WATCH: Brian Donovan on Billy Lee’s impact and next year’s ambitions to “go one step further in the championship”

Mark Reilly sat down with Limerick Senior footballer Brian Donovan in an exclusive interview to talk about Limerick’s season, his own goals and thoughts and Billy Lee’s impact and future with the Shannonsiders.

Limerick football hasn’t always held the greatest reputation throughout the country, always showing heart, grit and determination, but always seeming to lack that finishing touch, that clinical, ruthless nature and finished article in terms of shining confidence and raw talent. However, in recent years and going into the near future Billy Lee’s side are slowly turning heads and the image attached to the Shannonsiders footballing prowess.

Part of this improvement and culture change that is looking to shift towards winning and consistently improving is Brian Donovan. The Monaleen man sat down to discuss and share his thoughts on where the Treaty side stand at the moment and where they are looking to propel themselves in the future. 

Limerick’s development in recent years has been evident with some fine displays and impressive results under the guidance of Billy Lee, but again this year just fell short in the Munster Football Senior Championship semi-final against rivals Cork in July.

Billy Lee’s men started strong but ultimately fell to defeat due to a lack of clinical finishing and arguably experience in that high level pressurised situation.

Speaking on the season and the semi-final loss Brian Donovan stated,

“We played Waterford in the first round of the championship, I thought it went really well In that game, everything came together… we put up a good score against them so we were coming into the Cork game confident… We thought we could do a job on them but things didn’t go our way”.

“There’s a lot of learning to take from the match… All in all we had such a good season, we learned a lot from the season…Hopefully next year we can take those learnings and improve”.

The dynamic and speedy Limerick man said, “defensivley we were very good, we just didn’t take our chances”.

The 24 year old had stopped playing football for four years, from the age of fourteen to eighteen, focusing on other sports, in particular soccer during that period. Having received a scholarship the former Castletroy College student travelled to America on a scholarship for the sport but decided to return home after a year to be with his family and friends and ultimately take a different path in life which lead to his now important role under Billy Lee’s management.

“I went to Miami, great experience, a variety of different cultures… Unfortunately I got a bit home sick, came home at Christmas and never went back over…You’re moving on with your life and doing something completely different but at the same time you’re missing out on lots of things back home, I weighed it up and talked to my family and decided to stay home and I don’t regret the decision”

he said.

Donovan mentioned how he would fall back in love with the sport of football once he had returned home to Ireland having focused on other things for several years and admitted to “loving the sport again” following his return to action at club level.

With Billy Lee’s tenure and term coming to an end following the campaign gone by, it’s clear that he has warranted a place as the manager for a longer future term and has been backed by the team and in particular Donovan as the young promising talent said,

“I think it’s fairly self-explanatory that he’s done very well with Limerick over the last five years… He’s a very good manager and a very good peoples person.

“If you look at the last two or three years, we got promoted last year from division four up to division 3…the results are showing for themselves”.

Donovan discussed the improvements in his game and how Lee’s management and passion for the team and the sport has aided his development as a player.

Also mentioning the difference in standard between club level and county level to which he quickly realised were vastly different. Having been content with his improvement as a solid player for the senior panel, Donavon admitted he has areas where his wishes to build upon in his game and will never be truly satisfied as the “finished article”. 

“I can improve on everything, when you’re playing for your club you have that extra second or two on the ball, when you’re playing for your county you don’t have that extra second… The decision has to be made quicker.”

The improvement and strides the Treaty side have made in recent years with promotion and positive results becoming more and more common, the inter squad competition and hunger Lee has installed in his side is paying off.

This has been illustrated year after year as the ever improving football side look more and more dangerous with each outing. Donovan feels this is a combination of players wanting to represent the county jersey year after year and the talent coming through getting larger and larger every season, all of these combinations can be put down to the work of the Limerick manager according to Donovan.

“I can only look back on last year and what we’ve achieved, not even the 26 man squad but the whole panel… there’s a lot of lads competing for places, that’s always a good sign… you can have all these lads in for one year, but the next year they could leave, that’s what Billy’s done so well, he’s got that group of players in who want to play for Limerick, who get on well with each other in a good environment… everyone seems to be friends now and that means we will stick together”.

On the future hopes and ambitions of Donovan himself as well as the rest of the Limerick panel he stated:” Next year ill be hoping that well be competing at division three, hopefully looking at promotion”.

The goal will remain the same for Brian and his teammates as he hopes and aims to win a Munster final in the near future.

“Hopefully get Limerick up to division two… and next year go one step further in the championship, maybe turn Cork if we play them… It would be nice to get to a Munster final…that’s the goal”

he added.

Watch the interview in full here:

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