Monday, March 01, 2010
I MET a few people on the way into the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday evening, mostly Limerick supporters, and I remarked that it was a pity all this trouble was happening.
Their answer to me?
"We’re the fools," said one guy. "I know a lot of very good Limerick supporters who are not here tonight. They are staying away, yet here we are again, paying our money. I don’t care who manages this team, if it was Bin Laden himself over from Afghanistan, as long as we were putting out our best team every week, and getting the best out of them. We did NOT bring in a manager to Limerick to divide the county, but now even our own houses are divided on this."
His solution? "I never heard any player saying they wouldn’t play for the county board, they’re saying they won’t play for this manager.
"I want to see this resolved, with no egos involved. Even with our best players, there’s no guarantee that we’ll be winning, but with this team there is almost the certain guarantee that we WILL be losing.
"People are praising them because they’re giving their best – of course they’re giving their best, wouldn’t any player, in their situation?
"The reality is that Limerick hurling is a laughing stock – it makes me feel nothing but shame."
And still he was there, witnessing Limerick suffering another beating. Greatest insult of all though – based on what we saw on Saturday evening, is that teams are now starting to feel sorry for Limerick. Cork were barely out of half pace, and still won pulling up. Definitely there was a sympathy factor there; out on the pitch, the Cork players knew that this was a Limerick team they could take any time they wanted. How many points did Cork take when goals were a distinct possibility? How many times did Cork just pull away, when Limerick threatened? The form of some of the Cork players, the likes of Ronan Curran, Eoin Cadogan, Brian Murphy, Tom Kenny, John Gardiner – for all the established Cork names, when they decided to exert themselves, it was like taking candy from a baby.
They were in a different class.
I’m not going to single out any of the Limerick players for mention here, because I felt that every single one of them tried his level best, and you must give credit to them for that.
Their problem isn’t commitment, it isn’t hunger, it isn’t courage. Their problem is their own limitations. Nearly all those guys are novices, and many of them would probably thrive if they were in an environment where they had a few experienced players around them. They don’t have that, and it’s unfair on them. They are giving their all for Limerick but at this level, it’s nowhere near enough.
Many years ago, the famous Babs Keating supposedly made a statement before a Munster final, 1990 I think it was, a very disparaging statement, to the effect that ‘donkeys don’t win derbies’; harsh, but if it wasn’t a reality then (Cork famously used the quote – uttered or not – as motivation to beat Tipperary), it is now, when applied to this Limerick team, and I get no pleasure in saying that.
I’ve long been an admirer of Limerick hurling, but this is a team out of their depth. After the game, another supporter, and this time a Corkman, said to me (and with typical Cork modesty) – "Even we couldn’t put out a competitive second team, last year." Hasn’t Brian Cody said the same thing about Kilkenny? So what are Limerick at? There are a lot of very good people in Limerick, very good hurling supporters, of the kind I met last night; they’re frustrated, because they see what’s happening but they feel powerless to do anything about it. There is one very powerful individual behind the scenes, however, the county’s main sponsor, JP McManus, who could intervene – perhaps it’s time he did.
Does all this mean Cork are flying? No; Cork still have a lot of work to do. They learned little or nothing from this game, a foregone conclusion before ever a ball was pucked. They play Clare in a challenge match in Fermoy next Saturday – I know Clare are now Division 2, but that will actually be a better test for Cork than this game.
Finally, I’m no fan of hurling under lights; maybe it was just that the game was a damp squib, but there was no atmosphere in the Gaelic Grounds, to match the zero temperature.
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