WATCH: Emotional All-Ireland Man of the Match Gearoid Hegarty reflects on unbelievable 2020 campaign

As he has so often in 2020, Gearoid Hegarty put on an exhibition in Croke Park yesterday as he notched 0-7 from play as Limerick put Waterford to the sword, 0-30 to 0-19 in the All-Ireland final.

It was another notch in his incredible season as he has surely rubberstamped his name as the Hurler of the Year.

After the match, Hegarty first spoke to GAA President and the Sunday Game as he outlined the importance of the lockdown training despite the uncertainty of it all.

“It will be a great Christmas. I found it incredibly hard over the lockdown to keep the training going. There was no light at the end of the tunnel for a long time, we didn’t know whether the championship was going ahead or not. There was ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’, will it or won’t it.

“I suppose the one thing that kept me going over the lockdown was imaging winning an All-Ireland at Christmas time and how good Christmas would be. I’m going to look forward to the next few weeks.”

The St Patricks man would then pay tribute to his own club who lined the streets as he headed off to Dublin early on Sunday morning.

“I got an incredible send off this morning. I didn’t see it coming. Driving out this morning, all the club were out in the streets waving me on with their flags.

“At the time I was trying to keep it in check. But I can’t wait to get home and celebrate with them because it’s been a really tough time over the past few months but I’m sure we brought them some happiness over the past couple of weeks and especially today.”

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