Limerick’s Declan Hannon has reinvented No 6 and is on brink of immortality – Extra.ie

Sunday at Croke Park, Declan Hannon has the chance to go where no team captain in hurling has gone before.

To break the mould in his code, like Stephen Cluxton in Gaelic football, and set a record in terms of being the one to lift the ultimate prize on the steps of the Hogan Stand.

Until Cluxton, only two players in the history of Gaelic football had captained a team to three All-Irelands: John Kennedy of Dublin club Young Irelands (1891, '92, '94), at a time when counties were represented by their county champions, and Wexford's Sen O'Kennedy (1915-17).

In addition to reimagining the role of goalkeeper, the Parnells man went on to captain Dublin to seven All-Irelands.

Now Hannon is on the verge of going out on his own. Only three other players have captained their team to three All-Irelands: Mikey Maher of Tubberadora and Tipperary (1895, '96, '98), and Dick 'Drug' Walsh of Tullaroan and Kilkenny - again at a time when clubs were flying the flag for their county - plus Cork's legendary Christy Ring (1946, '53, '54).

A Limerick victory over Kilkenny on Sunday and Hannon becomes the first player in the history of hurling to captain his county to a three in a row and a fourth title in total.

And, like Cluxton, there is a sense of him reimagining the traditional role of a centre-back.

If Pep Guardiola helped popularise the concept of a false nine in soccer, Paul Kinnerk is another high-concept coach whose fingerprints are all over Limerick's tactical set-up.

Their system of play is built around Hannon's creation as a kind of hurling version of soccer's false nine - a false six who drops off and doesn't play to convention, but who can link the play and pull the strings to such effect. That he wears No 6 seems fitting; invert the 9 and you get the Limerick defensive version.

No more than in soccer, the role requires exceptional awareness and ability to scan the field and read the play.

Watch Hannon in motion and he's the perpetual heads-up hurler. Such a tricky role requires that ability to anticipate where the ball is going to be struck and be there to win it or hoover up the break. He is like a chess grandmaster thinking a couple of moves ahead.

With Limerick, there is a sense of protecting him, like the queen. Where other players are almost pawns in the construction of a winning game, Will O'Donoghue's capacity to sacrifice his ego for the team is a key element of the defensive shield, to cover the hard yards all around the middle third, but with one eye all the time on the central channel. Allowing Hannon to go do his thing.

The captain's ball-striking and stick-passing in particular - short or long - are so often the oil that keeps the Limerick engine humming. He is at the heart of those neat triangles the champions love to engineer in defence before finding that angled ball in to Aaron Gillane or Samus Flanagan.

Puck the ball down on top of him and he can do that all day, too. No more than Diarmaid Byrnes and Dan Morrissey, or

Kyle Hayes when he wears No 7 - their combined aerial ability is such that teams have basically stopped raffling the ball by pucking it down on top of them, particularly from restarts.

When Clare went long against them in their two-legged Munster battle, the ball went short first and then over the half-back line to the lighthouse figure of Peter Duggan.

If Limerick want to continually free up Hannon to glide around and play puppetmaster, then the opposition know it's vital to try and cut the strings. Teams have cottoned onto this, to Hannon's importance and found some joy in attacking Limerick at source.

It's so easy to get burned in that role. Look at Noel McGrath dropping off a more dedicated sweeper like Tadhg de Brca in the first half alone of Tipperary's first round Munster championship game against Waterford.

Players like that have an innate sense of where to find the pocket of space to do damage. Especially now that the modern scoring range for point-taking is anywhere inside 90 metres.

Jason Forde is arguably the one who did most damage in the first half of the 2021 Munster final when Tipperary stormed into a 10-point lead - named at 11 but dropping off and making hay in the spaces between there and midfield, he pilfered 10 points, the majority from play.

The second half, though, showcased Limerick's ability to reorganise and think on the hoof. To tighten things up defensively and blow Tipperary away in the most devastating half of hurling seen in John Kiely's six seasons as manager - outside of last year's All-Ireland final first half against Cork.

Hannon is not an explicit man-marker. You rarely see him shadowing a direct opponent to the wings or deep, comfortable in the knowledge that someone else can sit and play his role. Because nobody does.

But can Limerick afford to do the same against TJ Reid, one of the best in the modern game at not just winning primary possession but also drifting into pockets of space or reading the breaks to do major damage?

Cork's thinking in last year's final was to get at him, get him turned. Try and burn him with one of their Olympic-standard sprinters. But it didn't pan out that way at all. Hannon's capacity to produce big days, and big plays, when it mattered most, was at the heart of his All-Star selection. Same as it was in 2018.

He won plenty of plaudits for his speech from the steps of the Hogan Stand after the winter final of December 2020, name-checking the healthcare workers and frontline staff who bore the brunt during the pandemic.

A natural speaker and affable company, he has grown into that leadership role. He is comfortable enough in his own skin to be able to welcome RSVP magazine into his home. Along with partner and radio and TV presenter Louise Cantillon, they offered a glimpse behind the scenes last October into their O'Connell Avenue address in Limerick city.

Last week, he could be spotted happily hanging out with Tiger Woods at the JP McManus Pro-Am. But sure why wouldn't he, being in his native Adare, where he says he hopes to build a house?

Thirty years old this November coming, he has already surpassed the feat of another icon in his county's own Mick Mackey, who captained Limerick twice to All-Ireland success all the way back in 1936 and 1940.

The stage is set on Sunday for another tilt at history for Hannon and a type of number six who is very much in keeping with the evolution of the modern game.

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Limerick's Declan Hannon has reinvented No 6 and is on brink of immortality - Extra.ie