By John Harrington

GAA.ie sat down with 2022 GAA/GPA PwC Hurler of the Year, Diarmaid Byrnes, to ask him how much the award meant to him and reminisce on Limerick's All-Ireland Winning year.

Q: Diarmaid, what does it mean to you to be voted Hurler of the Year?

A: It's hard to digest, really. Even to be nominated, it took me a while to process that to be honest. Hand on heart, it's something I've never been striving for. When I was nominated I thought, yeah, it would actually be lovely to win. When you're in that position you're thinking it would be nice to win. I'm here now and it's like, 'woah', you nearly have to take a step back. It will definitely take a while to digest. In the coming weeks and months when I'm meeting people I'm sure I'll be meeting people that are delighted for me and I can sense that already in Patrickswell. I'm really honoured. It's a fantastic occasion for me as an individual, for my partner, and my family. Because they're the ones closest to me and see my sacrifice. They know when I'm training and the hours I'm gone every week. To bring it home for the family, first and foremost, is very special.

Q: You're the first defender since Tommy Walsh in 2009 to win the award. Other defenders to win it include JJ Delaney, Sean Og O'hAilpin, Brian Corcoran, and Brian Whelahan. So you're in good company.

A: Now that you say those names, they're all people I would have admired growing up. I wouldn't be mad into looking back on stuff, but Tommy Walsh is someone I would have looked at clips of. So it really is special to be in that category now. It's nice for the backs I suppose that we have one again. Barry Nash was nominated too and he had a phenomenal year with Limerick. If he was sitting here today talking ot you I'd be equally as happy for him. And he'd be deserving of it also because he was so good all year.

You talk about defenders scoring, that's probably one of my strong points, I can take a score or a free or whatever. But then you see Barry Nash getting forward from corner-back and the corner-forward looking at himself thinking, 'what am I doing here? He's after scoring more than me!'

Q: Your scoring rate as a defender is remarkable. 36 points from just seven matches this year, including 28 frees and two '65s. Clearly this is something you've worked hard at.

A: It is something I've worked hard at, especially the frees. Again Clare I scored eight from eight and I got one from play. It's something I have put an emphasis on because they're so important. You don't know what situation you're going to be given. Whether it's to break the momentum of a match, put us up by one point, or three points to give us a bit of breathing space. The scores from play, I'm very fortunate that the lads around me know my game very well and I know their game be it Gearoid (Hegarty) outside me or Darragh (O'Donovan) outside me, they know my runs and my ins and outs. I suppose theres an understanding there as well. A lot of those scores came from other individuals, it's just my responsiblity to take the free.

Q: Are routine and visualisation a big part of your free-taking process?

A: I would practice in literally every corner of the field. I've had my routine locked in for the last three or four years now. It's something that has stood to me. I've had bad days, a few of them. This year I was very fortunate to have so many good days. I've no doubt the freetaking is one of the reasons I'm here today.

Sticking to your routine is a big part of it whether it's going well or not well for you, whether it's lashing rain or 30 degrees. You stick to your routine. That has stood to me for the past couple of years.

Q: I'm sure this award will mean an awful lot to all of the coaches who worked with your from a young age in the Patrickswell club and National School.

A: It was only the other day I was digesting or processing all of that, if I did win it how far I have come as an individual because of the help of so many others from underage level all the way up. At primary school level I was fortunate enough to win an Ola Cup with Patrickswell and Paul O'Connor and Ciaran Crowe were the managers. I was joint-captain with a good friend of mine now, Jack Kelleher. Even those relationships, he's one of my best friends now still, you build those friendships through hurling from primary school. We often still joke about it.

And when we bump into our primary school teachers, regardless of what I've won, if I wasn't here today and won no award or All-ireland medal, I'd still be as welcome in Patrickswell National School as I would be having won what I've won today. That's a nice thing to have. Coaches in the club have been brilliant too from underage up to senior and I'm extremely grateful to all of them for being so patient with me. They always tried to bring my game to the next level.

At the time I was so young I wouldn't have seen it, I just wanted to go out and have fun, and that's the approach I'd encourage every young lad to take, but I can see now that those coaches saw potential in me I didn't see in myself and worked hard to help me maximise it. They were patient enough to bring me on and show me things here and there, whether it be taking frees or how to catch the ball. I'm just extremely grateful to them all. It's been a long journey but a very enjoyable one.

Q: I understand that Paul O'Connor in Patrickswell NS encouraged you to start hurling more off your weaker side by sticking a sponge to the side of the hurley bas you'd use when striking off your strong side?

