WATCH: ‘Goalies now like quarterbacks in the NFL’ says former Limerick star

IN Joe Quaid’s senior hurling days every puckout was a case of “lumping the sliothar out as far as you could”.

But these days, the former goalkeeper says, goalies are basically like quarterbacks in American football - “they dictate nearly the start of every play”.

Joe, who was between the posts for Limerick’s two heartbreaking All-Ireland defeats in 1994 and 1996, is a second cousin of current Limerick goalkeeper Nickie Quaid and a first cousin of Nickie’s late father, Tommy who was also the Limerick senior hurling goalkeeper.

Nickie’s grandfather, Jack, and Joe’s father, Jim, were twin brothers. Sadly, they both passed away in the spring of this year, just four weeks apart.

Of the set of twins, either they themselves, their sons, or grandsons have played with Limerick in every decade since the 1950s.

The latest star, Nickie, Joe says, is just “coolness personified”.

“He’s such an integral cog in the wheel and he’s such a nice lad to go with it.

“He’s been outstanding - he has been the best goalkeeper in the country for the last three or four years. Nickie is superb at it all. It’s his all-round game - his distribution. I had him underage with a divisional squad, it must have been U15s or U16s and he played centre back and full back with his club - he’s just an all-round superb hurler.”

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As we hit into the final days before D -Day dawns, the rivalry between the Treaty men and women and the Rebel lads and lassies is hotting up by the minute and Joe has a front row seat for it all. The father-of-four runs Quaid’s Bar at O'Dwyer’s in Kanturk with his brother, Gerry.

“This is our third time trying to open it with Covid,” he says of the relatively new business venture. “We had opened it shortly before Covid struck. Then we had to shut down. Then we were allowed to open again in September and then we had to close again. So this is our third attempt at opening.

“It’s a family-owned pub by the O’Dwyers. John O’Dwyer had the pub there for years. His two daughters have it now and myself and my brother Gerry are leasing it off them.”

And like it is in pubs across the two counties, where stray men and women from the opposing counties call in for a tipple, the craic and banter is just mighty in Quaids!

“We decorated it the other day - we’ve a Limerick hurler and a Cork hurler up on the wall outside. We've got it well divided - let’s say,” laughs Joe.

Looking ahead to the game, Joe says there is no engraving on the Liam MacCarthy Cup for 2021 yet!

“It’s a bit strange that you have Cork people saying ‘Look, it’s good to be there!’ I grew up six miles from the Cork border and I remember in 1996 we were 18 points up on Cork in the Championship with about five minutes to go and all that kept running through my head was my father telling me, ‘You’ll never have Cork beaten until you’re on the bus home!’ So I’d be very wary of them,” he says of The Rebels.

“My formative years growing up was with Cork constantly beating us and when we beat Cork in 1994, it was the first time in 14 years that Limerick had beaten Cork - had BEATEN Cork in Championship!

“It’s an All-Ireland final on Sunday - we’ve two won in 48 years now. We can’t get carried away!”

The Feohanagh native who played his club hurling with Murroe-Boher warns “the one thing we have to do is keep our eye on the ball”.

“I think the lads will. I think the frightener they got against Kilkenny when they got beaten in 2019 will ensure that and definitely this year, the frightener they got in the Munster final in the first half against Tipp - I don’t think that will happen again.

“But,” he says, issuing a health warning, “Cork are Cork and you can’t take your eye off them.

“It’s not going to be a physical game either, I think. I think it will be a good hurling game against two good hurling teams. And do you know what I think it will boil down to? Whoever will make the least amount of mistakes.”

Not far away in Kanturk, former Cork hurler Aidan Walsh is busy putting the finishing touches to another handmade hurley at his business, Aidan Walsh Hurleys.

“Anything can happen on the day of a final - it will be close. It will be tight. Hopefully they get the job done,” says Aidan who announced last December that he would no longer be wearing the red and white of Cork at senior level.

Although he will have no active part in the big game on Sunday, a number of the Cork senior squad will be going to war against Limerick armed with one of Aidan’s sticks.

And while the clash of the ash is important, come Sunday afternoon, in the end it will all come down to a hurler’s skill - strength of arm and speed of limb.

May the best team win!

‘If Limerick win you won’t see me in town for a week!’