“Nearer my God to Thee”
I drove by the Gaelic Grounds this evening and could swear that I heard the strains of “Nearer my God to Thee” coming from within. With continued unrest in the Limerick Senior hurling squad, has the band has struck up that fateful tune for Manager Justin McCarthy?
A quick recap for those not afflicted with the pain of being a Limerick hurling fan. Sporting Limerick has not been very successful in hurling over recent years/ decades. Our county boards solution to this problem has been to change managers with alarming regularity. Richie Bennis, Joe McKenna, Pad Joe Whelahan, David Keane, Eamon Cregan have all come and gone since 1997 and yet no All Ireland has come to visit us. Each year has seen highs and lows and each year has seen some kind of PR disaster played out in the papers. Selection issues, rows with the county board, drinking etc. has been a common end to Limerick’s season.
Enter Justin McCarthy, fresh from being ousted by the Waterford Senior Hurling Panel to bring hope to the weary. However last year our season ended in abject humiliation at the hands of our next door neighbours, Tipperary.
Limerick fans, used to the soap opera type affairs that have dominated the senior team in recent years must have been pleasantly surprised that everything was quite and peaceful after the drubbing by Tipp. That was until this week, when Limerick Hurling has once again hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
In Justin’s “Night of the Long Knives” 12 senior squad members were culled. Once again Limerick Hurling’s version of X Factor is being played out in the media. Rumours abound of other senior players withdrawing and players meetings. Added to that a statement by current county board chairman Liam Lenihan apologising for the way the culled players have been treated adds an extra dimension to the story.
Hurling is an amateur sport and judging by the fiasco playing out on our newspapers around this latest disaster is also administered by “amateurs” in Limerick. However Justin wants to put his squad together or cull players , it should never be played out in public like this. Someone needs to manage this from a PR point of view and ensure that Limerick hurling suffers no more damage. As the row rumbles on and he said she said stories fill local papers, the only loser in this will be hurling. The onus is on the county board to manage this in a more professional manner.
Limerick Hurling needs to stop providing more entertainment off that field that it does on it. The county board need to sort out its communication, its PR and ensure that Limerick returns to being a competitive focussed squad again. Will this happen with Justin McCarthy at the helm, only time will tell.