LIMERICK HURLING HAS endured a turbulent week in the wake of the managerial row that has seen Donal O’Grady depart their setup.
It’s not the smoothest preparation ahead of their Munster championship opener against Tipperary on June 1st.
But their opponents are refusing to accept that Limerick are in a state of disarray and have admiration for the fact that none of their players have emerged to speak out on the chaos that has erupted.
“I like that, I think it’s really important,” says Tipperary defender Paddy Stapleton. “When Steven Gerrard was asked what was said, that was a great answer, it was none of your business.
“It’s nobody else’s business really – why should people know what’s happening in a dressing-room, good or bad? They’re not the ones training, they’re not the ones giving up their time.
“I think they (Limerick players) are dead right. The sanctuary of the dressing-room is very important, anything that happens there, people have to be protected.”
Tipperary were on the receiving end of a rousing victory by Limerick last summer while the year before they had to dig out a Munster championship win with a late rally.
It’s a pattern that creates natural wariness.
“These things happen in sport, you often see management coming in and out,” says Stapleton. “It can have a positive effect as much as anything, you see that with soccer teams a lot, they change the manager and get a big reaction.
“From our point of view it changes nothing. They still have one half of the management team that was there, I’m sure there’s not going to be much of a change.
“We can’t afford to be any way complacent. Their league wasn’t going fantastically for them, maybe something a shock like this is what they need to get things going again.
!I was as shocked as anyone that part of the management team was leaving. But look, I’m sure they have their own reasons. It’s up to them to keep it in-house and I think they’re right to do that.”
