O’Grady: Limerick board’s lack of perspective ‘appalling’
On Sunday evening O’Grady stepped down as joint manager/coach of the Limerick senior hurlers following the Limerick board’s failure to retract an allegation that O’Grady and his co-manager, TJ Ryan, had “apologised for the abysmal displays of the team”, which had failed to be promoted from Division 1B.
O’Grady said: “The first thing the Limerick chairman, Oliver Mann, said when we met about this was that no apology had ever been issued by team management, so I don’t understand why the issue hasn’t been clarified.”
A statement released to the Irish Examiner on Sunday evening pointed out that it had been ten days since the Limerick board had promised to publish the retraction on its website and O’Grady had consequently decided to step down.
Last night the All-Ireland-winning coach fleshed out his reasons for resigning. “I was appalled to hear about this in the first place,” said O’Grady.
“The most important element in this is the players. That’s the important thing — everything is geared towards improving them and supporting them, or it should be.
“When allegations like this are made, and when they’re not withdrawn — as we were promised they would be — then it undermines all the work that’s done to support players and to develop them.”
O’Grady pointed to differences in other county boards.
“I felt the Limerick officers lacked perspective when it came to the performances in the league, that they rushed to judgement.
“If you look around for comparisons, other counties had their problems during the league. Dublin lost heavily to Tipp last year in the hurling semi final. Cork lost to Dublin recently in the NFL semi-final by seven points having been ahead by ten; Kerry lost their opening games in the NFL and were under severe pressure.
“In last year's championship, even, Tyrone were well beaten by Kerry down in Killarney.
“In all those cases you didn't have county board officers coming out and undermining players in public. In those instances the boards supported the players and management.
“Everything stems from that and creates the proper environment. The players are well aware of that and can tell if the board are supporting them, and they respond accordingly.
“All of that isn’t to say that there may be strong words spoken behind closed doors.
“There may well be. That’s par for the course and I fully accept that. But the business shouldn't be conducted in public.
“Look at the Cork hurlers. They were relegated to Division 1B last year but there wasn’t a word of criticism from the county board. They always expressed their full support for the players and management in public.”
O’Grady pointed out that Limerick were under severe pressure during the league campaign with injuries, adding that only one first-choice forward was available to the county for their crucial league clash with Offaly.
“For that game we were without Declan Hannon, Seamus Hickey and David Breen due to long term injuries.
“Shane Dowling was present but was medically unfit to play because of illness, ruled out in the warm up; James Ryan was unavailable to start due to family commitments.
“Conor Allis, our only free taker on the day, also had ’flu. He deserves great credit as he played for as long as he could.
“All of that meant Graeme Mulcahy was the only starting forward from last year’s team that was available at the beginning of the game.
“We conceded a goal and a pointed free in added time that levelled the game, losing the chance of promotion to Division 1A.”
O’Grady acknowledged that coaches and managers “live or die” by their results.
“I have no problem with that, you prepare a team the best you can, and if it doesn't work out then it doesn’t work out. A manager lives or dies by those results.
“But everyone has to be pulling the same way to succeed. That was how I felt as a player and it’s how I feel as a manager.”
