2011 Fitzgibbon Cup memories still golden for Kieran Joyce:
By John Harrington
University of Limerick’s 2011 Fitzgibbon Cup success will always have a special place in the college’s hurling lore for a few different reasons.
It ended a nine year wait for the silverware, it silenced the critics who had labelled them as serial underachievers, and it was the high point of a bitter local rivalry with LIT.
The memories of it remain very sweet indeed for former Kilkenny hurler, Kieran Joyce, and not just because he captained the team.
It was also watershed moment that propelled him on to very successful inter-county career with Kilkenny that saw him win four All-Ireland titles in five years.
“In 2010 I was on the fringe panel with Kilkenny but tore my hamstring around February/March,” recalls Joyce.
“I was completely out of contention in 2010. I went to America that summer. I hurled over there for that summer. I hurled with Boston Tipperary of all teams. I went over with Seamus Hickey who I was hurling with in UL.
“That summer I hurled with Colin Fennelly, Shane Bourke from Tipperary and met a few lads over there who also weren’t making any inter-county panels at the time. Played the summer over there and came back and saw Tipperary stopping the five in a row.
“I was walking out of the stadium listening to Eoin Kelly singing Slievenamon. I said to myself, ‘I need to have a really good campaign with the colleges’.
“I went in then and was made captain which was fantastic for me. To be captain of a team with so many leaders at the time. It was my last year and I was very motivated for it.”
Joyce wasn’t the only one. The scald of a Fitzgibbon Cup semi-final defeat to WIT the previous year on yet another occasion when UL failed to live up to their billing still burned for the players who had been involved that day.
There was a collective determination that 2011 would finally be their year, and the mission was strengthened by the addition of quality experienced players like Clare’s Brendan Bugler and Kilkenny’s PJ Delaney who did their H-Dip in UL that year.
The team that UL assembled must surely be one of the best in the history of the competition.
Tipperary’s Paddy Stapleton, Waterford’s Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh, and Limerick’s Seamus Hickey manned the full-back line.
Joyce was joined in the half-backs by Delaney and Bugler, Galway’s David Burke and Cork’s Pa Cronin were the two midfielders, and Tipperary’s Paul Kelly and Offaly duo Shane Dooley and Brian Carroll featured in attack.
The character UL had been accused of lacking was certainly evident when they came through hard battles against UCD and Cork IT (despite losing Dooley to a red-card) to qualify for a final showdown with LIT.
It was the Fitzgibbon Cup Final everyone wanted – the UL players, the LIT players, and neutrals alike – such was the rivalry between the two Limerick colleges.
An LIT team managed by Davy Fitzgerald had held the whip hand in it, beating UL in the 2005 Final and the 2007 semi-final on the way to winning another title.
By the time the two clubs met in the 2011 Final, no-one was bothering to hide their mutual dislike of one another.
“They were our big rivals,” says Joyce. “You had the Davy Fitz factor and the furore and that kind of stuff that goes with it.
“Normally you’d play LIT home or away. We went down there a couple of times and the dressing-room would be locked. At one stage we were late coming out for one of the games because the dressing-room just wasn’t opened.
“So we were late getting onto the pitch and late getting into your routine.
“Another year we were playing in UL in the old pitch which is right beside the car-park up on a mound. We were training away doing our warm-up and there was no sign of LIT.
“All of a sudden the bus pulls up and the boys jump out all fully togged. They ran through the trees and out onto the pitch and we all ended up training in the one 40 yard area because they came right in amongst us. It was just carnage.
“That was the whole intimidation factor and mentality thing that was being done back then. It just added to the rivalry I suppose.
“They were trying to develop a sort of chip on the shoulder mentality to say, ‘look, you think you’re the university and we’re just an institute’. From our point of view I don’t think we gave that across, but they wanted to develop that siege mentality I suppose.
“We know that Davy brings that element with any team he goes in with. He tries to find a siege mentality subject that he can unite a team around. They probably used that to galvanise their team against us.”
UL went into the Final determined to match LIT’s fire, but it looked like they were once again going to fail to live up to their billing when they were ripped to pieces in the first half as LIT tore into a 2-7 to 0-4 lead.
“By half-time we were still down by a fair amount,” says Joyce. “We had a few home truths at half-time. We came out in the second half and we pegged back the score and got it to a draw game.
“Tommy O’Brien from Limerick came on, I think it was nearly in extra-time, and it was a draw game and he went through and everyone is thinking he’s going to stick it over the bar.
“But he ended up going for the goal which the majority of lads probably wouldn’t have went for, but he put it in the bottom corner and that was us home and hosed. “
“It was extra sweet because it was the opening of the pitch in Carriganore and that’s around 40 minutes from my home so an awful lot of my club-mates were down watching it and my parents were there too.
“They would have travelled all around the country for years supporting me so just to get that bit of success at that college level meant so much for myself and a lot of guys.
“Even for some former players who moved on and weren’t involved in 2011, they came to the game to support us and it meant a lot to them as well.
“There were lads you would have soldiered with for two or three years who moved on but came to the game and were the first to come up and hug you and congratulate you afterwards
“I found that the Fitzgibbon really bonds you with the lads you play with because it’s a slog you go through together.”
The week after leading UL to that Fitzgibbon Cup title Joyce got a phone-call from Kilkenny manager Brian Cody and his inter-county career had lift-off.
The competition has a proud tradition of giving up and coming players a leg-up like that, and he fully expects some of the less well-known players on the UL and DCU teams that contest tomorrow’s final to go on to bigger things thanks to the confidence they’ll develop from playing Fitzgibbon hurling.
“If you get to a high level in the Fitzgibbon it’s a testament to the player because you’re in a college scene where you have so many distractions in terms of social stuff and to nail down the Fitzgibbon and to win it probably shows you have the mentality that you can be self-sufficient,” says Joyce.
“You mightn’t be living at home with your parents, you can look after your nutrition and your mindset and you can have success.
“For a lot of county managers they see that if a lad is able to do that by himself then they’re ready for the next step at inter-county level.
“Quite often you’ll see players who blossom in the Fitzgibbon Cup then move on to be successful at inter-county level. I think it’s a good litmus test for a lot of players. If you can make it at that level then you’re able to step up to where inter-county is gone.
“It’s a good way to find out the mentality of players.
“I’ve seen so many good hurlers who get to college and get lost in that social scene. And if you’re 10 per cent off at the highest level you’re quickly forgotten about and teams move on and get in the next lad who’s hungry enough to take your place.”
Saturday, February 15
Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup Final
UL v DCU, Connacht GAA Centre, 2.45pm (TG4)