Limerick hurling manager John Kiely believes that some of the county's fans "lack a little bit of perspective" in expecting instant success.
The Treaty men ended a 17-year wait for a Munster title in 2013 and made it back to the All-Ireland semi-finals again the following season, but supporters have been frustrated by their inability to push on from there.
Kiely, who has succeed TJ Ryan as manager for this campaign, says that while the county's support in general was "phenomenal", the minority had verbally abused his players during a Munster Senior League loss to Cork should stay away.
"We have great support in Limerick, huge support in terms of numbers, but they can be rather impatient at times and maybe lack a little bit of perspective on where things are at," he told RTÉ Sport at Croke Park.
"That day against Cork, there were quite a number of people in the crowd who were extremely abusive and it was not at all appropriate that players be treated like that on the day, given the amount of time and effort and work they put into preparing themselves on the pitch, and off the pitch.
"That is not something we would like to see again. We have an awful lot of decent people involved in hurling in Limerick, and if there are people out there that aren't behind the team, we would rather they stayed away.
“But, they are very small in number and I would hope that the other supporters, the really true supporters would stand up to these people and tell them this is not appropriate and it’s not something that they should have to entertain in the crowd either.
"We would like to see the people who are real, true hurling people in Limerick step up and follow the team through thick and thin, through good and bad, and support the players and acknowledge the effort that the players are putting in.
“On the same point we got an awful lot of very positive encouraging well wishes from the outset from an awful lot of people.
"We have an absolutely phenomenal support. It’s not even four years ago since we saw the groundswell in Limerick after the 2013 Munster final when the entire grounds was swamped within 60 seconds.
"I just hope that that supporter bases mobilise in the weeks ahead, not in the months ahead, because we need that support base to be up and running as soon as possible."
Kiely insists the county's season won't be defined by whether they finally secure promotion to Division 1A of the Allianz Hurling League.
The Treaty County last played in the top tier in 2010 but their new boss, who led the Limerick Under 21s to All-Ireland glory in 2015, says the county board have not put any pressure on him to achieve immediate results.
They begin their Allianz League campaign in Wexford Park on Sunday.
"The concept of promotion out of the division is not on our radar at the moment," he said. "If we give ourselves an opportunity at some point down the road to gain promotion that would be great.
“As an ambition, obviously everybody wants to play at the highest possible level, so yes, it’s an ambition. What the effects of getting promotion would be, that would remain to be seen.
“This management team, we’ve been put in place for three years.
“I think there is a very real understanding of what needs to be done in order for us to become a more competitive team.
"There are no clear cut goals set down by us or the county board and we are not under any obligation to anybody to achieve x, y and z in any defined time frame and that’s very clear.”
Kiely confirmed that last year's championship debutant Barry Nash had withdrawn from the panel for "personal reasons" but said the door was open if the the South Liberties forward changed his mind.
"He won't be the last. Stuff crops up and that's the bottom line," said Kiely. "It was his decision, his decision to withdraw and at the end of the day, it is still very early in our preparations. It is only 12 weeks into what will hopefully be a three-year term, so it is very early doors.
"I have no doubt that Barry will have a major part to play in the years ahead, who knows, maybe even at some point later this year, he may find himself in a position to return to training. If he wants to return, we will sit down with him and discuss that."
