As it was in the beginning, is now...

CLARE 2-21 Limerick 0-10. Limerick manager resigns. Antrim 9-39 Roscommon 0-5. Galway 7-18 Laois 2-13. Waterford 3-22 Westmeath 1-14. Three more lop-sided results from this past weekend’s hurling action in the All-Ireland qualifiers and Christy Ring Cup.

Ah yes, the doom-sayers will be out in force proclaiming hurling is in crisis and something must be done, and soon.

Hurling is not in crisis. Or at least no more so than it ever was. Long before the GAA was born, hurling or its variations was confined to just a few specialised areas of the country. As it was then, so it is now. Go back to the early years of the GAA and you’ll find Thurles (Tipperary), Tulla (Clare), Meelick (Galway), Aghabullogue (Cork), Ballyduff (Kerry), Kilfinane (Limerick), Tullaroan (Kilkenny), teams from Wexford, Laois, Dublin, all of which still retain those hurling roots. Even Donegal made it into the All-Ireland list, a semi-final appearance in 1923 (lost to Limerick, 7-4 to 0-1), and there is still at least one strong and dedicated hurling club in Donegal to this day, in Burt.

Within those various localities hurling is constantly in flux. Examples? All-Ireland final 1964, Tipperary 5-13 Kilkenny 2-8, a 14-point defeat for the Cats; All-Ireland final 1965, Tipperary 2-16 Wexford 0-10, a 12-point toasting. 1967, Kilkenny come back, beat Tipp by two points in the final while in 1968, Wexford gain their revenge over the same opposition by two points.

You want one-sided games? In 1949, Tipperary won an All-Ireland title with a 6-18 to 1-4 semi-final win over Antrim, followed by a 3-11 to 0-3 trouncing of Laois. In 1937, they restricted another team to just three points in the final, another 3-11 to 0-3 scoreline. Their victims? Kilkenny.

Hurling is the kind of game where a team on top can run up a big score very rapidly. People will cry now about the disparity between the teams at the top, about the futility of these qualifiers, the lack of competitiveness. They will be wrong, on both counts. In the first instance, that kind of disparity is a fact of life in most sports (Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, now Chelsea; Real Madrid, Barcelona in Spain; the Yankees in baseball). In the second, the whole idea of the qualifiers was to ensure we got the best eight teams in hurling in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, and thus a reduced chance of the kind of mismatch we saw this weekend, of the kind of games that were so much a part of the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals in former years.

So no, hurling isn’t in any more of a crisis than it ever was. What hurling needs is someone with vision, with energy, with courage, to take charge, bring this sport to a level commensurate with its potential appeal.

PAUDIE BUTLER has recently been appointed to a new such position in the GAA, and because I don’t wish to further poison his chalice, I’ll offer no opinion yet as to whether he’s the man for the job.

More specifically, is Limerick hurling in crisis? Again, I would say no, no more so than usual. Joe McKenna came into a bad situation and leaves a bad situation. I feel extremely sorry for him, for Ger Cunningham; they did their best, and in light of events in Ennis on Sunday, obviously feel they can do no more. And yet there has been progress. When Limerick went through that long unbeaten phase at the start of the year, they weren’t flattering to deceive. I saw several of those games and there was real and obvious improvement from last year, from previous years. Against Kilkenny in the league final, they simply came up against a better team; against Tipp in the Munster championship the players froze, mental attitude all wrong going into the game (for which Cunningham has taken the blame, on behalf of the management); against Clare, the management probably overreacted to the Tipp defeat, made too many changes, and the new 15 never gelled.

What Limerick hurling needs is someone to come in and take charge, and I mean really take charge, someone like our own columnist, Tony Considine. Two years ago he went to Garryspillane on a consultative level, ended up in full control, and in the next two championship seasons The Bouncers lost just one game, the county final of 2004 and won their first Limerick senior championship last year. He knows his hurling, Limerick hurling particularly, will probably be approached, probably won’t do it, but he should at least come in on a consultancy level. Definitely, the hurlers are in Limerick; if they can build a competitive football team from a smaller player base, they can surely find 20 or 25 top-class hurlers. What’s needed is discipline, dedication and teamwork; it would be best if that all came from within, but if it doesn’t, it has to be imposed.

McKenna and Cunningham have put their hands up and acknowledged their own mistakes.

Now it’s time for this group of Limerick players to do the same.