Jimmy Lee on Limerick's journey: 'We're hoping to build something, and it has to be sustainable'

Irish Examiner

a day ago

Brian Flanagan's words were for his crew and county. His statement and sentiment, though, was equally applicable to the crestfallen Treaty after their Tailteann Cup defeat on Saturday.
'This isn't the end by any means. It is purely the beginning,' said Flanagan.
Kildare have rehabbed and rebuilt and raised themselves to a higher championship rung. Limerick's own house also stands on a solid foundation. That foundation must remain untouched in the months ahead. Another cycle of rebuilding has to be avoided at all costs.
Jimmy Lee spoke afterwards of his players forever walking tall despite knowingly committing to a sport that sits fourth in the local pecking order. He now needs to hold onto those players.
Twenty-eight Limerick footballers were profiled in Saturday's match programme. Sixteen of them made their championship debut across the last three years. That's the inexperience and infancy you are left with when the player churn is as strong as it has been in recent years on Shannonside.
Nineteen players did not recommit after Jimmy's debut 2023 season, 16 more said goodbye at the end of 2024. The turnover this winter, at the very minimum, has to be kept to single figures.
Ideally, no one walks and Limerick continue on this path with an unchanged panel that is stronger and tighter for this year's journey.
'These lads, they're special,' said Lee.
'They're mad about the jersey. They have fierce pride and passion in what they do. And sometimes it's not easy to walk tall. I saw an interview with Cillian [Fahy] before the game, and, unfortunately, football is the fourth sport, probably, in Limerick. But they still walk tall. They still put in the effort.
'We were in a shop during the week and people were asking for their autographs. I was talking to a girl yesterday, her young fella plays with Claughan, but this young fella wants to play football again. That's what they have done.
'Coming off the field there and seeing people looking to meet them, that's very special for the boys. Sometimes you don't have that happen, but that's the journey they're on, and that's the journey we'd hope they'd stay on because Division 3 is next year. It's a phenomenally competitive division on paper. But we're hoping to build something, and it has to be sustainable.
'Limerick football has been through peaks and troughs, peaks and troughs. Even if we could get to a flat line and say, you're sustaining it year on year. Whatever we build, it's got to be progressive, looking forward all the time, and sustainable.'
That's the bigger picture given due time. The smaller picture was Saturday's 70 minutes.
Forty-seven minutes in, Killian Ryan's goal pushed them two ahead. A seven-point swing having trailed by five early in the second period. This lead proved the end rather than the beginning of their second half push.
Why so?
'We tried. It was Kildare to a point. We had a few opportunities. I felt if we'd got another score, but we knew some of the lads were tiring as well, the heat, the exhaustion of it. We felt we needed to freshen things up, and we were trying to do that in the middle of trying to keep the scoreboard ticking as well. It's tricky enough because you lose that bit of momentum with subs at times.
'So near and yet so far but wouldn't look back and say it was because of this, that or anything else. I just walked in and said, to a man, they have put their shoulder to the wheel all year, and that's all you can ever ask of them. They died with their boots on.'
Every single one of those boots must walk tall again in 2026.
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