Seán O’Dea doesn’t have to ponder long when asked as to when Limerick football actually bottomed out.
The relative highs of regularly reaching Munster finals, at least one of which should have been won, between 2003 and ‘10 then an All-Ireland quarter-final in 2011 were well in the rear view mirror by 2018, when Limerick were in their second year back in Division Four.
After three games they had only one point - from a draw with London - as they went to Carrick-on-Shannon to face Leitrim in round four.
The home side ran out easy 12-point victors.
“Now Leitrim were steadily improving at the time,” says O’Dea, “I think they went up the following year but it just felt like it wasn’t even close and the scoreline might even have flattered us like.
“Coming back from Carrick-on-Shannon, I was going to Dublin at the time so thankfully I wasn’t on that bus journey but I heard it was one of the (quietest buses).
“Having said that, that was a case of, ‘Let’s put this League behind us and let’s have a go come Championship’. That’s how your attitude is.”
An actuary for Irish Life, O’Dea has been based in Dublin for much of his career but thoughts of packing in playing for a struggling Division Four outfit were never entertained.
“When you’re around 23, you’re too stubborn to think otherwise. The thought never came into my head about leaving. Maybe if I was a bit older it might have but in my head I still had a lot more of my career to play rather than I was coming to an end, I suppose.
“It never really seemed like a decision back then. People would be asking you obviously, ‘Are you spending your time right?’
“There was never anything else to it, I just wanted to play. I was very competitive, I always felt that next year could be better.
“There’s a kind of core group of players who have played through those hard times and there were players around that time who decided not to play.
“There were very understandable reasons, lads were 21 or 22 and they want to travel or they want to put everything into their final year of college and those are absolutely valid reasons for taking a year out or whatever but, for me, it was never really a decision. I just wanted to try and get better.”
In 2018, manager Billy Lee told of how he lost 18 players from the previous year’s panel and a further 53 turned down an invitation to come on board for that campaign.
But he has slowly built the squad up, with getting out of Division Four in 2020 the first significant milestone. They contended for promotion from Division Three last year and completed the job this spring before reaching a first Munster final in 12 years as they face Kerry in Killarney on Saturday.
Lee doesn’t have to spend as much of the off season with the phone to his ear anymore.
“You’re always going to miss out on a cohort of players and it often tends to be maybe the younger group,” says O’Dea. “Billy’s own opinion, he said it as well, if you’re a 19-year-old, a 20-year-old, you’re almost better to keep playing away underage and keep playing away in college and maybe go travelling and doing things like that.
“But they know in the back of their heads, when I finish college or when I hit maybe 21/22, I’m going to be looking to get back in if I’m playing well so I think that’s the cohort really that you might lose on a few.
“For the most part, I think there’s not really discussions among the panel of, ‘Oh, do you reckon this person will come back in next year?’ or things like that.
“We’re happy with what we have and I think we have the majority of people that Billy has wanted and that the selectors want are here so yeah, I think it’s certainly a lot. He doesn’t need to make as many phone calls now.
“The other thing, he doesn’t need to because we’re retaining more players as well.”
There are some on the all-conquering hurling squad that would be welcome all the same, particularly Gearóid Hegarty, who O'Dea says would command a spot on an inter-county football team.
Hegarty, Hurler of the Year in 2020, first played at senior inter-county level for the Limerick footballers in 2015 before committing exclusively to the hurlers two years later.
O’Dea’s career with the Limerick footballers was in its embryonic stage at the time too.
“He was an unbelievable competitor,” he says of Hegarty. “When he came in, in our second year when he came in, you could just feel like he had grown. He probably didn’t, he maybe just grew out but he certainly is such a talented player.
I’d say no matter what sport, I’m sure you could make a case of Munster rugby, you could find a position for him.
“I would have played with Will as well, Will O’Donoghue, he was a very good under-21 player as well.
“To be honest I wouldn’t really have played many of the other lads so I’m not really sure. I’m sure if Cian Lynch picked up a football, I’m sure he’d be pretty decent.”
O’Dea cites a qualifier game that Hegarty played against Tyrone in Omagh in 2015 in which Limerick competed well in before being swamped in the last quarter.
“He started full-forward and came out midfield and he was a real problem, like. I was marking Sean Cavanagh and I remember he said to me, ‘Who is this lad? Who is this big tall 6’5” guy that’s winning kickouts and just running down the field?’
“Certainly he’d get on any team in the country.”
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
