Another year in the life of Limerick hurling has passed creating yet another mess. The golden generation of under-21 three-in-a-row players are a year older (the few that remain). In this particular case there has been wrong on all three sides, the county board (as usual), the management team and the players.

A year to the day next Sunday, this writer called to Tommy Cooke in Knockainey, the sole surviving member of the starting team that won the 1940 All Ireland title. It was the first of a sequence interviews in a trawl of the county to meet over a hundred people with the end purpose of publishing ‘Unlimited Heartbreak – The Inside Story of Limerick Hurling’.

While several harsh truths are exposed in the book, it must be said that the real truth didn’t (or couldn’t) make the book. If critics of the book think that some of the content is not pretty, let me assure readers that the content that wasn’t in the book is a lot less. None of the happenings over the last couple of weeks are new in Limerick, and haven’t already been chronicled in some shape or form in the book in reference to some other era. It’s simply history repeating itself.

An eternal hope sprung within me that the book would put all Limerick hurling controversies to bed and that it would become the old Limerick. Sadly my innocence got the better of me to a certain degree. In a week in which ‘Unlimited Heartbreak – The Inside Story of Limerick Hurling’ was nominated on the long list for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, Limerick hurling sadly returned to its same old failings.

The Players
The modern era, to be fair, presents its own challenges in that an intercounty manager in this millennium needs to have the mark of a psychologist about him. Players are more educated nowadays and that brings its own qualities in terms of greater opinion and greater confidence in expressing opinion. The meek days of the farmer’s sons of yesteryear are long since gone. It’s clear that the Limerick (and Waterford) players believe that Justin McCarthy is no psychologist. More worrying is the fact that his training methods and the intensity of training in general has been called into question. Are the players wrong here or is Justin wrong? Should Justin be driving them on with intensity, or should the players through their own approach to every drill and training game be driving themselves on?

Is it the whip master or the players’ responsibility to raise the bar? Certainly, from the evidence in Nowlan Park during the summer, Brian Cody seems to adopt a very passive role while the Kilkenny players knock lumps out of each other and tear into the games hell for leather. One interviewee for my book who has working experience with some of the current Limerick panel offered a comment, not in relation to those players but in relation to modern players in general, ‘The players don’t want to go out and win the match anymore, they want the match to be won for them before they go out on the field. Players don’t want to accept responsibility for anything anymore’. Those were not the words of an old fashioned sixty year old either.

We have had too much hassle in Limerick this decade. Going forward from now, whoever wears the Limerick jersey would do well to adopt the words of Ger Hegarty (Page 294) ‘I played under six or seven managers for Limerick and never played for any of them. I only played for Limerick. I never played for any manager, I played for the county and was always happy to work under that manager.’

The reality for the Limerick players is that many of them have played under Eamonn Cregan, Dave Keane, Padjoe Whelahan, Joe McKenna, Richie Bennis and now Justin McCarthy. This writer can state for a fact that each of the above has their own opinion of each of the individual players in question. Past players have their own opinions. Without accusing anyone of anything there is the perception among Limerick hurling people that players have the power to down tools at the expense of the manager.

Given the number of managers, people are questioning the players at this stage more than ever before. It’s an important time for Limerick hurling. Unfortunately, there are some hurling people in Limerick who strongly believe that players should be allowed consume alcohol mid season within a reasonable number of days of a match, due to it being and amateur game and all that. Ned Rea’s comments (Page 386) give an example on how Kilkenny do business. Joe McKenna’s comments (Page 339) about competing with the big teams also bear huge relevance. If the current players wear the jersey again there can be no more excuses.

Limerick are a long way off Kilkenny, therefore have to make double the sacrifices. The ideal scenario is that players are non-drinkers, which means that they don’t make sacrifices at all, just that they have no interest in drinking. We need players who must have the conviction to say ‘No. I am not joining you on a session and if you have any cop on you wouldn’t be ringing me.’ Have we always had that sort of conviction and character in Limerick panels? The most frustrating element is that a particular player can be devoted 500% to training, be devoted 500% on the field, and yet let himself down with all sorts of tomfoolery, drink and non-drink related.

The Manager
Managers’ decisions can sometimes be hard to comprehend, and some managers sometimes act in peculiar ways to keep the doctrine intact that they are the boss. In modern society, a top class manager will accommodate a relaxed atmosphere comfortable in the knowledge that he is the boss when he needs to be. Some managers feel that they constantly need to avoid communication, and other managers are more comfortable in the bullying type mentality. Some other managers operate on the most disgusting principles of differentiation, pets and second class citizens.

From personal experience, it must be said that being dropped unceremoniously is a bitter pill to swallow. How about a comment from Richie Bennis (Page 90) in 2007, ‘You never forget those things’. That comment was given on RTE radio thirty-two years after being dropped from the Limerick senior hurling panel. If the current ‘twelve apostles’ never wear a Limerick jersey again, it will lead to a lifetime of bitter memories of their time in the county colours.

The discipline issue is an old chestnut in Limerick. McCarthy’s recent interview reference to discipline has been twisted into a tale of drink. From it, an insinuation or perhaps a misconception has been created that the twelve players have been dropped for drink related issues. That is unfair, and to be honest, most of the hardcore Limerick following know who drinks and who doesn’t, but it’s people who are in the media and draw their own conclusions can pick up the wrong message.

Part of modern society is CCTV footage and the presence of such technology in or around establishments tells its own story. And let’s be honest, the camera doesn’t lie. Kerry players went drinking this summer and were disciplined for it. When Limerick players went drinking they weren’t disciplined for it. Justin has to take responsibility for that. It must however be categorically stated that Justin did not mention the word ‘drink’ anywhere in his recent interview in the ‘Limerick Leader’. He mentioned the word ‘discipline’ and that the players were dropped for discipline related issues. Discipline as defined in the dictionary ‘training to act in accordance with rules’. What the manager deems to be a breach of discipline does not solely revolve around alcohol. It can amount to any number of things.

In this writer’s opinion, the management team have chosen not to recall specific players for the 2010 season, having been well aware for some time that some of the twelve weren’t shy about publicly expressing their dissatisfaction towards them. In old fashioned term