Long famine ahead for Limerick hurling

grenache

So the hammering finally came today for Limerick. It had been threatening to come for several years now. It took 270 minutes of hurling to separate Limerick and Tipp in 2007. Yet today it barely took 20. Tipp have gone on to collect back to back Munster championships since then, yet Limerick have fallen away completely. Tipp have put in the ground work both at schools and club level while those in power in Limerick hurling continue to wallow in ignorance and instead of taking advantage of their 07 Final appearance to really promote the game in schools, sat on their laurels and seemed content to give praise to mediocrity. Why is it that a Tipp player can field a high ball so cleanly yet a Limerick man continually fumbles or drops it? Pat Kerwick's first touch today was perfect; in comparison Andrew O'Shaughnessy did not even have a first touch.


I refuse to accept many people's excuse that the popularity of rugby in the city and the rise of Munster rugby is the main reason for Limerick's hurling downfall. That still does not explain as to why we cannot train our hurlers to have a proper first touch, find a man in space or simply hit the ball over the bar. Once you have sufficient players, you can do wonders with them if you have proper qualified people working with them. This is evidently not happening with Limerick. Not in the clubs and certainly not in the schools. Where are the development officers that are doing such trojan work in counties like Tipperary, Waterford and Dublin??

There is a long long famine coming ahead for Limerick, longer than that which Tipp suffered from '71 to '87, possibly as long as Waterford's 39 year barren spell. Its been 13 years since Limerick had a hurling team they could feel proud of. Going by what i've seen on the field since that time, it will easily be another 13 before another one comes along.

LeoB

Jeasus I feel your pain. I asked in other thread How would Dublin have fared today?

You raise some good points. It must take its toll on other sports the strength of Rugby in Limerick.

Some Dublin clubs are under fierce pressure from Soccer. My club was under pressure from CRICKET during the summer, the local cricket club have 2 paid coachs and work in the school;s and their club team is one of the best in Ireland. We also have soccer and 17 other clubs to compete with in a town of 7,000 people.

We appointed a G.P.O to work in the schools and this has paid off handsomley for us. He coachs 1,000 children a week in the 4 schools of our parish so even if they dont give us a commitment they are playing twice a week,(when they realise how soccer really works they come to us). We are now playing Division 1 hurling and football at U/13 level, 1 of only 5 clubs to do this, Vincents, Ballyboden, Na Fianna and Kilmacud being the others but they are massive clubs.

Clubs need to take action. If it means 2 clubs coming togeather to appoint 1 coach its worth it. Club coaching needs to be strict with ACHIEVABLE goals for every player. Another problem is who is doing the coaching? A parent because nobody else will then you need coaching course in the club. The other things clubs need to do is tackle the county board and put a plan in place. It has taken Dublin years to get to where they are now and they will tell you they have a few years to go yet. But ya have to start.

On todays game I think the players just frooze. There is no other explaination for it. They are not that bad.

grenache

LeoB wrote: »

Jeasus I feel your pain. I asked in other thread How would Dublin have fared today?

You raise some good points. It must take its toll on other sports the strength of Rugby in Limerick.

We are now playing Division 1 hurling and football at U/13 level, 1 of only 5 clubs to do this, Vincents, Ballyboden, Na Fianna and Kilmacud being the others but they are massive clubs.


On todays game I think the players just frooze. There is no other explaination for it. They are not that bad.

Leo, using your own club as an example, its not hard to see why Dublin hurling has come on so much and Dublin football continues to dominate Leinster. I know my own cousin, who lives on the Navan Road in Dublin, sends her two kids to the local St Finbarrs club. If i can remember correctly the figures that she mentioned, there are 2 fully qualified development officers training the kids 3-4 times a week. And from what she tells me this is starting to become common place all across Dublin. There is nothing like this going on in Limerick. Is it any wonder Limerick players are lacking in so many of the games basic skills?!


