ANNE’S WEDDING DILEMMA
Backbone of football team to miss Castletown clash
IT’S THE annual dilemma for G.A.A. players, no games during the summer months, and now a whole catalogue of fixtures on successive weekends into the county final months of October and November.
But what about the holidays and weddings, with St. Anne’s the latest club to find themselves in a serious predicament ahead of a vital Tom Doyle Supplies Senior football championship game this coming weekend.
It’s important to understand the dilemma in which club players find themselves in, without the support of the G.P.A. which is now solely inter-county orientated judging by the announcements of last week.
And the same is true for the G.A.A. at national level given their massive financial contribution to the Association without a mention of club players, as their support base is now solely linked to inter-county players and player welfare.
A good fixtures plan has to strike a balance but for the Wexford Competitions Control Committee (C.C.C.), under the Chairmanship of Denis Cadogan, the plight in which some clubs find themselves is far from their thinking when it comes to their fixtures plan, which would have been thrown out the window had Wexford advanced to the All-Ireland semi-final stage of the championship.
The decision of the C.C.C. to schedule the St. Anne’s versus Castletown Tom Doyle Supplies Senior football championship fourth round tie for this Sunday evening in Bellefield could prove the death knell for the south county club, whose prospects in this year’s championship could come to a premature end as the result of some bungling by the fixtures committee.
Apparently as early as last January the club Secretary, inter-county hurler Diarmuid O’Keeffe, applied via e-mail to have this coming weekend designated as a free one for their Senior team as eight of their players, and possibly more, will be attending a wedding of a former club colleague in New York.
That’s more than six months notice, but the club was left flabbergasted when the fixtures were announced, with their scheduled game against Castletown listed for this Sunday evening, despite the fact that more than half the St. Anne’s team will be New Yorkbased at the time.
Incidentally, St. Anne’s offered to have the game played on a Thursday evening without interruption to the following weekend’s fixtures, but this apparently failed to win over the members of the fixtures committee.
Club Secretary O’Keeffe is part of the travelling party, as is Liam Og McGovern, and theyleft Dublin Airport on Monday morning.
Now St. Anne’s find themselves in a real dilemma, as the forfeiture of the points could see their title aspirations ended.
On the other hand, should they promote Junior players, it will leave the club having to withdraw this side from the championship, leaving many players without any further games for the rest of the summer.
Currently it’s still to be decided what the outcome will be, but it looks as if the St. Anne’s versus Castletown game could yet not materialise unless the south county side field a totally depleted team which would not be fair on the paying public, as it would lead to a totally one-sided game.
This is a fixture that could yet end up in the Leinster Council boardroom which could delay the completion of the championship.
Meanwhile, O’Kennedy Park has an attractive double-header on Saturday evening with the reigning champions, St. James’, taking on neighbours Horeswood, while Shelmaliers meet Fethard.
Sunday’s double-header at Innovate Wexford Park brings together Glynn-Barntown and Starlights, along with Guserane and St. Martin’s, while in Bellefield Sarsfields are down to meet Adamstown in a real relegation battle in Group B.