’A couple of years ago these controversies were a novelty, something to talk about, it kept the auld craic going at club training, meetings, in pubs and at matches. It’s about time the circus came to an end now’… These were the words of an ex-Limerick hurler of distant vintage back around February 2005 when Padjoe Whelahan was departing the scene. Almost five years later, the circus goes on, and it’s sad that there is yet another Limerick hurling managerial controversy.

2009 is new ground, and very messy ground at that. There will ultimately be no winners here. Limerick hurling above all may be the biggest loser of all. It is new in that all previous controversies were pretty much cut and dried affairs, but the current one will drag on until next March. The current perception is that perhaps round three of the league, ashen-faced club delegates will be scourged by the brutality of heavy defeat in the cold light of day. Barring a series of miracle performances by a team of kids of course.

The delegates will wonder about the 11th of December 2009. They will feel that, in theory at least, the decision to back the manager was the correct one on a point of principle. However the far-reaching consequences at that point will render it nothing more than a theoretical decision that couldn’t survive in a practical environment.

We found out from Cork last spring that reserve teams don’t work, and our reserves are nowhere near the standard of the Cork reserves. Yes, Limerick were hammered in Croke Park last August, and hammered by Offaly at the Gaelic Grounds a year earlier. But the team that lost those battles, for want of a better word, were a Division One team and a Liam McCarthy team. Barring a series of miracles the team that Justin McCarthy will have at his disposal in 2010 is a Division Two team and a Christy Ring Cup team. We can talk about team building all we want, but to blood five players in any team, you need ten seriously established players to nurse them along. Whatever the rights and the wrongs between players and management, there is no escaping the harsh truth in the last three or four sentences.

Since the managerial controversies began in the spring of 2002, there have been an awful lot of lambs herded to the slaughter.

In 2002, Eamonn Cregan stood down as manager, and was replaced by Mossie Carroll. At the time, the appointment of Carroll was seen as a shotgun reaction by the county board, and an unnecessary shotgun reaction at that. Of all the questions answered in Unlimited Heartbreak – The Inside Story of Limerick Hurling, one that wasn’t answered (and which to be fair wasn’t asked) was why Mossie Carroll was appointed so rashly? Had a few deep breaths been taken back then, perhaps the selectors left to steer the ship with no manager (caretaker or otherwise), Cregan might well have gone back in his own time. Instead, Mossie Carroll was appointed, senior players revolted, and Cregan was enticed back. Mossie did the honourable thing to his eternal credit, but player power had been allowed to take root.

Dave Keane was shafted a year later by the same crew. Padjoe Whelehan was shafted in early 2005. Once the players got behind the wheel there was no turning. But it was the old brigade who shafted those managers. Stephen Lucey, for instance, wasn’t even on the Limerick panel when Padjoe Whelehan was shafted, and he was a known admirer of Dave Keane.
It’s inaccurate to accuse the three-in-a-row players of having a pedigree of shafting managers. While managers departed since Padjoe, Joe McKenna went of his own accord, and the county board shafted Richie Bennis. Therefore, the current crop are not entirely guilty as charged. The three-in-a-row players entered into an environment where manoeuvring behind the scenes was commonplace. What chance had they? Instead they should have been guided into learning how to pull themselves back into games where the cause seemed lost. For all the preaching from the non three-in-a-row players, they themselves were more concerned with off the field stuff than teaching the on the field tricks of the trade and passing the torch to those who came after them. Did any non three-in-a-row player take anyone under their wing as Eamonn Cregan did with Jimmy Carroll back in 1980?

The biggest challenge regarding of some of them is that they take a little bit of handling. That is what man management is about - some need tender loving care, some need different approaches to keep onside. Some are jack in the box type characters and handling those is another test of man management. Because in a county like Limerick you need to appease the players that other counties could afford to cull. And yes, keeping the players onside is a part of the modern game. Players will no longer be dictated to and if a manager wants to go in and dictate to players military style he is on a hiding to nothing. You can blame Croke Park or Modern Society or the GPA or whoever you like for that one, but the facts are that anyone who has designs on being an intercounty manager or selector must face up to the reality that he is there to coax the players, not to dictate to them. I would hope that this consideration is taken into account by the top table when new managers (and selectors) are appointed.

Man management is almost more important than coaching ability these days. It’s what modern management is about. At the same time in return for all the flexibility and approachability, the players must also recognise and respect that the manager’s decision is final. It was clear at the recent meeting at Ballygran and in particular relating to one comment from a selector that the management weren’t interested in babysitting players.

The very same delegates who felt, perhaps justifiably in some cases, that some players needed their wings clipped, will be the very delegates who will call for change next March. The only thing that can save Justin is if - by some miracle - the Limerick reserves can do what the Cork reserves couldn’t manage. I’m sure Joe Canning & Co (depending on club commitments) will have a thing or two to say about that in the first league game.

The vote to retain Justin was 70-54, and taking away the top table vote it becomes 57-54. A county divided. Justin McCarthy is not wanted by all the 2009 panel, and half the clubs in Limerick. Any individual would pack their belongings and be off. The delegates that support change aren’t going to alter their stance, those who support Justin at the moment have a proven track record at getting weak at the knees. It’s a messy scenario and is about to become a long running one. And many of those who support change aren’t necessarily anti Justin, they simply recognise that the marriage isn’t working, and that Justin’s departure is the only method of closure.

The bottom line is that in the modern intercounty arena, the players hold the power, something copper fastened by the Cork dispute. Christy Cooney has thrown in his tuppence worth, too, that Croke Park will intervene if necessary and the Croke Park mantra seems to be Pounds, Shillings and Pence e.g. get the best players on the field by any means so that attendances (and corresponding gate receipts) don’t suffer.

Nobody is saying the players are blameless. There are ex managers who have strong views on some players, and feel that the county is better off without them but the reality is that we need them to hold the fort until the current promising under-17 and under-18 players come along. And we need to nurture more talent behind them. If enough quality players come through, it masks a lot of things. There’s competition for places, and counties will get away with man management problems (ala Carter/McEvoy) and counties will get away with poor officials.

But what are the realistic expectations on the field for 2010? For every stirring comeback like the second Tipperary game in