[1] On 21 October 2018, Hayes was selected amongst the substitutes when Kildimo-Pallaskenry faced Cappamore in the final of the Limerick Junior Football Championship.
[6] Eligible for the minor grade again the following year, he was selected at centre-forward when Limerick suffered a second successive defeat by Tipperary in the 2016 Munster final.
[13] Hayes was still just 18-years-old and out of the minor grade when he was drafted onto the senior panel by new manager John Kiely in advance of the 2017 Munster League.
He made his first appearance of the pre-season competition on 8 January 2017, when he came on as a half-time-minute substitute for right corner-back Seánie O'Brien in a first-round defeat of Waterford.
[15] He was retained on the panel for the 2017 National League campaign, making six appearances, including at full-forward in Limerick's ten-point defeat by Galway in the semi-final.
[27] He again received an All-Star nomination at the end of the season, while he was also shortlisted for a second successive Young Hurler of the Year award but lost out to Kilkenny's Adrian Mullen.
[31] For the Munster semi-final against Tipperary on 1 November 2020, he was surprisingly switched from the forwards to defence, lining out at left wing-back with Cian Lynch taking over the centre-forward position.
[33] On 13 December 2020, he scored a point from his now customary position of left wing-back when Limerick defeated Waterford by 0-30 to 0-19 in the All-Ireland final.
[35] In November 2023, a jury was sworn in to hear a trial of Hayes and three other men who were charged with violent disorder and assault causing harm to a man at a nightclub in Limerick city in October 2019.
[37][38] The trial heard Hayes was part of a "mob" that "chased", "punched", "stamped" and "kicked" a 24-year-old man, during a "vicious and sustained attack" inside and outside the nightclub.
[44] The case was due in court on 7 October 2024 but was adjourned for two months pending an appeal against the dangerous driving conviction.