The fulcrum around which this Limerick team evolves.
Aaron Gillane burst onto the scene during Limerick’s League campaign this year. On Sunday in the heat of a Munster championship battle against Tipperary, the 21-year-old showed that he’s a clutch player, a player who has what’s required when the stakes are at their highest.
A deadly forward, the Mary I student has it all. As a ball-winner, he’s top class, as a shooter, he’s deadly, as a fighter, he’ll put it up to any full back in the game.
He may be only 21 but he’s leading by example up top and he really is the Shannonsiders’ go-to man now.
JJ Delaney praised Gillane highly on Monday’s GAA Hour Hurling Show.
“I like Aaron Gillane in the full forward line. He’s their go-to guy. If you’re going to stop this Limerick team, you’re going to have to stop him. He can take it low or he can win ball in the air. They tried Flynn on him, they tried Donagh Maher on him and he went out and roasted the two of them.
“I think everything goes through Gillane. Anytime the lads are out the field, they’re trying to feed him. They’re trying to get the ball into him as quickly as possible because he is their most dangerous man. I like the look of him, I really do.
“He wins it, he offloads it or he breaks it and Graham Mulcahy is benefiting from that.”
Often, we look to an inside forward’s scoring stats as a measure of their performance. The Treaty target man hit eight points in the Gaelic Grounds, with six coming from frees and two from open play.
Two points from open play wouldn’t suggest that Gillane roasted Tipperary’s last line, but anyone watching the game could see for all the world that he had them at his mercy from the word go.
The reason he didn’t rack up an almighty scoring total was because the Tipperary defenders, namely Flynn and Maher, resorted to fouling him whenever they could. They could see just how dangerous he was.
Four of the frees he converted on Sunday came after fouls he drew himself after causing consternation amongst Blue and Gold back men. That doesn’t make the headlines, but it does make the difference.
Gillane gave an exhibition in attacking high balls and catching them above his man in Limerick. As early as the first minute, he was soaring above Donagh Maher to claw a skyscraper. He went onto take on three Tipperary back men, before drawing the foul for an easy free.
That’s leadership from the number 13.
Often, free-takers don’t get the credit they deserve. Not only does stepping up to take a free and scoring it, take bottle, but often, these players have won the frees themselves. We saw the same on the other end of the field with Jason Forde taking Seamus Hickey for four frees in the first period.
“It didn’t matter who scored. It was all about the collective. They could have won this game by ten points.Â
You can listen to this chat and much more from Monday’s GAA Hour Hurling show right here.
