Kyle Hayes is only 20 years of age.
He was born in 1998 and he doesn’t know much about Limerick’s heartbreak in 1994 when Offaly pipped his county at the post late on. In fact he doesn’t know much about heartbreak in a Limerick jersey at all.
The youngster was drafted into the senior panel as a sprightly 19-year-old last year after an impressive underage career and though it didn’t go Limerick’s way in 2017, that was just a stepping stone for the big assault in 2018.
The seniors were beaten by Kilkenny in Nowlan Park in the qualifiers in 2017 but that wouldn’t be a detrimental blow for this young team. This was their very first year on the road and many of them had under-21 to keep them ticking over for the closing few months of the year.
Hayes, Morrissey, Lynch, Gillane, Nash, Casey and co. went onto taste under-21 glory in Semple Stadium and that winning feeling would set them up perfectly for this year.
They won every game in the group stages of the League and were only knocked out of that competition by hurling’s first ever free-taking decider against Clare. In the grand scheme it didn’t matter anyway because their focus was always on the championship.
Men like Kyle Hayes were a year older now, a year wiser and now was their time.
The team looked dead in the quarter against Kilkenny, and again in the semi against Cork but they never panicked. They kept their heads down, kept plugging away, never panicked and that’s why they were the last team standing come August 19.
They had another scare in the final when Galway rallied late on, but with mind ruling matter at this stage and every Limerick player ignoring their legs and their thoughts telling them to stop, they made the run back to make that hook, they stood firm for that tackle, made that support run.
A number of John Kiely’s men stood tall on the day but it was that Kildimo youngster Kyle Hayes who stood tallest. He gave Gearóid McInerney the runaround all day long, hitting him for four from play, setting up countless other attacks while also managing to tackle, harry and harass Galway players into uncharacteristic mistakes.
He was later named The Sunday Game’s man-of-the-match to complete a dream day in Croker and SportsJOE’s Colm Parkinson caught up with the man of the moment in the City West hotel the morning after the day before.
Unsurprisingly, he was on top of the world.
“I’m absolutely buzzing, it’s hard to put it in to words, I don’t want this feeling to end,” he said.
“I had absolutely full faith in all the panel, all through the year the backs have been absolutely exceptional. I had faith in them that they’d pull through for us,” he said.
As for his own game, Hayes admitted that he’d planned to upset Galway’s Gearóid McInerney with his roaming out the field. Hayes dropped into his own midfield and even deeper at times and that saw him as the out ball for his own defenders whenever they gained possession.
With his pace and physicality seeing him win a number of those 50:50 breaking balls around that section too, he was dominating and McInerney was left in no-man’s land really.
“That’s the nature of our game. We roam around the place…We try to play games with the centre backs head, to go out to certain points on the field so he doesn’t know whether to go with you or not. It’s easier to get on loose ball then,” he said.
“If they do follow you, it’s all the one because there’s more space for the other forwards then. And if you do get it you’ve more time on the ball…”
The Limerick lads celebrated hard last night, but the fact that Kyle Hayes was in the swimming pool, rather than the bed at 10.00 this morning just sums these lads up.
“I just went for a swim there anyway, I don’t know if the hangovers have hit us yet, they’ll probably hit us at around two or three today,” he laughed.
Just like manager John Kiely, they’re on top of everything.
You can listen to the full interview on Monday’s GAA Hour Hurling Show, out later on today.
