Limerick looking to the future, says McNamara

ALL the trauma of the first few months of the year behind them, the player/management crisis resolved when an overwhelming majority of club delegates voted in favour of retaining Justin McCarthy as manager, it’s time now for the new Limerick senior hurling panel to focus on the Munster championship, and a date on June 20 with the winners of the Cork/Tipperary clash.

One of the players caught in the maelstrom was Paudie McNamara, one of six from the 2009 panel who chose to stay with Justin, and yesterday in Adare Manor, at the official launch of the Munster championships, he spoke of the difficulty of trying to maintain his focus even as the county was being pulled apart by the controversy.

“The winter has been hard. Myself, all I wanted to do was get back training again, get myself in shape and try to hurl the best I can. The lads from last year believed in something, thought they would stand up for themselves. Myself, I’m inexperienced enough (last year was his first on the panel).

“I thought I might never wear a Limerick jersey again, I thought I had to stick around. Nobody put me under pressure to follow anyone else. There’s a lot of rumours going around saying everybody was under pressure – I never got any phone calls or anything like that. In fairness to the guys (the protesting players) from last year, everybody left it up to themselves. Everyone made their own decision, there was no pressure put on anyone.”

Now that it’s all over, with Justin’s position confirmed, has Paudie himself put any pressure on any of his former teammates to return to the fold?

“No – they believe in something so they’re well entitled to stand on their own two feet. It’s not for me to decide whether they come back or not, it’s up to themselves.”

And what of Justin?

His methods came in for serious criticism by those now outside the fold – what does Paudie think?

“Justin’s one of the legends of the game for his coaching. He can’t be questioned about things he’s won, his record is probably the second best in all of Ireland, behind Brian Cody. You can’t go against that really.”

All that behind them, it’s all eyes to the future now for McNamara and his new teammates. Their last league match ended in a 31-point thrashing against Dublin but that, says Paudie, was a freak result, well behind them.

“They just got a run on us on the day and it’s very hard to stop a team in those circumstances, especially in hurling and in Parnell Park too,” he said.

“We’re all bursting, raring to go. We had a challenge match against Laois last night and won, played fairly well. Hopefully, the future is looking good.”