At this Monday night’s Annual Convention of the East Divisional Board in Ahane chairman Denis Holmes said that the clubs of the county need to be heard.
“The matter has been discussed at length through various media around the county, but there has been silence from the County Board except to say they completely support the management team,” the divisional chairman told the meeting.
He added: “That is of course totally commendable, but with players dropping out on a daily basis we are now approaching a crisis and as long as the matter is not solved or indeed, at a minimum, discussed at county board level questions will remain.
“As with anyone with an ounce of Limerick blood in their veins I hope that is sorted out and while I think it has been allowed to drag on too long already my plea to the executive is sort it before it becomes unsolvable,” pleaded Denis Holmes.
“What has been going on in the recent past has not been encouraging.
“Have we so many good players that we can afford to make such radical adjustments? While I have doubts, if the management are confident they can produce them, then brilliant. However if they do not then where do we go?
“As with all things time will tell. I hope in the near future time will be allowed for a discussion on the matter. If the gamble by the selectors does not work I feel that clubs and the County Board will suffer.”
The weekend’s withdrawal of 2007 All-Star goalkeeper Brian Murray brings to eight the number of hurlers that have opted out of Justin McCarthy’s inter-county panel - Brian Geary, Damien Reale, Seamus Hickey, Donal O’Grady, Wayne McNamara, James O’Brien and James Ryan.
“We have to recognise that our senior hurlers are our flagship team and we as a county owe it to our supporters in particular to field a team that is trained, dedicated and prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to ensure they compete to the best of their ability.
“Equally a management structure has to be in place to help in the preparation of the team and give them that vital edge,” said Holmes in his wide-ranging address to the convention.
“There are lots of things to be sorted, but I want to place two points on record that I feel are vital - who decided not to tell the players they were being dropped the management team or the County Board and when the charters were negotiated with Justin McCarthy and Mickey Ned O’Sullivan was it agreed that players could play both football and hurling?”
This Tuesday night an executive meeting of the officers of County Board will take place in the Gaelic Grounds. It is understood that they could be ready to schedule a full County Board meeting with December 3 a possible date.
Like every county in the country Limerick must discuss the proposed alignment of the GPA and GAA and decide to agree or disagree with the proposal before a meeting of Central Council on December 5 in Croke Park.
As well as debating the GPA issue the expected meeting would also be expected to discuss the crisis surrounding Limerick hurling.
It emerged over the weekend that some of the withdrawn hurlers have declined a meeting with manager Justin McCarthy.
“Justin has said he is available to talk to any player who wishes to meet him,” confirmed Limerick County Board PRO Helen Cross.
“But I understand that they have declined his offer,” said the Ahane woman.
The PRO said that the decision taken last week by leading Limerick GAA officials to give a unanimous vote of confidence to the hurling management was not taken lightly.
“At a meeting of the county Management Committee in the Gaelic Grounds on Wednesday night (October 18) it was decided unanimously to support Justin McCarthy and his management team for 2010. The meeting ran from 7.30pm to 11.30pm - they went through everything and just felt that they needed to support Justin McCarthy as manager.”
She added: “The meeting was told that Justin will leave his door open for any of the players and is willing to talk to them”.
Jerome O’Connell
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