Adam English: 'I took it hard on myself that I wasn't able to finish out the matches'

04 Apr 2026, 06:00 by Stephen Barry · The42

IT’S THE STORYBOOK GAA upbringing. Long before Limerick were winning Liam MacCarthy Cups, donning that green jersey at Croke Park was Adam English’s dream.

He reckons he’s played hundreds of All-Ireland finals in his garden, ending each one by firing the winning goal into the backyard net.

The Doon-native was a teenager on the Hill in 2018, watching Cian Lynch, Aaron Gillane, and Gearóid Hegarty live out his greatest ambition. He had just turned 19 when joining them on the panel for the 2022 season.

“I won’t lie at all,” English says. “I was in awe when I came in, looking at the likes of Cian, Aaron Gillane, Hego, all the lads.

“You’d just be watching the lads warming up and you’d be like, how are they doing this? When you’re training beside them, it is very weird. It’s surreal.

“You have to snap out of that fairly quickly. Because at the end of the day, you want to be playing for Limerick yourself.”

Adam English and Cian Lynch. Laszlo Geczo / INPHOLaszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO

English was awestruck, mixed with an element of frustration. He had been used to playing every game growing up. John Kiely laid out the plan from the start.

“You mightn’t realise it yourself that you aren’t physically or mentally ready. When John Kiely rang me, he was like, ‘This is a three-year process. You’re not going to come in here straight away and light it up, because that’s a very rare thing to do.’

“Every year is about getting physically stronger and, more importantly, mentally, the capacity that you have for the game to be able to know what to do in tight scenarios is very important.”

English was laughing at the thought of it recently. The three-year plan ran almost to the minute. In 2024, he got “glimpses” of game time in the ‘pocket role’. In 2025, aged 22, he suddenly found himself starting every match at midfield, bar the Clare dead-rubber.

Kiely’s prediction was “spot on”.

Now, he reflects, “it’s pretty cool to be living out that dream” of big matches at the Gaelic Grounds, Semple Stadium, and Croke Park.

It hasn’t all been easy, though. English entered a team that had raised even more silverwave than his younger self could’ve imagined in his back garden. But 2025 proved Limerick’s first trophyless year since 2017.

“It was tough to take it last year. I was coming in, replacing Darragh (O’Donovan), because he was caught with injuries. If you see Darragh, every time Limerick were playing and he was playing, they were winning. So I took it hard on myself that I wasn’t able to finish out the matches.

“You do take it to heart a small bit, but at the end of the day, you can’t be living in the past too much. You have to be looking at the future as well, looking at what you can do and what you can improve on.

“Caroline Currid has come back in this year. She’s been brilliant with us. She’s talked a lot about last season. We’ve been able to process it and not forget about it, but definitely put it in the past and we’re focused for this season.”

For English to explain that Dublin defeat, the penalty shoot-out loss to Cork has to be factored in.

“The Munster final would have been a massive flattening for us. Losing in your backyard is tough to take. Cork were absolutely incredible on the day, but it wasn’t easy to take.

“That’s what it stemmed from. Two weeks after the Munster final, you had to go into a game, and it is hard to get yourself up to that level. Because the levels you have to get up to before a championship game, to put your body through, are exceptional. To get back up to those levels was difficult for the Dublin game.

“It was extremely difficult to take that defeat, especially being a man up. It was our own fault. We didn’t perform. Dublin were exceptional on the day. They came with the fight. You could see, watching it back, they wanted it more. That’s what it came down to.”

English is in a good position now. He has started more games in the past two seasons than any other Limerick hurler.