All-Ireland hurling champion Kyle Hayes has written a diary that chronicles the build-up and aftermath of Limerick’s historic win last weekend.
After 45 years of waiting, Limerick lifted the Liam McCarthy cup last Sunday, overcoming Galway in a dramatic final.
Hayes, writing in the Irish Examiner, has penned a wide-ranging piece that includes his pre-final routine and the feeling of becoming an All-Ireland champion.
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Hayes describes his pre-final schedule as being the same as every match.
“Aaron Gillane, Barry O’Connell, and I have this routine on the day before a match where we meet up for breakfast. We met in Verona in Raheen at 9.30am. Protein pancakes washed down with coffee,” writes Hayes.
“Sheila suggested a blade zero to just above my ear, marked by a curved line before fading and brushing the hair on the top of my crown across to one side. Sheila got out her scissors and razor and hair gel and styled me up again.”
Hayes writes that the rest of the day proceeds as normal. He says the evening included a Netflix binge and the Chelsea-Arsenal match before flicking “onto the boxing on BT Sport to watch Paddy Barnes, Carl Frampton, and Tyson Fury go to war.”
As for a potential restless night before the biggest game of his career?
“I went to bed at 11. I always sleep well. Most nights, I get nine-and-a-half hours shut-eye. Blackout sleep too, not fitful stuff. Saturday was no different. I had drifted off by about 11.15pm.”
Writing about the feeling of winning an All-Ireland, Hayes says: “It’s like this massively concussive moment, where you’re almost staggering as you attempt to take it all in, to fully absorb what has just happened.
He added that “it’s the dream you’ve always wanted to experience. And now you’re living it. Actually living it.”
“After the presentation, I met my mother and my brother Cian. My other brother Darragh handed me my niece, Ella, who I took for a stroll around Croke Park, the biggest playground in the world.
“Cradling her in my arms was a special feeling but everything was still such a blur that you’re almost looking for some familiar face in the crowd to bring you back into the moment, to reinforce that this is actually happening, that this isn’t all a dream.”
Hayes adds that one of the highlights of the entire weekend was “seeing the massive crowd, and the emotion attached to those people, at the train station in Limerick.
“The passion, fervour, pride, satisfaction, and huge sense of love in our hearts was reflected on every face before us.
“It was pure. And magical.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
