‘I always enjoyed it even in the difficult years’: Iain Corbett reflects on highs and lows with Limerick senior footballers

FOR over a decade, Iain Corbett has been a mainstay in the Limerick senior football team. He played across fourteen seasons and was captain for eight of those years.Wearing the Limerick jersey is something which Corbett has always taken great pride in.

“I'm very proud to have represented my county and represented my club. I know they were difficult days, every year wasn't a success but anyone that puts on the inter-county jersey should be very proud that they are one of the best fifteen or twenty players in that county. I'm extremely grateful to play with the players I have played with and the managers I have played under,” Iain Corbett told Leader Sport.

Corbett announced his inter-county retirement last week. Manager Jimmy Lee described him as one of the greatest footballers to play for Limerick.

“You put the message into the group and I suppose people start sharing articles and the phone starts hopping, it was fairly non stop for two or three days. It was nice to catch up with people who I hadn't spoken to in a few years.”

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The 2020 All-Star nominee will go down as one of the greatest players to wear the green and white jersey. How do personal accolades sit with Corbett?

“Everyone gets a bit awkward when they are being praised, it's an Irish thing. In time to reflect back over it, it's extremely flattering especially that All-Star nomination, you just Google the list of players that were nominated and to be ranked amongst them by journalists and players it's extremely flattering. I suppose, you need your teammates to help you to look good on the field as well, personal accolades are always backboned by fourteen or twenty or thirty five other fellas as well that definitely helped me get there.”

2025 was a successful year for the Limerick senior footballers where Jimmy Lee's side won the Division 4 League and reached the Tailteann Cup final. Corbett sees the confidence Limerick got from winning the League as a big turning point in their season.

“In sports, confidence is a massive thing, those few wins in the league at the start built that confidence. The new rules probably benefited us, like kick-outs became a massive part of it, we had Tommie Childs and Darragh O'Hagan, two massive men. And we got massive joy out of forwards like James Naughton and Danny Neville. Once we got that confidence, we were able to show how good we were,” added Corbett.

The Newcastle West native never questioned coming back any year even after the highs and lows he has went through as a player.

“I never really considered not going back until this year, I always enjoyed it even in the difficult years, you have great friendships with lads the likes of Cillian Fahy, Donal O'Sullivan and Sean O'Dea over the years they just kept soldiering away over the years.

“You always felt you owed to them to go back because if some of those senior players did step away when things were difficult, Limerick football could have been in a really bad place. The characters that I have mentioned that have stayed there were able to turn results and put that wheel back on an upward trajectory.”

In 2024, Corbett suffered a serious hamstring injury where he ripped two hamstring tendons off the bone when playing for Newcastle West in the Limerick SFC. He made an impressive recovery this year.

“It was very painful anyways, there were a few tough days. I had to move a mattress downstairs and I was sleeping downstairs for the bones of a month.

“When it happened, I thought it was a longer injury, the rehab was painful, thankfully now I've been fairly injury-free and I have played all the games this year,” said Corbett.