I certainly dont think Dublin would have fared as badly today as Limerick. Dublin beat themselves the last day in Thurles, Limerick were nothing more than average througout the game. A bit more cuteness and Dublin will be a serious force yet. They have the scoring forwards that could have troubled Tipp today. Limerick as it is, have little punch up front.

I dont agree with you that Limerick froze today though. Certainly nerves got the better of Gavin O'Mahony on his free-taking. But other than that the players just proved to us that they are not good enough. They are so lacking proficiency in most skills of the game, that the 24 point difference did not surprise me. The only surprise was take it took so long to happen. We have had to put up with an unskilled bunch of hurlers now for several years since the mid 90s. I cant see this changing any time soon.

Amazotheamazing

What really kills me is we have the numbers to have a competitive team. People don't seem to realise but we've the fourth highest number of hurlers in Ireland after Cork, Tipperary and Galway, afaik. what we don't have is a) city hurlers and b) skillful hurlers.

The County board (or JP) should finance two academies, a county academy and a city academy and target hurlers from a very young age. If we don't, hurling will collapse in Limerick.

panda100

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

The County board (or JP) should finance two academies, a county academy and a city academy and target hurlers from a very young age. If we don't, hurling will collapse in Limerick.

What about the footballers?

I reckon Stephen Lucey and Mark O'Riordan should focus on football next year.

Amazotheamazing

panda100 wrote: »

What about the footballers?

I reckon Stephen Lucey and Mark O'Riordan should focus on football next year.

Why ask about footballers on a hurling thread?

I don't think the dual status made any difference this year.

grenache

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Why ask about footballers on a hurling thread?

I don't think the dual status made any difference this year.

In terms of fatigue i think it did, especially for Lucey. The guy was training four times a week. And being a doctor is one of the more tiring professions out there, having to deal with patients all day. Then coming home and facing into training in the evening. The mistake he made for the first Tipp goal could only be put down to mental fatigue. There's no other explanation for it. You cant burn the candles at both ends. He's not a bad full back, but i do think he's better suited to midfield where he played with the u-21s.

blackbelt

I think it just boils down to the fact that Limerick are not good enough and they also had two players that were just too drained to play their best hurling.Limerick and Galway certainly remind me of Dublin and Mayo in the football in the fact that they are too soft when it comes to playing top teams or in the case of Mayo,a mediocre team (at best).

Having two dual players is also a cause for reflection for the Limerick management team.The GAA want to tackle burnout but when you have dual players on your team you are more likely to be affected.I did not see the game but a scoreline like that suggests a team that is too tired.

I have always believed that when a team plays so poorly,it usually begins with one or two players who either have the wrong attitude or are not tuned into the game or in the zone.

It is hard to know how this will affect Limerick.Friends of mine stated that Dublins loss to Tyrone last year will have set them back 5 years.After getting another drubbing this year will it 10 years?...I do not think so.

Grenache,when you say Limerick will go through a barren spell for years,I think you might be overestimating the affect yesterdays game will have.Who is to say that Tipperary won't be slaughtered on All Ireland Final Day?

Amazotheamazing

blackbelt wrote: »

Grenache,when you say Limerick will go through a barren spell for years,I think you might be overestimating the affect yesterdays game will have.Who is to say that Tipperary won't be slaughtered on All Ireland Final Day?

It doesn't matter what happens in the final, look at the underage teams in Munster, Limerick are nowhere near winning anything, look at the club sides in Munster, a lucky win this year against Toomevara before being beaten by De La Salle (who were then well beaten). In general, the standard of hurling in Limerick is low rate, it's a case of quantity and not quality. Look at the LIT and UL sides, great college teams, but not made up of Limerick players.

