THE much-decorated Aaron Gillane was the stand-out performer for Limerick in the Easter Sunday National Hurling League triumph over Cork at a packed Gaelic Grounds.
In another masterful performance, the four-time All-Star grabbed a superb 1-7.
The tally brought his career return to a staggering 32-610 across over 90 competitive fixtures.
Remarkably, in all of Limerick’s recent League final triumphs, Gillane has always top scored: 2026 – 1-7, 2023 – 1-7, 2020 – 0-12 and 2019 – 1-9.
“He’s been practicing like hell for the last seven or eight weeks and waiting for his opportunity,” revealed manager John Kiely at the weekend. “He showed incredible patience, incredible support for Aidan (O’Connor) in his taking of the frees.”
“It was never, ever an issue between them or between Aaron and me on it either. He totally supported Aidan in his free-taking.
“Listen, we’re blessed. We have two really good free-takers now on the pitch and that’s a huge asset for us to have.”
On his wonder opening-half goal, a modest Gillane told TG4 after the match: “I didn’t even know it went in, to be honest, because when I hit I got tackled and I fell…I only knew it went in when I see Shane O’Brien running towards me with a big smiley head and knew then it must have meant something to us, either a score or a goal.”
He added: “It’s always a tough battle with Cork, always has been for the last five, six years or however many years it has been. They’re a good team, so just to get a test run like this before we go down to Páirc Uí Chaoimh (Munster Championship, April 26) in a couple of weeks, it’s just great to get. We’re over the moon.”
Many of Gillane’s long-time colleagues were also to the fore, such as clubmate Diarmaid Byrnes, William O’Donoghue, Adam English, Cathal O’Neill, and Gearóid Hegarty.