LIMERICK HURLING: KEITH DUGGANlooks at the state of hurling in Limerick after Justin McCarthy survived Tuesday night's motion of no confidence.

REGARDLESS OF loyalties, the backing of Justin McCarthy by Limerick county delegates at Tuesday night’s meeting was significant. Nationally, the majority backing for McCarthy will be interpreted as a stand against the growing phenomenon of “player power” and the growing sense that the players could, in effect, dictate affairs at administrative level.

There was faint hope, after Limerick great Mark Foley made conciliatory sounds on RTÉ radio that some rapprochement between the disaffected players – and those dropped – and the management.

But it was faint hope at best.

The impasse has been long and consistent on both sides.

Tuesday night’s vote was called because of a belief that there was a groundswell of opinion that something had to give – and that that something ought to be the management team.

Donal Morrissey, the Ahane delegate who proposed the motion felt certain it would be supported, but rejected the idea that the club were acting on behalf of the players.

“A lot of people believe that this is about player power. In our view, it had nothing to do with player power. We had no contact with the players nor do we act on their behalf. We felt there were rights and wrongs on both sides. We took no direction from any player representative.

“Nor was it anything personal towards the management. Our view was – look, there are rights and wrongs here. We felt that the players and management acted in a manner that was not correct but there was no point in apportioning blame.

“We needed to move the matter forward. We wouldn’t have proceeded if we thought it wouldn’t be carried. At least 10 senior clubs supported the motion and quite a number of intermediate clubs. And we had considerable contact from clubs encouraging us.

“We thought that we would not get anything near two thirds but we felt it was necessary to put it down and have it dealt with. This was not personal in any manner of means. We did not name the people involved in the motion.

“The best route forward for Limerick hurling was to have the best of the ’09 panel and the best of the ’10 panel playing together and that the fastest way to do that was to remove the management.”

The meeting was the culmination of what has been a gruelling winter for Justin McCarthy. Given the track record in Limerick, it may have come as no surprise to some observers that the Cork man should find himself caught up in controversy in a county which is something of a threshing machine for hurling managers.

Virtually no Limerick manager over the past decade has left the post in harmonious circumstances and the inference, however undeserved, that Limerick hurlers can be hard to handle has dogged the squad for too many years.

McCarthy’s pedigree as a highly decorated former player and a coach with decades of experience needs little embellishment. The hope was that his appointment would reap rewards similar to those McCarthy harvested in Waterford, whose hurlers he guided to three Munster championships.

But sceptics noted McCarthy had fallen short of guiding an exceptional generation of Waterford hurlers to an All-Ireland final.

“There are two ways of looking at it. You could say what Justin gave Waterford was fantastic,” says TJ Ryan, the former Limerick player who retired three seasons ago. “But ultimately, the players got rid of him there and they have never come out and said why. All I would say is that Justin was brought in to improve the hurling skills of the players there.

“I went to all the matches last year and I felt that they went backwards, to be honest. The one exception to that was Niall Moran and he was one of the first men dropped in the original cull.”

Ryan is pessimistic about the chances of the annexed players returning to the fold. As he points out, this weekend’s game against Offaly is already out – next up for Limerick is a home match against Kilkenny.

“It’s not exactingly an enticing prospect, is it” he jokes grimly. “But more seriously, players will probably feel as if they are in a no-win situation because if it doesn’t work out for them, people would obviously say, ‘would you look at your man down below’.

“Look it, I would love to see it. Justin is in for the rest of the season now; that is that. And players like Séamus Hickey, Damien Reale; it would be great to see them back hurling for Limerick again.”

Given Mark Foley’s comments, the disaffected players believe it is up to Justin McCarthy to make all the running if anything is to change. But it remains unclear precisely how many of the exiled group that the manager wants back in his squad.

One thing is certain: if the current situation pertains, McCarthy is facing into a summer of abject misery. It seems almost certain that Limerick could go through the entire season without a win.

Not only will the year be a washout for Limerick hurling, it could have damaging consequences for the young players currently representing the county. But the delegates at the county board meeting voted to reject the Ahane motion fully aware of the likely consequences.

It was the strongest refutation of the player’s stance imaginable.

Or was it?

As Donal Morrissey sees it, the reasons for votes cast are more complex than might appear.

“Some clubs have players on the team now that never had representation on a Limerick senior team before now. Others may not have had players on the county squad for a long time. It would be hard for them to vote away the current administration.”

It is ironic that Morrissey became the man most associated with the motion – he is a Tipperary man.

“But I am living in Limerick a long time and I am tired of what I see going on in Limerick hurling. I am talking about organisation and about structure. We set up committees and each one will come back without taking regard for what another committee is doing for what their report might be about.

“I myself, for example, was on a senior hurling committee and I didn’t even know that there was a similar under-21 committee. There is no co-ordination or long-term strategy of where Limerick hurling is supposed to be going. There is very good work being done at Bord na nÓg level, but overall, the game here lacks direction.”

The plight of the senior team sadly reflects that. The stand-off has become so intense that the reason behind the original departures, which followed the failure to notify 12 established Limerick hurlers of a trial match last November, has almost been forgotten.

Beginning with former captain Damien Reale, 12 other hurlers resigned from the panel in protest at the treatment of their colleagues. Their stance was reflective of the prevailing mood among intercounty players who are no longer willing to accept what they see as diktats from managers.

The counterview is that McCarthy has the right, as manager, to name any panel that he chooses for a new season.

Informing a player that he was surplus to requirements by simply informing him of nothing has long been the GAA method of retiring players. The Limerick hurlers, though, refused to go meekly.

And Justin McCarthy has not blinked either.

It seems longer than last July since McCarthy stood in Semple Stadium and praised his team for an All-Ireland quarter-final win over Dublin.

“There is always a spirit in Limerick hurling and that spirit has been rekindled,” he said then.

More than ever, that spirit is needed now.