South African love affair puts Limerick hurling in perspective
CJ STANDER was appointed last week as an international ambassador for Limerick city. It is an honorary position and I don’t begrudge CJ whatever rights that entitles him to, but it jars because it serves as another measure of hurling’s weakening pulse in the city.
Think about it; this, in our youth, was our week of weeks. We were like kids waiting for Santa, counting down the ‘sleeps’ on the week building up to Limerick’s opening game in the Championship, when the anticipation left us giddy.
Anything was possible, we could win Munster, we could win the All-Ireland. Hell, this could be the start of the three-in-a-row. More often than not, our first game was often our last in a time when a back door was only something to be locked at night.
But that did not matter, we were still as excited as ever when the summer came around again. This week there is not a peep. Instead, the only Limerick sportsman at the centre of our world for the last week is a South African rugby player who played on a team that lost the Pro12 final, which I believe is a kind of a half-way house between the Water-
The reality is we are going nowhere fast
ford Crystal Cup and the Allianz Hurling League.
That’s where our sporting excitement levels are at and to make matters worse, they are not going to be raised any time soon.
Hurling has to help itself in this city, in this county, if it is going to find a place in the hearts and minds of its people again.
The pity is that I know there is a love for the game here, but neglect is breeding apathy and we need to rekindle interest quickly.
Tomorrow represents an opportunity to do just that; playing a Clare team under new management which is also feeling its own way right now.
The prize is huge. One game, one win and Limerick will still be hurling until, at least, the last weekend in July.
The opportunity that would gift hurling — particularly in the almost closed rugby season — the chance to breathe again in Limerick city. And why stop there? With Tipperary out of the reckoning, the Munster Championship is there for any one of the four remaining teams to grab it.
Why not Limerick? Here’s why… they’re not good enough and the whole county knows it too. It pains me to write that, but the reality is we are going nowhere fast.
As ever, too much was read into the All-Ireland Under 21 win in 2015, with the assumption that the county was on the brink of something big.
We have been here before of course, when there were three successive underage titles won at the start of the millennium and it amounted to nothing.
Talent is one thing, developing it to take it to a higher level quite another.
Squeezing four players out of any underage team represents an incredible haul, because the reality is that to complete the journey from playing kids’ hurling to the man’s game, involves participants becoming twice the players they were.
There are exceptions, of course, talented kids who are so good that they are going to make the jump anyway but they are one in a generation.
The likes of Joe Canning, Tommy Walsh and Tony Kelly don’t fall off trees and the reality is that there was nobody of that quality in that Limerick team two years ago.
That still does not explain why they have not moved on, but I also believe that the county board’s faith in John Kiely picking up where he left off with the U21s was a mistake.
It is not an easy job in the first place, but this spring suggests this management team isn’t up to the job. The balance of their team during the spring was baffling, not least the deployment of Declan Hannon in the half-back line and Gearóid Hegarty in the full-forward line, when it would make a lot more sense if those players had flipped roles. But more than anything it is the quality of coaching and the gameplan which has depressed. They have decided to stick with fashion — breaking away in the process from Limerick’s traditional style of physical, aggressive and direct hurling for a ball-retention game-plan that is dire to watch and totally ineffective. It is one of the main reasons why the Limerick public have not engaged with this team. Paul Kinnerk earned his reputation as a top coach as Davy Fitzgerald’s right-hand man with Clare in 2013, but suffice to say he has done little to impress on his return home.
I hope they prove me wrong, but if they are to do that, then it must happen quickly.
True, Clare did not set the world alight during the League but then Ballyea’s involvement in the AllIreland club final was disruptive.
The word on the street is that they are going well, and I believe they were impressive when putting manners on Waterford in a behind-closed-doors challenge game recently.
Of course, they are still drawing players from multiple winning U21 teams which suggests raw talent isn’t an issue, but the expectation is that under Gerry O’Connor and Donal Moloney they will be given the freedom to express that ability.
In fact, the only buzz that this game is generating is all coming from the other side of the county bounds where there is a real belief that they might be dark horses to win the All-Ireland.
Of course, they may well be wrong but that’s hardly the point.
The fact that they have something to get excited about is worth more than silverware.
And you only truly realise that when it is gone.