Having been enticed back into the first team by former county team-mate Ciarán Carey, 39-year-old Barry Foley collected his seventh Limerick SHC medal with Patrickswell last weekend.

Foley - who previously landed county medals in 1993, '95, '96, '97, '00 and '03 - dropped down to the junior team in 2014 but then had a visit from newly-appointed manager Carey, who encouraged him back to the first team. Defeat in the 2015 county final followed but the 'Well - now managed by another Treaty County legend, Gary Kirby - got over the line for the first time in 13 years when easing past Ballybrown on Sunday.

"Ciarán called down to me when he got the job to ask me would I be interested in coming back. He kind of half forced me - you don't say no to Ciarán Carey," he recalls in The Irish Examiner.

"I wanted to know had he a plan for me. He had, he put it on the table and he said, 'you'll be playing'. That was good enough for me. I had something to work towards, something to aim for. The year I gave it up, I had it in my head I would never get back playing senior hurling ever again. I never envisaged playing in another county final.

"I'd say at the start of this year the new management didn't know what to do with me. I didn't think they saw me as a full back. They threw me out midfield for a couple of games and I held onto that position. It ain't easy because I have to do a share of fitness work on my own. The older you get, the more willing you are to make sacrifices.

"This is my sweetest win of the lot. I've been waiting so long and when I started out, you came onto a good team and you slotted in. It just happened. It is the effort that went into this one. It takes a lot to play midfield in a county final at the age of 39."

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