Now after 140 minutes of Munster championship hurling, McCarthy is longing for his players to play with the confidence that would see Limerick ready to challenge at the highest level on a continuous basis.
He didn’t quite sing the lyrics, but McCarthy’s sentiments sound very much along the lines of The Saw Doctors hit song ‘To win just once’.
“One game can change everything,” stressed the Limerick manager when speaking to Leader Sport this Tuesday.
“This team can make the break through if they win one important game.”
Back at the start of 2007, Richie Bennis was of the same viewpoint as McCarthy.
The Patrickswell legend was adamant that a Munster championship win over Tipperary would be the launch pad for success. It may have taken three games to overcome the Premier County, but the victory did propel Limerick to a first All-Ireland appearance for 11 years. Limerick’s long-suffering hurling public will again hope that a win over another of the ‘leading hurling counties’ can inspire this team to progress onwards towards the quarter-finals.
“There is a huge incentive in proving ourselves,” said Justin McCarthy in reference to the defeat in the provincial championship.
He added: “I’m in no doubt that we could have slipped Waterford the first day - I wasn’t underestimating Waterford.
“We can move on in this competition if we are good enough and I believe we are,” he said ahead of the game in Wexford Park.
Limerick must raise their spirits after the replay loss to Waterford, but Wexford too are smarting from their Leinster championship exit. Com Bonner’s side prevailed against Offaly in Wexford Park, but then fell to Anthony Daly’s Dublin revolution.
“I am very happy the way things have went - there has been a good pick-up in training and there have been positive vibes,” said the Limerick manager of the last three weeks.
In the immediate aftermath of the loss to Davy Fitzgerald’s men, Limerick played Offaly in a challenge game and another loss didn’t inspire confidence.
“We had a game against Offaly, which was important. Regardless of how it went we needed a game to get things out of our system - there were things that we had to take on board,” explained McCarthy.
He continued: “We have brought in some young lads to freshen things up in training - these are players for the future and that is also an important part of our brief”.
Last weekend the Limerick under-21 side provided the opposition in another workout and this time the senior side got an expected morale-boosting victory.
“Lads are coming into form,” pointed out the manager.
“I believe we can improve and go forward. We have to be ready - there is one game, one venue and that is our target. You don’t think of the qualifiers when you are involved in the Munster championship, but once it happens you have got to zone into them and be ready.”
The Munster championship dream may have ended, but there is one major piece of silverware and many plaudits yet to be won this Summer.
“It is a new ball game - we have got to get on with it,” said the Corkman.
“We know that we are on a journey in a lot of different ways. You have got to learn from every game and lads will learn all the time.
McCarthy believes the home advantage should not assist Wexford: “We know that we won’t get anything easy in their own backyard, but it is a very good hurling field and there will be no excuse for not playing good hurling - it is up to us to produce the goods.
“I am glad that there is going to be a big crowd there and with that it is up to the players to raise their game.”
Home venue does not always rest easy with some teams.
“When your playing at home you can be thinking that we have it in the bag.
“There is not a lot between a lot of the teams, but it is up to us to produce the goods.”
Jerome O’Connell
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