The curious case of Ronan Lynch.
It wasn’t that long ago when the Na Piarsaigh youngster was the hottest young talent in Limerick, when he was tipped to become a leader of the county senior hurling team for years to come and when the eagerly awaited and desperately craved return of Liam MacCarthy Shannonside would go hand in hand with his development as a hurler.
That could still transpire to be the case – Lynch is still only 22 years of age and he may in the future have a huge part to play in the fortunes of the Limerick senior hurlers, but for now, he’s a county’s footballer while the hurlers attempt to do back to back All-Irelands.
Sports reporter Matt O’Callaghan broke the news on Thursday afternoon that Lynch is set to be a member Billy Lee’s football panel for 2019.
Two times All-Ireland Under 21 Hurling winner Ronan Lynch to join the Limerick Senior Football squad.
Tommy Childs (Galtee Gaels)
and Brian Donovan ( Monaleen) to rejoin the squad. #Limerick #GAA #Football @LimerickCLG pic.twitter.com/59MD4fajCS— Matt O'Callaghan (@MattOCall) January 4, 2019
And if you claim to have seen that coming a year and a half ago, you’re either telling fibs or you’ve a reliable crystal ball on tick.
But in the time that has followed his last triumph in the Treaty green – the All-Ireland under-21 final victory over Kilkenny in September 2017 in which he played a starring role at half back, it’s fair to say that while Limerick hurling has gone on to capitalise on that potential, Lynch’s career has taken a path that few would have envisaged.
Because back then, the possibility of Limerick winning an All-Ireland and Lynch’s centrality to it all seemed mutually inclusive.
Yes, that golden generation of youngsters who lifted the James Nowlan Cup in 2017 have inspired Limerick to their first Liam MacCarthy Cup in 45 years, but against all predictions, tips and foresights, Lynch, perhaps the most golden of them all, had no part to play in it.
Instead he spent Limerick hurling’s most famous summer in America playing in a Tipperary jersey.
So, why was Lynch on the other side of the world when his namesake Cian and teammates all the way up along, Casey, English, Morrissey and co. were ending years of hurt for their county?
First of all, it’s important to go back to the start of 2018. Lynch was a part of Limerick’s provisional panel for the year ahead then but he was not an active member.
A club run that went all the way to an All-Ireland final in March meant he didn’t have much of an opportunity to convince John Kiely of his worth and with Limerick cruising through the League and with Kiely settling on a game-plan and on a team, that meant it would be difficult for each and every member of Limerick’s most successful ever club team to break back onto it.
Making history with your club and paying for it with your county. Just another example of the difficulties created by an inconsiderate GAA calendar.
So by the beginning of April, less than two weeks after Na Piarsaigh’s All-Ireland club final replay loss to Cuala, the county’s championship panel had been named but Lynch wasn’t on it.
He hadn’t played as well for Na Piarsaigh in 2017/2018 as he had in previous years – this is a man who scored three points, including two sidelines on his senior club debut as a 17-year-old marking Ollie Canning in 2014 and who two years later was one of their key men in their All-Ireland club winning campaign, scoring 0-15 in a Munster semi-final victory over Blackrock – but an inherently crafty stick man and a glorious striker of the ball – he could still consider himself hard done by not to have made it.
A victim of circumstance you could say, Lynch doesn’t look back on his situation with bitterness, as a brilliant interview he did with the Irish Examiner revealed recently.
“Obviously, you’d be stupid if you weren’t disappointed to be cut off the panel but it’s about how you react to that and how you learn from your time in there and how you bounce back and get better. That’s my focus now,” he said last month.
We wouldn’t like to bet against a talent like him bouncing back onto the hurling team in the future, but for now the beneficiaries are the Limerick senior footballers and here’s to hoping Lynch enjoys a successful year with them.
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