Decade in doldrums is motivation for Limerick
LIMERICK’S last taste of Division 1 hurling was an unmitigated disaster. So many areas of damage that it was hard to know where to look for positives.
On Sunday, April 18, 2010, the county’s senior hurling team lost to Dublin on a scoreline of 6-30 to 2-11. Not only did it seal Limerick’s drop to Division 2, it sealed the fate of manager Justin McCarthy whose tenure was really decided from the moment the bulk of the first team refused to declare themselves eligible for 2010 in protest.
As the tales of civil war on Leeside showed, there are no winners in the long run.
The scars of that result, of that entire spring when a cobbledtogether Limerick second team lost seven games on the bounce, are still to be seen. No other traditional, top-flight team has been marooned in hurling’s second tier for so long.
The one time they clinched promotion, the top flight was rejigged in 2012 and split into two groups of six teams — Division 1A and 1B — instead of the previous top eight teams. Ever since, it’s been like Limerick have had to endure their neighbours and rivals selling up and moving into a bigger, better pad while they have been stuck in negative equity.
Not only that, but Waterford and Clare pipped them for promotion in 2015 and 2016 and then went on and won the whole Allianz League outright. Then Wexford gate-crashed the promotion party last spring while Galway went and won the All-Ireland outright.
With Dublin coming to town tomorrow night, not everyone in Limerick will have forgotten that scoreline. Nicky Quaid can count himself as a survivor and this represents a key moment in deciding whether Limerick have what it takes to return to where they feel they belong.
Back in 2011, here’s what Limerick manager Donal O’Grady had to say of the League structure: ‘The way I look at it, there is a chasm there. I describe it as “The Grand Canyon”, that difference between Division 1 and Division 2. Instead of having eight teams, looking at both divisions, I think it could be divided into divisions of six. You could have the likes of Kilkenny, Dublin, Galway, Waterford, Cork and Tipp in Division 1. I think those teams are fairly even.
‘The other six then are Clare, Antrim, Offaly, Wexford, Limerick and possibly Laois. Any teams in those divisions would be capable of beating any other on any given day. And that’s what you want. You don’t want lop-sided games.’
Limerick’s problem was that the GAA took him at his word and rejigged things almost exactly along those lines.
In one sense, the new Championship format takes a bit of pressure off. With four guaranteed big days out in Munster — two in the cavernous Gaelic Grounds — at least Limerick’s financiers know there are decent moneyspinners to come to make up for the poor gates that attach themselves to Dark days: Justin McCarthy Division 1B (one year Limerick played Antrim the attendance just scraped past the 1,000 mark). The players know they will be getting a good run of games against top-quality opposition, which lessens the desperate need to escape Division 1B for just that reason. There is also a sense that hurling’s second tier allows for a bit more experimentation and freedom to blood young players, which Limerick have in abundance right now. Aaron Gillane made the cut as the standout player in last year’s All-Ireland Under 21 championship success, Limerick’s second title in three seasons. Kyle Hayes was a sensation at senior level for a player just out of the minor ranks. There is a collection of players who know what it takes to win at the highest level and who come with no psychological hang-ups. Just look at Limerick’s path to that U21 All-Ireland last year: victories over Tipperary, Clare, Cork, Galway and Kilkenny. The game’s blue-bloods put to the sword — and more.
If there is one fly in the ointment in terms of promotion, it’s the distraction of the All-Ireland club competition, which robs manager John Kiely of a sizeable Na Piarsiagh contingent.
But even on that front, it’s a sign of the progress in Limerick hurling that the same club became the first to plant the flag at Croke Park in All-Ireland senior terms since 1973. The St Patrick’s Day coronation two years ago by the city club carried its own significance.
The fixture list this spring has allowed Limerick to build confidence and momentum, comfortable against Laois to the tune of 1-25 to 0-18 and then posting an almost identical score of 1-24 against Offaly while only conceding 10 points.
Beat Dublin tomorrow night and it leaves them having to navigate an away trip to Antrim to be left with a likely winner-takes-all contest against All-Ireland champions Galway.
The prospect of an entire decade outside of hurling’s top flight is motivation enough.