Off the back of a two-season mini-drought, Aaron Gillane detected “something different” about Limerick’s latest All-Ireland success. A week later, he got a reminder of what winning their first felt like.The 2023 Hurler of the Year was back in Croke Park for Mayo’s famine-ending football triumph. Normally, he would clear off straight after full-time to point the car for home. This time, he hung around for a while after to soak in the celebrations.The “unbelievable feeling” extended to bringing the Liam MacCarthy Cup back to Patrickswell on the Tuesday alongside clubmates Cian Lynch and Diarmaid Byrnes. The festivities didn’t run too long. Nine days after that homecoming, the county trio were back on club duty.One common thread between Gillane’s Limerick and Patrickswell campaigns was passing on free-taking duties.Aidan O’Connor took over the Treaty responsibilities. For the club, Aaron handed them over to his younger brother Jason, who was the county’s sub-keeper in 2025.“It’s been a while now since I’ve hit a free. He’s just 10 times a better striker, to be fair to him,” says the four-time All Star.“He’ll nearly go back into the halfback line if Diarmaid was having an off-day on frees, so it’s good to have that option there.“Jason would have played in goals for a couple of years and naturally his striking would be very good.“It doesn’t matter. It’s the same as Limerick. As long as Patrickswell are scoring, it doesn’t matter whether it’s Jason or me, or anyone else.”Aaron Gillane during the All-Ireland final. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho There was another personal landmark last Friday as Gillane celebrated his 30th birthday. Not that he had any big party planned, saying: “Thirty sounds very old, doesn’t it?”It was a year in which Gillane had to bide his time between a calf injury and patchy scoring returns. Leaving aside frees, 2-5 was his lowest championship total from play since becoming a starter. When asked how much he’s changed across the past 10 seasons, the six-time All-Ireland champion gives his longest answer.“The patience, especially in the full-forward line,” he says. “When you’re younger, you could get frustrated a lot if the ball isn’t coming in as often, but you just learn these things as you go. You have to keep your head. You have to stay cool. The ball will come in eventually.“Even if you’re not getting on the ball or if you’re not getting scores, the one thing you can always control is your work rate. You’ve full ownership of that. How can you impact the game by getting in a couple of tackles or making a few turnovers? They’re the things you learn over the years.“It’s not all about getting in a few balls and getting a few scores. There’s a lot more that you can do on the field to help the team.”It’s the same lesson as that espoused by Hurler of the Year front-runner Gearóid Hegarty. Celebrated sports psychologist Caroline Currid has been a help to them in that regard.Sports psychologist Caroline Currid with Limerick team. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho “Caroline cares. You can tell that she genuinely cares about all of us,” says Gillane. “Whether that’s on-the-field stuff, work, or anything at all, she is always there to lend a helping hand. You can always depend and trust in Caroline.“She’d just simplify things for you a lot. There’s no point in over-thinking or over-worrying. Once you have that, it almost lifts your confidence again and you go out and train and if you put in a good training session, the confidence comes up another bit.“Just control the things that you can control. That’s working hard in training and working hard out in the field.”Was she the missing link during her two years away from the squad?“It’s hard to say,” says Gillane. “We would have learned a load of things off her throughout those years that we would have tried to implement anyway. But no, I definitely prefer having her back around anyway.”[ Being wrong is part of the job. I thought Katie Taylor might not sell out Croke ParkOpens in new window ]Gillane is hopeful Limerick will remain a contender long into the future. Having broken their 45-year wait for the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2018, the next generation snapped a drought dating back to 1984 for an All-Ireland minor title.“Forty-five years is a long, long time,” says Gillane. “With the minors, I was shocked to hear them say after the match that it was 42 years. I didn’t think that at all. “You can’t plan these things. The teams in those 45 years that have won nothing, I’m sure they put in just as much work as we did and it just didn’t seem to happen for some reason.“Hopefully it doesn’t go back to that way and hopefully we can stay on the winning track for as long as we can.”– Aaron Gillane was speaking at the launch of Legends 4 Milford Golf Classic. Today’s event will feature Limerick hurling legends taking on Munster rugby greats in a Ryder Cup-style fundraiser at Ballyneety Golf Club in aid of Milford Care Centre.