You know how in a morose moment you wonder what your funeral might look like? Well, I need wonder no more. All week, there has been a steady procession of solemn-faced visitors calling to the Ryan homestead, shocked and coming to terms with their grief. It got to the stage where I had to check at the bottom of the road in case the local undertaker had erected a ‘wake house’ sign.
In the end, I could take no more as another neighbour came through the door, head shaking, voice breaking, ‘Jeez, Tom, I just can’t believe it.’ ‘Look, I said, just to be clear no one died above in Croke Park. One team won, another team lost and that is pretty much the standard outcome any day that you are up there,’ I told him.
He seemed taken aback, but when you lose a couple of All-Ireland finals as a manager it is amazing the perspective it provides you. O f course, people are disappointed here after what happened last Sunday, but more than anything they are proud and they have good reason to be. All Limerick lost was a match and in doing so, their players once more reminded why they have been such a special group, emptying themselves in the process.
As a Limerick man, I feel that sense of pride about them, but as a hurling man, my disappointment subsided quickly. Why? How could anyone who loves our game not enjoy that spectacle last weekend. You will have winners and losers, but it is how you win and how you lose that matters to the game and both Cork and Limerick served hurling we.