The entire culture of Limerick hurling needs to be changed and I don't see how that will happen.

enniscorthy

grenache wrote: »

So the hammering finally came today for Limerick. It had been threatening to come for several years now. It took 270 minutes of hurling to separate Limerick and Tipp in 2007. Yet today it barely took 20. Tipp have gone on to collect back to back Munster championships since then, yet Limerick have fallen away completely. Tipp have put in the ground work both at schools and club level while those in power in Limerick hurling continue to wallow in ignorance and instead of taking advantage of their 07 Final appearance to really promote the game in schools, sat on their laurels and seemed content to give praise to mediocrity. Why is it that a Tipp player can field a high ball so cleanly yet a Limerick man continually fumbles or drops it? Pat Kerwick's first touch today was perfect; in comparison Andrew O'Shaughnessy did not even have a first touch.


I refuse to accept many people's excuse that the popularity of rugby in the city and the rise of Munster rugby is the main reason for Limerick's hurling downfall. That still does not explain as to why we cannot train our hurlers to have a proper first touch, find a man in space or simply hit the ball over the bar. Once you have sufficient players, you can do wonders with them if you have proper qualified people working with them. This is evidently not happening with Limerick. Not in the clubs and certainly not in the schools. Where are the development officers that are doing such trojan work in counties like Tipperary, Waterford and Dublin??

There is a long long famine coming ahead for Limerick, longer than that which Tipp suffered from '71 to '87, possibly as long as Waterford's 39 year barren spell. Its been 13 years since Limerick had a hurling team they could feel proud of. Going by what i've seen on the field since that time, it will easily be another 13 before another one comes along.

GREAT POST COULDNT HAVE PUT IT BETTER MYSELF MATE I COULD TAKE MANY THINGS YOU SAID AND APPLY THEM THE SAME TO HURLING HERE IN WEXFORD WHAT A TOTAL SHAMBLES

RHunce

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

What really kills me is we have the numbers to have a competitive team. People don't seem to realise but we've the fourth highest number of hurlers in Ireland after Cork, Tipperary and Galway, afaik. what we don't have is a) city hurlers and b) skillful hurlers

i'm sorry i strongly have to disagree with this the city is throwing out some fantastic hurlers! me being from a local city team i realise the fact that the city players are being over looked because it is often a manager from the county that is appointed as the manager of the underage hurling county teams.

limerick need to seriously get their act together if they want to have realistic chances of winning another all ireland in 20 years, they need to keep players playing for clubs such as Mungret, Claughaun and Na Piarsaig, these are the forces in underage city hurling and football and until the potential is harnessed the nothing will come of it

MickTipp

tis about time that limerick gaa get off their arses and do something about the level of hurling in the city, sooner rather than later, hurling in limerick city will die out if they dont do something about it

enry

lim was so bad it was not even funny. However lim were so poor you can hardly rate tipp. i'm a kilkenny man and over the next few weeks you will hear the same old sh1t tipp have a good chance etc. heard the same crap last year before the waterford match. Kilkenny have not played to their full or anything like it so for this year. However they will on all ireland sunday. so god help tipp.

lim can take comfort in the fact that tipp will feel as they do now in three weeks time. FACT .

grenache

RHunce wrote: »

i'm sorry i strongly have to disagree with this the city is throwing out some fantastic hurlers! me being from a local city team i realise the fact that the city players are being over looked because it is often a manager from the county that is appointed as the manager of the underage hurling county teams.

With all due respect, if the city teams have been throwing out great hurlers, why is it that in reality city clubs are the poor relations of their county cousins? Both Mungret and Monaleen have both gone down to intermediate, Claughaun, the last city club to win a county in 1986, are also intermediate and are a shadow of their former selves. I know Na Piarsaigh are doing some good work with youngsters but they too are struggling at senior level. Hurling in the city or 'quality hurling', is dying. And has been for several years. Mind you'r hurling in the county isn't much better as a spectacle to watch.

