GAELIC GAMES:THERE HAS been a fair bit of difference between John Allen's managerial appointments.

After Cork won the 2004 All-Ireland, Donal O’Grady stepped down leaving his backroom team untouched and Allen was the one who stepped forward to take over seamlessly, skippering a well-travelled boat with an experienced crew.

Last autumn in Limerick was different. Again O’Grady had just left but there the comparisons ended. The only one of the outgoing selectors to remain involved was former player Ciarán Carey and he left last month in a haze of controversy.

That came after a league in which Clare emerged as the best team in Division One B, beating Limerick twice, an outcome condemning Allen’s side to another year outside the top flight.

In a county where hurling and fractiousness have rhymed for about 10 years there have been grumbles about fitness levels – echoed by Carey on his resignation.

It’s a matter that Allen, who is happy with preparations for Sunday’s clash against Tipperary, has dealt with patiently but firmly in the past few weeks.

“I accept that Ciarán felt that he couldn’t give the time commitment necessary at this level and I respect his decision. There’s nothing more to say and we’re looking forward to the weekend and I don’t want any distractions. I’m sorry he went but there’s nothing that could be done about it.”

With his own management team bedded in, he says that the departure of the last of O’Grady’s selectors hadn’t any practical effect on the team.

“No. John Kiely was with the under-21s and also the development squads so he’s well aware of the players coming through. Anything that happened off the field has had no impact. There’s been no fallout whatsoever.”

Had he expected such outbreaks of turbulence when agreeing to get involved? “Things go awry that you don’t expect and you just have to move on.”

In charge of Cork, Allen wasn’t afraid to challenge orthodoxies. When the 2005 semi-final against Clare was going wrong, he substituted two of his most influential central players – Ronan Curran and Brian Corcoran – and won.

In the final he adjusted the short-passing, support-game style in order to get earlier ball into the forwards. The All-Ireland was retained. In Limerick he hasn’t persevered with O’Grady’s inculcation of the short game.

“Not really. It’s a game that’s very dependent on strong runners in midfield and it takes time to develop. Cork evolved between 2003 and ’06 and had the base of the Newtownshandrum (All-Ireland club champions 2004 and pioneers of the style in Cork) team to work with.

“It takes a huge amount of practice to implement. We’ve been working on getting players to practise doing the right thing on the ball without restricting them any further.”

He accepts that the whole area of physical fitness has become no more than square one for teams taking part in the championship but is reluctant to say that there’s an over-emphasis on those preparations.

“Every team is afraid of not being extremely fit. You don’t want the media saying you’re not fit because that looks extremely amateur – for a team to be falling short in an achievable area. Having said that, most of the top teams do an awful lot of their skill work and fitness work in tandem.

“There’s no doubt that fitness levels are extremely high. Are they overly high? I don’t know. A lot of players 30 years ago would have had difficulty finishing the warm-up, a lot of which now are 20, 25 minutes. There’s no doubt players are fitter and stronger nowadays.”

The Limerick manager is “upbeat” about the championship opener against holders Tipperary.

He still has injury problems but underage prodigy Declan Hannon is fit again even if he won’t start.

Traditionally Limerick “don’t fear” Tipperary but tradition isn’t always the most powerful shield when a team’s out on the field. Asked about his ambitions for the summer when he took over in the county, Allen has been around too long to get into specifics as the starting blocks beckon.

“Am I going to say the week before our most important match of the year that I’m looking at the qualifiers? Of course not. We’ll take Sunday as it comes and see where we’re at standard wise and see where we go after that.”

He believes that whereas the supporting cast has its merits, Tipperary and Kilkenny are still leading the pack with the former having pulled ahead during a good league campaign.

“It’s all very democratic until Sunday. Then we’ll get a better idea of where Tipperary are at and where Limerick are at but I don’t think the hierarchy has changed that much since last year.”