Limerick hurler Gavin O'Mahony has got a monkey firmly off his back. Not only did the Shannonsiders break a 17-year gap in Munster last month, but in his fifth campaign in the Limerick Senior jersey the Kilmallock player managed to pick up his first ever medal.

O'Mahony says that the Munster win was a huge relief after years of hard work had gone unrewarded trying to get to this point.

"It was definitely a major boost for us," he told hoganstand.com.

"We are in unknown territory at the moment, trying to focus lads and getting them going again for the semi-final has been tough, but at the same time when we were growing up and we were aiming to play for Limerick we didn't think about winning Munster Championships, we wanted to win the big one, so that has been the focus for the last couple of weeks and we are hoping that will drive home to lads.

O'Mahony and his colleagues will hope to book a first All-Ireland Final appearance since 2007 this Sunday, with support coming from an unlikely source, with a lot of Ethiopians interesting in Limerick's exploits as the 26-year old explains.

"There's a couple of Limerick jerseys floating around in Ethiopia anyway so hopefully we'll have a great support and they will be all behind us this weekend, "he said.

How this new-found interest in the Shannonsiders came about, was through O'Mahony's passion for travelling the World in the last couple of Summers, once Limerick's annual exit in the Championship arrived.

"It's been the case for a lot of Summers in Limerick. We know more so than other counties that these opportunities don't come around too often and it's about making hay while the sun is shining. I'm 26 now and the Munster medal was my first medal with Limerick so, we definitely know more than most that you have to take these opportunities when they come around and make the most of them.

Always keen to give something back, O'Mahony signed up with fellow Limerick player Graeme Mulcahy to volunteer in the African country with Tracey Pigott's 'Playing for Life' charity.

"I was in Ethiopia with 'Playing for Life' for a couple of weeks. It was a real eye-opener for me and it really made me appreciate my hurling when I came back. Definitely I do have a new appreciation now of the small things. Even coming training the enjoyment I can get out of a group like that every Tuesday and Thursday evening. It is a great release and you appreciate all of those small things - family and everything comes a bit closer. It was definitely nice to go and help out in some small way."

Also on that trip, was current Clare hurler John Conlon, with whom O'Mahony has also become friendly with through his involvement with Mary Immaculate College.

"John was actually on the trip with us as well. I got to know John fairly well in the last couple of years, he was in with Mary Immaculate as well this year. We have crossed paths more than most."

The colleges scene has also thrown up a lot of Limerick-Clare friendships over the years, with the added intrigue of current Banner boss Davy Fitzgerald having managed Limerick IT in the Fitzgibbon Cup in recent years.

"He studies the game so well that he will know Limerick inside out. I don't think that it will be tactics that will decide the outcome of the game. Most of the positions would cancel each other out, because there are no unknowns there. Each team will be hoping that they can get over the line on the day and we'll be hoping that it is us."

But at inter-county level O'Mahony says there is also a huge familiarity.

"Even in the league we seem to be meeting every year. I suppose that's how this match is going to be set up. It's just going to be a battle, because the teams know each other so well at this stage that it will just be a case of the rub of the green or if someone gets a break of the ball that will separate the teams."

O'Mahony's involvement in Mary Immaculate was in a management role, with current upcoming Tipperary Senior player Timmy Hammersley and Limerick legend Eamon Cregan also involved.

He says it was great to be involved in helping a team at colleges level.

"Definitely it's pure. It's like the Under 21 Championship really, players although playing on the same team they don't know each other that well and it's just a real honest effort from each of them. I got a real buzz out of being involved with Mary I earlier the year. The lads were a great bunch. A lot of them wouldn't have been much younger than me. There was very little in the difference. Everyone was just rowing in behind the whole thing. They just bought into the system and it was brilliant."

That Mary Immaculate squad contained a wealth of upcoming talent from across Munster, as the college reached a first ever Fitzgibbon Cup final, including a sizeable amount of the Clare Under 21 team.

"Even at that time of the year they were going well also. They shone really well for Mary I and they are still going well. Their performance in the Munster final was really awesome, because that Tipperary Under 21 team is by no means a bad team either."

18 of that Munster winning panel will tog out in Croke Park this weekend.

"It's unbelievable. Galway last year maybe had not as many, but they had a similar type of a system and a team. I suppose it's such a big commitment now and it is so hard to keep going with the amount and volume of training that it probably is a younger man's game. A younger lad is full of enthusiasm and maybe a student with more time on their hands than a lad who is farming or trying to hold down a full-time job. It has definitely gone that way I think."

Looking at his own year, O'Mahony says that while he isn't keen to look back too much, the league final against Dublin was an abysmal display all round.

"Coming from the start of the year and being in Division 1B of the league we always knew that we were going to be up against it. Our first goal and our aim was the Munster Championship and I suppose we had to re-evaluate things after that and try and go again and just try and approach it as a separate Championship again. This is a new start, a new beginning and basically we have to earn our crust again.

"It was a big reality check I suppose. Looking back on it and I'm sure Dublin would have looked at the game as well. It was probably two bad performances from both teams. The stick that was going around after that was not personal, but it was very evident that the game was well below where it needed to be. At the time the 1A league seemed to be throwing up a few cracking games. Then we produced a final like that, that left a lot to be desired.

"Similarly now to the Munster semi-final we are going into an awful unknown. You try to prepare and train as best you can, but until you go out and perform you just don't know. This semi-final for us now is the same.

"You don't tend to look back too much and look at what has gone wrong. You just live in what is going on and try and take it day-by-day. I haven't watched too much of the last two games and I'm sure the Clare players would be the same. They will just look at how they are training and they won't focus on anything else. Maybe in years looking back we'll say 'how did we pull that off?' or 'how did that happen?', but now at the moment we are just experiencing it and living it." Tweet

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