RHunce

grenache wrote: »

With all due respect, if the city teams have been throwing out great hurlers, why is it that in reality city clubs are the poor relations of their county cousins? Both Mungret and Monaleen have both gone down to intermediate, Claughaun, the last city club to win a county in 1986, are also intermediate and are a shadow of their former selves. I know Na Piarsaigh are doing some good work with youngsters but they too are struggling at senior level. Hurling in the city or 'quality hurling', is dying. And has been for several years. Mind you'r hurling in the county isn't much better as a spectacle to watch.

sorry but claughaun (my club) are senior hurling and football and to the best of my knowledge na piarsaig arent senior hurling (but dont quote me on that). just have a little patience, in 5-10years i think that you will see a drastic improvement for city teams when the underage come through the ranks and a lot more city players on the county senior team. thats just my opinion though

Browney7

Anyone who says hurling in the city is anything but sh1te doesn't have their finger on the pulse at all.

Look at the Corbally area for example, there isn't any club there in a large area of people except for the mighty Abbey Sarsfields.

Then you have Castletroy, an area with at least 10000 people and there is only 1 club the mighty Monaleen. A very mediocre team.

Then you have Pat's who in fairness did some great work at underage but Gaelic seems to be their priority now. Claughan have been non existent for years at practically all levels but with all due respects RHunce Claughan's aim every year seems to be to not get relegated from Senior hurling.

In caherdavin Na Piarsaigh are doing some great work and they have some right good young hurlers like Kevin Downes and they had a few on the Ardscoil Ris teams that have so well down through the years but even Ardscoil have been backboned by lads from clare clubs like clonlara and cratloe and the bridge.

As for old Christians they won't even muster a whimper in the city junior A from what I saw of them against Crecora.

For me it said it all about the quality of hurling in the county when Bruree and Garryspillane won the county championship.

Hurling is in dire straights in Limerick and if something ain't done we could be playing Christy ring in the not too distant future

Jackobyte

I'm going into 3rd year in the Comp... and our hurling team is struggling to field a team while our rugby team has to field an A,B and C team. I think this explains everything. I have a number of friends from Patrickswell and there, hurling is HUGE. They have kept their senior team and my friends all plan on continuing onto senior hurling. Two of them are even on the Limerick team for their age group...

grenache

RHunce wrote: »

sorry but claughaun (my club) are senior hurling and football and to the best of my knowledge na piarsaig arent senior hurling (but dont quote me on that). just have a little patience, in 5-10years i think that you will see a drastic improvement for city teams when the underage come through the ranks and a lot more city players on the county senior team.

Na Piarsaigh are senior, they beat Doon a few weeks back to qualify for the quarter finals. My apologies, i totally forgot Claughaun had gone back up to senior. As for city teams developing underage talent, i hope it is the case. But right now its county clubs like Kilmallock, The Well and Ahane that are mopping up at underage level. City clubs might be winning 'B' titles but that's about all. For Limerick hurling to be strong, the game in the city must be strong. Nearly 100,000 between the city and its suburbs and at present we cant get one hurling team there who can challenge for county honours :eek:


When Limerick won in 1973, the team was backboned by players from Claughaun, and Mungret. We need to get back to that scenario. We cant afford to neglect a huge playing pool in the city.

deisedude

What surprised me most this year about Limerick was how poor Limericks touch was. At the Limerick-Dublin, Waterford-Galway games i watched Limerick in the warm up and the only way to describe it was shambolic. There was lads passing the ball 20 yards and dropping it and they were poor at controlling the ball. The Waterford team under Justin had a great touch and all the players were comfortable on the ball. I wonder is there anypoint in persevering with Justin if with a year under his belt Limerick arent any better at the basics. Tactically Justin was never great, some of his decisions can be downright baffling.

P.S. what happened to all the players from those 3 succesfull U21 teams? Did they just not make the step up?

grenache

deisedude wrote: »

What surprised me most this year about Limerick was how poor Limericks touch was. At the Limerick-Dublin, Waterford-Galway games i watched Limerick in the warm up and the only way to describe it was shambolic. There was lads passing the ball 20 yards and dropping it and they were poor at controlling the ball. The Waterford team under Justin had a great touch and all the players were comfortable on the ball. I wonder is there anypoint in persevering with Justin if with a year under his belt Limerick arent any better at the basics. Tactically Justin was never great, some of his decisions can be downright baffling.

