Stack elated as Limerick City side make history

In the euphoric minutes after Na Piarsaigh added the Munster club title to their first Limerick championship, Seán Stack looked as light on his feet as he did in his heyday with Sixmilebridge and Clare.
Captain of Sixmilebridge when they won the Munster club in 1984, Stack skipped over the turgid Semple Stadium surface, bearing a smile exacerbated by the torrent of back slaps and bear hugs enveloping the Na Piarsaigh manager.  
On what was Na Piarsaigh’s greatest day, he couldn’t but hark back to their lowest moment; scoring just three points in a 17-point county final defeat to Adare in 2009.
“They were sad days. That was only 24 months ago. To get a huge cheer from everybody there, having scored our third point in the hour and we down 17 at the time; to come from that to this. Is this happening? Crusheen are a serious team. I really stand back and admire them. To win a contest like that makes it all the more special. This is dreamland.  I’ll have to think about it and let it sink in a small bit,” Stack marvelled, not noticing the ice cold, ceaseless rain pelting from the Tipperary skies.
“This team has come from absolutely nowhere. To think back to when we played Croom in the first round of the championship in Limerick to becoming Munster champions, no one would have dared to dream. We were lucky to get over Croom but Na Piarsaigh are serious, serious guys and they buy into everything that they’re told and asked to do. They improved and improved,” he added.
Stack felt David Forde’s enforced substitution 16 minutes from time was a huge help to Na Piarsaigh. At that stage, Crusheen led 0-8 to 0-6 but were outscored 1-7 to 0-1 thereafter. Forde had entered the game carrying a dead leg.
“When they take off Davy Forde, it’s a bad sign for them and their players and it’s a huge lift for the opposition to see their main source of energy going off the pitch. They took him off and that was the turning point,” Stack maintained, adding that Na Piarsaigh targeted Crusheen’s tiring legs in the closing quarter.
“Crusheen have maybe a 45-minute spell in a match until they start running out of petrol a little bit. That came to the fore the last day, when they were tested by us. In the last quarter of an hour the last day, we probably were unlucky to draw the match. We were very much adamant to grind it out as much as we could until the 45th minute spell,” he said.
In the drawn game, Na Piarsaigh used their bench to positive effect and again last Sunday, their substitutes helped to win the game, particularly goalscorer Adrian Breen.
“You need fresh legs. Thurles is huge and it’s clingy and you have to get fresh legs in. We had the bench, we knew that but you have to be in the contest to bring them off the bench. Two years ago or even 12 months ago, bringing lads in would have been too late. Adrian Breen is seasoned now.
“He’s been on the team and was very disappointed not to be on it today. He’s physically a little bit light and we said ‘lets get through half this battle and introduce him then. He’ll have the legs then,”Stack revealed, revelling in the blue and white-clad elation in a rapidly darkening Semple Stadium.