After two particularly memorable seasons with his club Na Fianna, I caught up with centre back Liam Rushe to talk about All-Ireland glory and the Dublin club and county hurling scene.
I put it to him that the Na Fianna team learned the hard way and had to suffer a fair degree of heartache before finally landing the big prizes.
“Getting to the first final was huge but we didn’t have the maturity to get over the line. The second was nip and tuck and could have gone either way but that’s how it’s been with ourselves and Crokes for the last few years.
"When we’re both on our game there’s nothing in it. We took lessons from the defeats, just to maintain focus from the first whistle to the last. Finally getting over the line and lifting the Dublin trophy was such an achievement for us.”
“We have become hard to beat and I suppose we had no choice. We changed approach in the last couple of years. We weren’t as explosive as we could be and threw caution to the wind a bit and got success from it.”
A strong Leinster campaign followed their maiden win with the Mobhi Road men reaching the provincial final in 2023 but coming up just short.
“We did well in Leinster in 2023 all things considered for a team who won their first county title, winning the provincial quarter and semi. We performed pretty well in the final and there wasn’t much in it but O’Loughlin Gaels were very strong defensively.
"They had a couple of All Stars in their ranks and that matched up well with our very strong forward line. It became an incredibly physical battle and we just lost out.”