P.S. what happened to all the players from those 3 succesfull U21 teams? Did they just not make the step up?

Limerick's first touch has been terrible for well over a decade now. I said when Pat-Joe Whelehan was appointed in '03 that if he did nothing else, he should aim to improve the players first touch. Ditto Joe McKenna and Richie Bennis. To be fair to Richie, certain aspects of the the players game did improve. Players like O'Shaughnessy and Mike Fitzgerald improved no end. And guys like Ollie Moran and Mike O'Brien got a new lease of life. But now things are as bad as ever again. Its far removed from the mid 90s when we had a group of highly skilled hurlers like Ciarán Carey, Gary Kirby and Dave Clarke. For the current crop's failure, I blame the clubs. They are the ones who are working with the players week in, week out. Too much emphasis on winning games, instead of perfecting the basic skills. Thats the problem.


As for the u-21s, they are a mirror image of the Laois Minor footballers. Too much success at a young age, sat back on their laurels, and thought success at senior level was a fait acompli. Forgot that it was their hard work and dedication that brought them success in the first place. A drinking culture also developed amongst certain players. Then some players like Mark Keane and Eugene Mulcahy fell by the way side. Its just typical Limerick.

RHunce

grenache wrote: »

Nearly 100,000 between the city and its suburbs and at present we cant get one hurling team there who can challenge for county honours :eek:

i totally agree there but on a slightly off topic note, i was playing on the claughaun team the beat kilmallock in last years u.16A county final (which was played in cork) but anyway we beat, we lost to them in the u.12 county final, and got knocked out by them in the u.14 semi's, but 15's and 16's we have beat them every time. mungret have also been up their challenging in semi final places but from those two city clubs claughaun and mungret, the players are being over looked because theyre from the city and im afraid the same happens in the hurling, there is only 1 player from on the county team from either claughaun or mungret and its not from claughaun, the champions

Erin Go Brath

Is Limerick city really that important for Limerick hurling though? Kilkenny, Tipperary and lots of other counties don't have a city of 100,000 population and it hasnt stopped them from producing quality players. Lets face it Limerick is a rugby city, hurling is a minority sport there and its not likely to change in the immediate future. Our only hope is that the clubs in the county where hurling is the biggest game churn out some decent talent in the next few years. If they do then we'll be competitive again, if not there will be a famine. One thing for sure, that team that took the field yesterday needs some serious surgery.

JHMEG

Probably going to be an unpopular post, but I felt under Richie Bennis that overall Limerick became a savagely physical team. What they lacked in talent they made up for in other ways, and I think at its ugliest it was epitomised by this.

I think that the points made are correct in that there are several things that need to be fixed with Limerick hurling, but I do think we only really noticed Limerick in the first place because of the results they achieved using the physicality noted above, and I can understand how many Limerick fans got a (false) sense of hope.

Justin McCarthy doesn't do the physical game, leaving Limerick to rely on skill.

grenache

Erin Go Brath wrote: »

Is Limerick city really that important for Limerick hurling though? Kilkenny, Tipperary and lots of other counties don't have a city of 100,000 population and it hasnt stopped them from producing quality players. Lets face it Limerick is a rugby city.

Its most important when you look at the demographics, not having any Limerick City to call on for decent hurlers puts the county team at a huge disadvantage. Lets look at the demographics:

Limerick City (including suburbs) pop. 91,000

Limerick County pop. 93,000

Tipperary pop. 149,000

Kilkenny pop. 87,000

Now taking into account that Kilkenny don't play football (or very little of it) and that its very much a minority sport in Tipp too, both Tipp and Kilkenny have an advantage over Limerick in terms of numbers playing hurling. Remember that football is played extensively in most of West Limerick and a good deal of the South too. But that does not excuse the appalling lack of basic skills amongst Limerick hurlers. Having very little talent in Limerick City is a huge loss to the hurlers. Even if you could have 2 competitive senior city teams it would be of huge benefit. Granted Na Piarsaigh have made the quarter finals of the championships this year but that happens only on a rare occasion. Claughaun are only just about hanging on to their senior status too.

