Postponements to have knock-on effect on clubs

THE postponement of Louth’s penultimate National League clash against Meath could have a knock-on effect on club fixtures in Louth.

Pete McGrath revealed that the plan had been to release players back to clubs for a full week’s training after Louth’s final game against Clare, originally earmarked for March 25th.

However, it now seems likely that Central CCC will re-fix one of Louth’s final two games for Easter weekend.

‘The plan was always that players would go back to their clubs to train after the Clare game, but we might have to re-visit that now,’ McGrath revealed.

The Louth CCC were planning to start the club leagues on Easter weekend, but with Louth in action they may have to push them back a week and find an additional weekend in the fixture plan.

A lot will depend on how far Louth go in the Championship in that regard, but McGrath did re-iterate that clubs will have their players for club games in April as planned.

‘They’ll go back to their clubs and play an agreed number of games, whether that’s affected by the game the weekend after next I’not sure.

‘But they’ll go back and play with their clubs and our training programme will continue and it’s very important that we managed their effort correctly during that time. The focus will be on quality, not so much quantity and they will benefit from the matches with their clubs too.’

There was some good news for McGrath and his selectors as Sam Mulroy returned to light jogging following a lengthy lay-off with an ankle injury sustained against Longoford in the O’Byrne Cup.

He expects Jim McEneaney to follow suit in the next few weeks, while Niall Conlon is also not far away from making a comeback following an operation on his wrist.

‘It’s encouraging to have Sam back running,’ McGrath said. ‘Jim should be able to start jogging soon also, but that’s a shoulder injury so it will about how the shoulder heels. Niall is close to comeback. We’re still not sure about John Bingham. I wouldn’t be terribly optimistic. He’s still with the squad doing gym work, but we’ll have to see if the knee settles down. It’s unfortunate because John is an important player for us, but it does give someone else a chance at the same time.’