Kirby one of the greats

Watched Gary Kirby on Laochra Gael tonight and have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Great sympathy for the Limerick side of the '90s in particular for Kirby and Ciaran Carey who would have graced any era of hurling.
Kirby was an artist, I have to say he always looked typical of the hurler of a bygone era, he always looked slightly overweight, the type of bloke who would have preferred a Chinese to a training session but he must have worked hard to develop his natural ability for he was deadly accurate and his stick work would have been first class in any era.
There was at least one All-Ireland in that Limerick side of the '90s.
They came good just when the hurling revolution arrived and were probably its biggest casualty.
I'm sure Kirby was almost preparing the victory speech in '94 when the Offaly blitz of 2-5 turned a game round which Limerick had dominated.
It was cruel on a side which had waited so long for Munster success but I think we all thought at the time that their day would come.
It didn't although I believe they denied Clare three in a row when they beat them in Munster by a point in '96 in a great battle.
It did them no favours playing Antrim in the semi final as I remember they just blew us away with Frankie Carroll scoring for fun and almost performing circus tricks with the sliotar.
I think that Limerick went in to the All-Ireland final a little too over confident and struggled all day to find their form.
Wexford were by that stage battle hardened after years of fighting to displace Offaly and the Cats and they just fought like maniacs to hold out.
We didn't know it then but Limerick's best was gone, first Clare and then Cork were to dominate in Munster and it wasn't until last year that Limerick even got back among the contenders.
Gary Kirby is one of the greatest hurlers never to have won an All Ireland but I have to say that he had a great attitude to his career and he's definitely a man who sees the glass as half full.