Erin Go Brath

You've got a point grenache. If it wasn't for the huge popularity of rugby in Limerick city then hurling would most likely be a much bigger sport there and that in turn would likely result in a stronger Limerick team.

Was listening to a program on radio a few weeks ago where urban hurling was discussed and outside of Kilkenny it seems that Waterford is the strongest hurling city in the opinion of the guest on the show. Can't remember who it was but in his opinion hurling in Waterford city was now stronger than in Cork, Limerick or Gaway cities. Certainly bodes well for the future of Waterford hurling that they have a big urban area to draw their strength from.

flahavaj

The really sad thing is that as someone else said, for Limerick in the thread title you could easily say the same about Wexford and Offaly and to a lesser extent Clare. And my own county, Waterford's underage success has been overststed tis year as well, being as it is the exception rather than the rule over the last decade. We are in serious danger of returning to the days when the All ireland was shared between KK, Tipp and possibly Cork unless serious issues in the other couties are addressed sooner rather than later.

grenache

Erin Go Brath wrote: »

You've got a point grenache. If it wasn't for the huge popularity of rugby in Limerick city then hurling would most likely be a much bigger sport there and that in turn would likely result in a stronger Limerick team.

Was listening to a program on radio a few weeks ago where urban hurling was discussed and outside of Kilkenny it seems that Waterford is the strongest hurling city in the opinion of the guest on the show. Can't remember who it was but in his opinion hurling in Waterford city was now stronger than in Cork, Limerick or Gaway cities. Certainly bodes well for the future of Waterford hurling that they have a big urban area to draw their strength from.

Yeah i would agree with the Waterford thing. Their strongest clubs - Mount Sion, Ballygunner, and the current Munster club champions De La Salle are all based in or around Waterford City. Theres little or no rugby down there and soccer isn't making anywhere near the impact hurling is. Back in the 70s and 80s you had Cork City clubs winning All Ireland club titles in almost every third year. Blackrock and Finbarrs wiped the board. But not since the late 80s/early 90s has a city club got to or won an All Ireland final. I'm certain that emergence of Cork City FC and Munster Rugby has played a role in this. Senior soccer in Cork is big, the club is the best supported in the country and have the best ground in the league. They've won the league a few times and i'm certain this has influenced young fellas to take up soccer instead of hurling. And rugby was always relatively strong in Cork, now with the success of Munster, young guys are flocking to it. Hurling in the city has certainly lost ground to other codes. Hurling has never been very strong in Galway City. Galway's hurling heartland is in the south. Football is that bit more popular in the city, this can be evidenced by Salthill/Knocknacarra winning an all ireland title recently. Apart from maybe Liam Mellowes club, hurling isn't that strong in Galway City.

nice_guy80

Limerick GAA needs a plan to resusitate hurling and GAA in general in the city ala the Dublin model

put the plan in place and Croke Park will usually fund these things

buck65

A little off topic here - but how committed are the current limerick hurlers?
For the past 5/6 sesaons there seems to be trouble and a fair bit of partying in the camp. Has this changed under Justin?

grenache

buck65 wrote: »

A little off topic here - but how committed are the current limerick hurlers?
For the past 5/6 sesaons there seems to be trouble and a fair bit of partying in the camp. Has this changed under Justin?

Thats a question for someone who is in and around the players on a weekly basis. There seems to be no drinking going on from 95% of the players from what i've heard. Although i was in The Cuckoo Box recently, a city centre pub, standing beside one particular county player from Patrickswell who was skulling pints like there was no tomorrow. Two weeks before the semi final! To say i was disgusted was putting it mildly, but then this guy is fond of the drink, judging by his general level of fitness.



