Hannon explains Limerick hurling mantra is "all about the group and never any individual"

IN the media auditorium under the Hogan Stand John Kiely lavished praise on his three time All-Ireland SHC winning captain Declan Hannon.

“There is just a sheer honesty to him,” started Kiely of the Adare man who has captained Limerick to eight major trophies across the last four year.

"The honesty of the guy is something you can see in him every time he takes to the field. I guarantee you, most guys around him will tell ya, that when they make a mistake, the first fella down the drainpipe to help him out will be Declan. He will be the first to react to that situation to help someone else out. Again, thankfully, being the guy he is, he carries that captaincy very lightly. He doesn't take it for him, he takes it for the team. The group. Declan always puts the team before himself and that is what makes him a brilliant player. You never see Declan upset by a mistake. He will always look to correct the mistake or help out the person who made it. Declan will value his role within the group as much as anything else and time will reflect that," outlined Kiely of his captain.

A short few minutes later, Declan Hannon chats with LeaderSport outside the winning dressing room and unwittingly copperfastened everything his manager just said.

It’s almost two hours since Hannon climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand to join Mikey Maher (Tipperary) 1895-'98, Dick Walsh (Kilkenny) 1907-'13 and Christy Ring (Cork) 1946-'54. as three time All-Ireland winning captain. Ring and Hannon the only captains to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup three times. And, the Adare man became the first since 1998 to captain their county to back-to-back titles - Conor Hayes (Galway) 1987-88, Christy Ring (Cork) 1953-54, Sim Walton (Kilkenny) 1911-12 and Mikey Maher (Tipperary) 1895-96.

Privileged?

"I suppose I am when you look back and take a second to see what we have done together," explains Hannon.

"But", he adds straight away.

"It really is all about the group and never about any individual - you are not going to get anywhere if it’s one person trying to drive things. It’s everybody from 1-36 and then the backroom team. I met Seanie O’Donnell during the week and I said are you busy and he said he was doing 15-hour days and that was on video analysis for the game so people don’t know the full effort that people give and they don’t bat an eyelid and just do it. It’s unreal," outlines the Limerick centre back.

Behind Hannon is a joyous Limerick dressing room.

"The boys are over the moon. It was a great performance and today is the day that you want to do it,” he said proudly.

"I’m really just overjoyed. A lot of the lads were actually saying that they were quite emotional after the match - just to have the supporters and our families back compared to last year. I know I was definitely very emotional at the end of it. When we went back at the start of the year and went into the league, we were just focused on each game and the process and everything like that and you don’t let emotion get in the way and I suppose it has to come out at some stage and it may as well be today and thankfully in a happy sense," he outlined.

The captain was called shore in the 64th minute and got to enjoy the final moments along the sideline.

"Definitely different," he said in reference to the nervous finish of 2018.

"Those last few minutes were amazing with the Limerick supporters singing and to see all the happy faces is just brilliant. We really are so happy to have them (supporters) back - to have that noise, it’s brilliant. We are just having the time of our lives and enjoying every moment of it and long way it continue," he smiled.

The final was still in it’s infancy when Hannon surged forward to register Limerick’s fourth score and minutes later they were together for the first water break with a five point lead.

"You get a feeling," he said when asked if players could sense Limerick’s growing stature.

"We knew we had prepared really well - there was a lot of talk during the week and what they could so but we knew what we could do as well and if we brought our performance we knew we would be ok."

Just under 45-minutes after his first point, Hannon again found the range to put 18-points between the teams – Limerick 3-26, Cork 1-14 and just 50-minutes played.

And, 30-minutes later, he accepted the Liam MacCarthy Cup from GAA President  Larry McCarthy.

Another memorable speech from Hannon and he took time to remember long serving physio Mark van Drumpt died after a long illness in February. He was the lead physiotherapist for the  All-Ireland title wins in 2018 and 2020.

"There has been a lot of deaths across the last number of years for the group; parents, uncles, neighbours and that's hard. We have a picture of Mark (van Drumpt) in the dressing room in the Gaelic Grounds and every time we walk past it we acknowledge Mark. He has been there for the last 10 years plus. Since I started Mark was the physio and was the man to go to and hopefully today his family enjoyed it. He is a loss around the place and we do miss him and you have to acknowledge people like that - he was a fantastic person," said Hannon.