DROMIN-ATHLACCA forward Dave Reidy has been in the Limerick senior hurling panel ever since the Kiely cavalcade put rubber on the road to success but, despite being one of the side’s most often-used subs, he has yet to line out in an All-Ireland final.
“Of course you want to start every game, to contribute as much as you can,” he said ahead of team selection.
And yet six seasons later, he’s still as enthusiastic as ever. It’s a measure of the sense of unity of a panel that has seen remarkably little change over that period.
“You don’t know whether you’re going to line for any game until the Friday before. But you still want to be involved. It’s just such a privilege to be part of it all,” Reidy added.
Despite the settled line-up over the team’s journey, the competition for places has never diminished.
“There’s always the sense of opportunity that there’s a place to be got. We have unbelievable respect for everyone else in the group. It’s next man up whenever it comes around,” Reidy explained.
For the 30-year-old and his comrades, that unbroken enthusiasm is due in no small part to growing up in a hurling-mad county where, for decades, success on the field was something to be avoided. Yet for all the heartbreak, the allure of the green jersey never faded.
“Maybe it won’t fully hit me until I’m looking back on it in twenty or thirty years but the parade in Croke Park is every kid’s dream and it was my dream as well. And thanks be to God, I’m living out my dream at the moment,” he said.
And then there’s the satisfaction of when it all comes together.
“Aah, it’s nice when things click. Like when played our best hurling of the season against Galway,” concluded Reidy.