As regards Justin not getting the first touch and other skills right, i'll refer you back to what the clubs have been at for the last 10-15 years. Players not showing the proper range of skills comes to bad coaching at club level. Its then very hard to get it right at county level. Players have picked up bad habits down the years. Its like the old adage, you cant teach old dogs new tricks. It going to take Justin a lot longer than one year to rectify years of neglect.

Amazotheamazing

grenache wrote: »

Thats a question for someone who is in and around the players on a weekly basis. There seems to be no drinking going on from 95% of the players from what i've heard. Although i was in The Cuckoo Box recently, a city centre pub, standing beside one particular county player from Patrickswell who was skulling pints like there was no tomorrow. Two weeks before the semi final! To say i was disgusted was putting it mildly, but then this guy is fond of the drink, judging by his general level of fitness.



As regards Justin not getting the first touch and other skills right, i'll refer you back to what the clubs have been at for the last 10-15 years. Players not showing the proper range of skills comes to bad coaching at club level. Its then very hard to get it right at county level. Players have picked up bad habits down the years. Its like the old adage, you cant teach old dogs new tricks. It going to take Justin a lot longer than one year to rectify years of neglect.

This year Munster rugby held training camps in Limerick, Cork, Clonmel and Tralee to teach potential Academy players about proper nutrition, weights etc as well as skills. Think about that for a second, they want potential Academy recruits to already be halfway towards what the Academy can offer. They are also willing to give equal status to players from Tralee and Clonmel, neither rugby strongholds. When the players arrive to the Academy, they'll be ready to work from day one, they will already know the basics.

People look at the Limerick hurlers' skills as and ask "what is McCarthy doing?", well, I think it's better to ask why are such unskillful players considered as potential intercounty players? Why are players arriving to Limerick panels lacking skills? McCarthy is being expected to teach guys basic skills they should have learned in their teens.

The entire culture is wrong, we've too much focus on being overly physical, hard direct "Limerick" hurling, without stepping back and asking what has this failed philosophy won us? One All Ireland in 50 years? Pathetic.

Munster rugby is successful because they are honest with themselves about why things didn't work, they looked at what they could do and imported players like Halstead and Tipoki to do what the locals couldn't do. Where's the honesty in Limerick hurling? When will it hit home with the County board that having loads of hurlers in useless if they aren't any good?

Like I said, we need to change the entire culture of Limerick hurling, starting with underage academies and ultimately improving the overall standard of all players.

grenache

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

This year Munster rugby held training camps in Limerick, Cork, Clonmel and Tralee to teach potential Academy players about proper nutrition, weights etc as well as skills. Think about that for a second, they want potential Academy recruits to already be halfway towards what the Academy can offer. They are also willing to give equal status to players from Tralee and Clonmel, neither rugby strongholds. When the players arrive to the Academy, they'll be ready to work from day one, they will already know the basics.

People look at the Limerick hurlers' skills as and ask "what is McCarthy doing?", well, I think it's better to ask why are such unskillful players considered as potential intercounty players? Why are players arriving to Limerick panels lacking skills? McCarthy is being expected to teach guys basic skills they should have learned in their teens.

The entire culture is wrong, we've too much focus on being overly physical, hard direct "Limerick" hurling, without stepping back and asking what has this failed philosophy won us? One All Ireland in 50 years?

Like I said, we need to change the entire culture of Limerick hurling, starting with underage academies and ultimately improving the overall standard of all players.

Even worse, 1 All Ireland in 70 years!
I couldn't agree with you more though. Two good examples of what Limerick should be doing are Dublin and Waterford hurling, where they are really plugging the game in the schools. Waterford schools like De La Salle and Lismore are cleaning up at underage level. While Dublin schools haven't reached that level yet, look at their minor and u-21 teams in recent years. They beat Kilkenny in both grades which is a phenominal achievement. Clubs like Oliver Plunkets and O'Tooles are more concerned with working on skills with the youngsters than winning underage titles. This should be the way to go. I wouldn't care if Limerick dont win another c'ship match for 5 years, as long as basic skills are worked on and improved.