Extract # 3 from 'Unlimited Heartbreak' Henry' Martin's excellent book on Limerick hurling through the years. The last remaining copies of 'Unlimited Heartbreak' can be purchased online for €15.95 at http://www.collinspress.ie. Personally signed copies can be purchased directly from the author by sending a paypal for €20 incl P&P to hjmartin@eircom.net

The following year a controversy arose over the issue of dual players. There were two dual players in the Limerick setup at the time, Stephen Lucey and Conor Fitzgerald. The pot had been simmering for a couple of years without ever boiling over, but the lid was well and truly blown off in 2002 when Éamonn Cregan resigned over the issue. Cregan outlines the background:

The seniors were in the Canaries on holidays with the under-21s and we spoke with Stephen Lucey and asked him to make a decision himself – Gaelic football or hurling. He wouldn’t and he said the county board would make the decision. Lucey never trained, he played for twelve teams the first year he was with us. How can a player sustain that? He never did physical training with us and when he did a warm-up he lasted about six minutes. You cannot compete at the top level in hurling and football at the same time unless you are superman.

Cregan had been a dual player himself. But it was easier in those days, as Pat Hartigan explains:

In 1968, I played minor hurling and football, under-21 hurling and football, intermediate hurling and junior hurling and I played senior hurling and football in the League in autumn. It was quite common that time to play three matches on a Sunday. I remember playing both intermediate hurling and junior football for Limerick against Waterford one day and South Liberties had a League game against Patrickswell that night. So I stayed in the Gaelic Grounds until 8 p.m. that night. They were different times regarding dual players. To be on top of your game now you have to be specialised. It was easy do both that time because football was very secondary. I would always have treated
Limerick football as a training session. I never decided not to play football at any stage. I was a sub on the Munster team one year we were beaten by Connacht in Killarney. I would have liked to have won something in football and that was probably my best chance.

Éamonn Cregan explains how the dual player issue led to his resignation:

The selectors and myself had agreed in that year that the players would have to make up their minds. Then when we met the county board they had changed and one selector was the first to break ranks and said, ‘We will have to accept it so.’ The dual player issue at that time was a disruptive influence on the team and certainly was a disruptive influence on the selectors. I seemed to be in a minority, but I had the most vital thing of all – the support of the players. I felt I was outnumbered; I knew I had the confidence of the players but I felt I didn’t have the confidence of the selectors. There was no point in continuing so I stood down.

I wanted to bring in Pat Herbert earlier in 2002 to assist me in the coaching of the team. I had spoken to him and he was interested. I went to a member of the county board one Friday and he said it was a great idea but by the following Monday it had become a bad idea. Then they wanted to bring in Dave Keane who was still with the under-21s and was doing well with them. But I wanted Pat Herbert. And I was shot down. That was the beginning of the end for me; I felt I was wanted out. The four selectors were against me. They did favour dual players. You can’t please everyone. You are in charge of the team and you must do what is best for the team. If we had won an All-Ireland the year before, the dual player issue would have been forgotten about. One particular individual in the county board executive pushed and pushed for dual players continuously.

Donal Fitzgibbon offers his perspective on Pat Herbert:

The view at the time was that there were sufficient people on board rather than bringing in Pat Herbert. There was a general consensus among the selectors that there was enough expertise already available without having to add to it.

Mike Fitzgerald – selector, liaison officer and county board officer – says
player power brought Cregan back:

I was liaison officer in 2002 and I was dealing with Liam Kearns,the football manager. Éamonn resigned out of the blue one night over an issue related to the players having to play a football match. None of the selectors were aware of his impending resignation. The hurling team were going well and had nearly all their matches won in the League, had just beaten Wexford, and then Éamonn resigned. Liam Kearns was quite happy that the hurlers would get the first call if there was a clash. Éamonn resigned and he didn’t want any question of any dual players. He wouldn’t come back under any circumstances and the county board consulted with him but he insisted that he wasn’t coming back. Mossie Carroll was appointed on a caretaker basis until the end of the season, and he accepted it on the basis that Éamonn wasn’t coming back.

The players revolted and my understanding is that key players had a meeting with Éamonn and persuaded him to come back. In his first meeting with the players at Kilmurray Lodge, Mossie was addressing players who were already aware that Cregan was on the way back. Mossie was badly treated and only found out the following day. The county board asked him to step back and he stepped down for the good of Limerick hurling so that there wouldn’t be a serious split. I thought it was a great trial of the man. I would put that saga as the turning point in the downturn of Limerick hurling for the next four or five years because it was the advent of player power behind the scenes. The whole thing had broken. Mossie was now working with Cregan after having being ousted to allow Cregan back. We had no chance in the championship.

Unlike other experienced players of the Cregan era and subsequent managerial eras, Stephen McDonagh was there for one reason only – hurling – and took pride in the jersey. Behind-the-scenes manoeuvring was of no interest to him:

I stayed out of all the politics that time.I always saw it as a fierce honour to hurl for Limerick and I tried to do my best when I was there.When you are gone you will miss it but it’s like the disappointment of the All-Irelands – you have to move on and you give the jersey to someone else.Other experienced players were involved. There was
a couple of meetings at the time,I remember going to one of them.

Donal Fitzgibbon gives his view:

I have great regard for Éamonn and he is very much his own man. I asked him why he didn’t contact me before he made his decision to step down and he said because I would try to talk him out of it. I didn’t know about it until I heard about the letter. Mossie Carroll was appointed, and he deserves credit because he stood aside again and made no issue of it. I think the players had a massive input. Éamonn would have had great regard from the players but it was he himself who actually made the final decision. There was a rump out there, in my opinion, who felt Éamonn had his time done, but the players were
very much behind him and that would probably have had some influence on him but he definitely made up his own mind to come back. The biggest disappointment from his perspective was coming so close to winning a Munster title in 2001.

Éamonn Cregan describes the sequence of events surrounding his departure
and return:

I was working at Newcastlewest golf club at the time and was coming back home from work one night. I had been working ’til 11 p.m. and got a phone call at 11.35 p.m. asking me to attend a meeting at the Gaelic Groun