Limerick football not in crisis, insists John Cregan

Limerick football is not in a state of crisis, board chairman John Cregan has said in the wake of the county’s 10th consecutive Munster minor championship defeat.

Wednesday’s 2-15 to 2-7 loss to Cork on home soil brings into double figures the number of defeats incurred by Treaty minor teams stretching back to 2010. Last month’s U21 defeat to the Rebels, meanwhile, was their fourth on the hop since 2012.

A football academy was established in light of last year’s 6-15 to 1-7 minor defeat to Cork and the 3-15 to 0-8 U21 hammering to the same opposition.

Football board chief Cregan says the county can no longer be content with moral victories and must follow the template that has delivered Tipperary two minor and U21 provincial titles in the last six years.

“We were in crisis last year when we had two demoralising defeats that you couldn’t stand over,” he remarked.

“It was a matter of packing up the shop if that was what Limerick football was going to be about. You couldn’t justify money being spent on that kind of an effort. We have put the resources and personnel in place. With the improvement in our structures, I hope we are going in the right direction and I know there is hope for the future.”

The academy is centralised at LIT where 200 footballers across U14, U15, U16 and U17 converge every Saturday morning under the guidance of All-Ireland winning Clare hurling trainer Paul Kinnerk.

“We had reasonably good senior teams during the 2000s, but nothing happened at underage while that was going on. There was no conveyor belt. The senior manager then had to contend with players who didn’t come through a system of any sort.

“Now our U21s are training with the seniors and our minors are coming through the correct structures.

“We lost to Cork by eight-points on Wednesday. That was a serious reduction on last year’s margin of defeat. It was a credible performance. That is our starting point. We can compete and win Munster titles in the next five and six years.”

Cregan believes up to six members of Leo O’Connor’s minor hurling panel would comfortably make the football squad but for the unwritten rule there is no doubling up at inter-county level.

“We certainly need to look at this issue. There are lads on the hurling team we would love to have. There is no rule, just an understanding that you don’t do both. Are we prepared to accept that? Other counties benefit from lads playing both at minor level so why shouldn’t we?”