GAA dual player crisis thrives in Limerick

WHY must it always be Limerick? As crisis once again grips the GAA Shannonside, this is the questions asked by their long-suffering fans.

Six dual players feeling victimised and disillusioned have been forced (as they see it) into a situation where they’re allowed to play only one sport. Statement and counter-statement have been issued, while accusations are flying across the county. What’s going on?

Let’s examine the problem, from all four sides. Liam Kearns and his football management team are on record as stating that they will accommodate the dual players, going so far as to state their willingness to have them for just one evening in three per week, for training. So there is no problem on that front.

The dual players themselves are willing to do whatever is humanly possible to train for and play both games. Again there is no obvious problem.

Given the way the draw panned out, with Cork and Kerry on the other side, the County Board this year sees a real opportunity for Limerick to reach their second Munster senior football final in succession And with the appointment of an acknowledged hurling coaching expert as manager, they also see the potential for their senior hurlers to finally make the long-awaited All-Ireland breakthrough. With that in mind, they want harmony, with every player available to both managers, so again, no problem.

Which brings us to the hurling management. According to Liam Kearns, Padjoe Whelahan and his management team gave the six dual players an ultimatum: “give up football, or begone from the hurling panel.” The players decided they were going to stick together, went to the county board, asked them to intervene; they did, but the hurling management team was unmoved. “The position of the management of the Limerick senior hurling team cannot change on this issue as we need the full commitment and focus of our panel to prepare for the championship in 2004”.

So, the hurling management are the bad guys, right? Well, a lot of other counties have dual-player issues, but why must it always be Limerick making the headlines? The answer is simple. No other county has so many top-class dual players. Last Sunday, four of the six involved in this crisis played, as Limerick footballers won the McGrath Cup.

In hurling, last year’s manager Dave Keane reckons three of the six would be on his starting 15, with the other three as strong additions to the panel. Six players missing on a regular basis from training, six players who when the inevitable clash of fixtures arose would be forced into a choice of games. In the modern cut-throat GAA inter-county arena, how reasonable is it to ask a manager to plan his season around that? That Liam Kearns was prepared to do so speaks volumes for him, but should condemnation of the hurling management’s refusal to do the same automatically follow?

This was a problem inherited by Padjoe Whelahan and his fellow-selectors. It blew up two years ago when Eamonn Cregan tried to enforce his own football ban; Dave Keane tried to work around it last year but has said that, this year, had he remained in the hurling job, he too would have asked the players to make a choice.

It is the opinion of many top managers and players (Conor Hayes and Brendan Cummins on recent record) that combining the two sports at the top level is no longer an option. Forget even about opinion for a moment, look at simple facts. All League games are played in the same calendar year, all are bunched into the early season, all are far more competitive than was ever the case in the old system. With the new qualifier system in both hurling and football, the championship also has more games.

It’s a sad but inevitable fact, the day of the successful senior inter-county dual player is almost over. Two years ago Cregan left it until after the last round of the league to play his hand. Whelahan tried to get it sorted early.