One month after Justin McCarthy received a strong 83-47 vote of support at a special County Board meeting, debate again raged as to his future.
Not for the first time supporters called for his resignation or for the County Board to terminate his two-year stay in Limerick.
However, others remain steadfast in their belief that McCarthy's reign is the correct way forward. The heavy defeat in Parnell Park prompted a short meeting that evening in the Red Cow Hotel between McCarthy and Limerick GAA officials.
Again on Monday Limerick GAA chairman Liam Lenihan and secretary Mike O'Riordan met with McCarthy and then on Monday night a hastily arranged meeting of the Limerick GAA executive took place.
The leading officials of the board have backed McCarthy from the outset of the current saga last October, but after Monday night's special meeting all were remaining tight-lipped.
Earlier on Monday afternoon Justin McCarthy was present at City Hall in Limerick City where JP McManus was honoured by Limerick City Council with a civic reception to mark his recent success in the Aintree Grand National.
At that gathering JP McManus gave his backing to the current management team and panel.
"I am sure the current management team and everybody connected with Limerick hurling will do everything in their power to try to see that we do get back on top again," said the Limerick GAA sponsor.
"I was in Parnell Park…like a thousand other Limerick supporters yesterday. What can I say? I keep my fingers crossed for the future.
"I was thinking yesterday in Parnell Park….never, never, never give up.
"Success will come your way, but you have to keep working at it," said JP McManus.
"We gave 33 attempts trying to win the National (Aintree Grand National) and we didn't give up. It took Limerick 33 years to win one All-Ireland (1940-73), if they had given up in between we would never have won the one," said McManus.
Speaking to Leader Sport on Monday morning Justin McCarthy said that he would not be leaving his post.
He admitted to "disappointment" at his side's seven-game losing streak in the National Hurling League, but said he was turning his attention to planning for the championship against Cork or Tipperary on June 20.
"It's hard to take," said Justin McCarthy of the Dublin loss.
"Time is a healer and we just have to face up to it and try and lift ourselves up again.
"We have to move on and have to work on the team and maybe re-jigg things about. When a team strikes form they're very hard to beat. They took off and were out for revenge for last year and they were very hard to stop," he said.
"We were very disappointed the way it turned out - the biggest disappointment is that we were optimistic going up.
"We had form going into the game. I could see we were shaping up well with good sessions at training and we went into the game with good optimism. It is a learning curve and we will have to overcome it," said the Limerick manager.
The Dublin defeat sent Limerick crashing to NHL Division Two, but Justin McCarthy does not see this as the end of the world.
"We would all love to be in Division One, but the standard of Division Two is coming up and from an experience point of view maybe it mightn't be the worst thing in the world as we can regroup and learn the game at inter-county level," he said.
The manager said that Limerick would be moving forward to the championship with the current 34-man panel.
"They were all contacted," said McCarthy of the withdrawn players.
"We have done our level best to get them back on track and to build bridges."
As for the championship in June?
"All teams in the championships are serious and we are the one team who are trying to rebuild and that takes time," said McCarthy.
Jerome O'Connell
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