College’s Fitzgibbon Cup winning side last year.
“It’s obviously devastating for Nickie himself. He’s a tremendous goalie and he adds huge value to the group,” he says.
“Nickie was in the gym (on Tuesday night), he’s going to put his all towards the rehab, as would any outfield player who’s done their cruciate. I presume Nickie probably has some goal in his own head (about when he) wants to get back.
“The three boys will battle away now, whoever comes out on top, I’m sure they’ll be great for the team, the three of them are quality goalkeepers.”
The emergence of O’Brien was one of the genuine positives for Limerick last season. He made his first championship start in the Munster final aged 19, scoring two points and delivering an impressive performance.
Having supported the team from the stands when Limerick made their breakthrough in 2018, O’Brien is now part of the revolution.
“When you’re watching the lads for the last four or five years playing those Munster finals, from a younger age, it’s kind of surreal that you’re now going to be playing with those same fellas.
“You were watching them as a fan, getting their signatures when they came to Kilmallock with the cup and stuff, I was 13 or 14, and you’re getting their signatures on your hurley and you’re looking up to them in awe. Then five or six years later you’re playing with them.”
In particular, he recalls Aaron Gillane doing work placement in Ardscoil Rís.
“I remember Aaron used to be collecting our journals on a Friday and you were looking up to him thinking, ‘Jesus, this is Aaron here.’
“There was a post on Instagram, by one of my old teachers, of myself and Aaron after the Munster final. He just said, ‘Jesus, it’s a long time since he was collecting your journal up in the library in first year.’ It’s definitely cool.”
*O’Brien will be playing for Mary I in this year’s Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup.
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