A: He did, yeah (laughs). I can still visualise him doing it as if he was doing it right now. He got the duct-tape, stuck the sponge on, and the duct-tape was stuck to my hurley for a couple of weeks after, I couldn't get it off! He put the sponge on so I couldn't strike off my right which forced me on to my left side. Stuff like that, you realise now it was important. I'm just extremely grateful for coaches llike Paul making that sort of an effort to improve me.

He was a teacher who is there to do a job. The hours that they sacrificed after school outside of their working day to help us become better hurlers was huge. It's the same all around the country, there are teachers and coaches putting huge work in to improve young players and that sacrifice will stand the test of time. It certainly did in Patrickswell for the likes of myself, Cian Lynch, and Aaron Gillane. We all came through the ranks there together and so have so many other lads who are hurling senior for Patrickswell now. We have a lot to thank the coaches in the school and club for.

Q: This Limerick hurling team is pretty much making history with every match it plays. Three All-Irelands in a row, four in five years, how conscious are you that you're part of something really special?

A: It's something we don't take for granted. As individuals you want to achieve as much as you can because we sacrifice so much time. At the end of the day you want to achieve as much as you can with your team if you're making the sacrifices that we are making. A a team it's important to achieve what you can achieve while you're there.

The last couple of years have been just incredible. You always hear lads talking about how they were there in '94 and '96. And even now as I get older and having won one, I would have been so happy for those lads to win it back in the nineties. I look at men like Ciaran Carey, Gary Kirby, Barry Foley in our club. To see the success we've had and the enjoyment that we have gotten out of it, I would be so happy to be able to give them just one of mine. They were so close in their time.

Because of situations like that, we have learned to be so grateful for what we have. It's nothing we'll be taking for granted going into next season. Three-in-a-row, fantastic. But, come January, it's time to knuckle down and it'll be every man for himself and just tear into the season and be the best you can for the team.

Q: Is what makes this Limerick team so formidable that as well as having so many talented hurlers, as individuals you are all really driven people too? It's as much about the calibre of person as calibre of hurler?

A: Yeah, I think you've hit it on the head. It's grand saying those Limerick lads work fierce hard. But the Clare, Galway, Kilkenny lads, they all work equally as hard. But we're just fortunate to have an exceptional bunch of individuals that have come together at this time. We have a panel of them, which is crucial. How important was David Reidy for us this year? Conor Boylan? You had Peter (Casey) and Cian (Lynch) coming back from injury at the end of the year.

There are lads on the panel like Ronan Connolly and Darren O'Connell, those lads aren't getting headlines every weekend, but they're the lads who drive us on at training. The panel emphasis was never more important to us than this season just gone, because we never relied on it more. That's something we'll definitely learn from going forward and won't take for granted.

I just feel very fortunate to be part of it. It's a crazy dressing-room, very enjoyable. The lads there are great craic. If you let Kyle Hayes and Cian Lynch off in the dressing-room they're just mad craic altogether. That adds to the whole ethos and it's something we don't take for granted.

Q: Teams got closer to Limerick this year and will be chomping at the bit to take you down next year. Presumably this Limerick team will relish that challenge.

A: I think so. For us it's about one game at at time. If you're thinking of next summer and you haven't even gotten over Christmas you're just fooling yourself. We're off now. For me, it's about switching off. I'm living out in Castletroy at the moment and I actually dropped my hurleys and gear bag out to my parents just to get them out of the way, I don't want to be even looking at them. I'm off now.

2023 will bring on a challenge of its own. Two years ago we didn't know if there would be a championship at all and then we end up playing an All-Ireland Final a few weeks before Christmas. Just crazy stuff, stuff you would never imagine could happen, but it did.

2023 will bring its own challenges now and we'll learn from the season gone and hopefully we'll be the best we can be.

Q: This Limerick group will leave a great legacy in terms of titles won. Will there will be an even greater legacy for you all personally in so far as whenever you meet one another in the years and decades ahead there will be a special bond there?

A: Definitely, and it'll never be taken away. There's no other way around it, it's there now, it's in the history books. We've had the special moments and we have the memories that we have. They're never going away. I never really look too far into the future, I'm very much a live in the present sort of person because life can pass you by too quickly. But that bond will always be there.

Whether it's going to Bruff and you bump into Sean Finn at a match or you're inside in the city and you meet one of the Na Piarsaigh lads. Any corner of the county where I go in years to come I'll be meeting lads and it won't be just a friendly hello it'll be an aul hug and how are you getting on. And at that stage it might be, 'how's the family?' with kids hanging off us! Please God, please God.