Hurling panel controversy peters out

THE fall-out from Justin McCarthy’s wholesale changes to the Limerick senior hurling panel appears to have petered out.
And, it appears that the players have accepted McCarthy’s decision to cull a significent number of the squad for ‘disciplinary’ reasons.


No meeting of the entire 2009 panel has taken place, nor has there been any meeting between players and management, although County Board officials did meet with Justin McCarthy during the past week.
A meeting of the executive of Limerick GAA was to discuss the issue this Wednesday night while the first opportunity for club delegates to raise any concerns will come on December 7 when the Annual Convention takes place in Caherconlish.
Meanwhile it’s onwards and upwards as McCarthy Brian Ryan and Liam Garvey continue to assemble their new panel.
Two full-strength teams lined up in Martinstown last Friday night and another trial game will take place on the weekend after next.
Management will then break until the New Year when another trial will help them select their final panel ahead of the first round of the Waterford Crystal Cup in mid-January.
The trial on the weekend of November 28-29 will offer management an opportunity to look at a number of players that missed the earlier trials as their clubs were involved in local and provincial championships.
As the current Limerick bye-law stipulates Adare will provide the county captain for 2010 and at present Wayne McNamara is the only member of the three-in-a-row winning side on the inter-county panel.
The future of Mark Foley remains unclear, but his recent performances for Adare would suggest that he clearly has something to offer on the hurling field in 2010, be it with Limerick or just with his club.
One player of note to attend the second series of trials last Friday night was Tadhg Flynn, the former Kerry goalkeeper who has lined out with Ahane in recent seasons.
With Dave Bulfin withdrawing from the panel for personal reasons, management are looking at a number of goalkeeping options including Flynn, Barry Hennessy and Aaron Murphy.
Another position that management will have to identify is that of free-taker with regular placed-ball experts Andrew O’Shaughnessy and Niall Moran both omitted from the panel at present. The 16 players that remain from the 2009 panel are to continue to work on their personal gym programmes for the months of November and December.
Scor
THE AGM of County Scor Committee will take place on Friday November 20 at 8pm in the Woodlands House Hotel.
Dan Hickey, PRO for Limerick’s Scor committee is hoping that all clubs actively organise and promote Scor activity in their own areas.
“All clubs are strongly urged to be represented at this meeting so as to continue process of re-invigoration of Scor in the county,” said Hickey.
The county final of Scor will take place on December 11 in Askeaton. Ardagh is the venue for the west final on November 22 while the south final will take place in Banogue on November 27. The city final will take place on December 2 in Our Lady Queen of Peace School, Janesboro while the east final will be in Cappamore on December 5.

Jerome O’Connell