Déise boss slams GAA for ‘lacking respect’
WATERFORD manager Tom McGlinchey last night accused the GAA of ‘lacking respect’ for lower-tier football counties after declaring three NFL Division 4 games ‘null and void’. The four counties involved in two of the games spiked, Waterford-Leitrim and Wicklow-Limerick, had agreed to reschedule their games for the end of next month, but their request was rejected by Croke Park. The Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) took the decision to cancel the games — the LaoisAntrim game will also not be played — after claiming that they had been informed by the counties involved that they could not proceed with the games on Easter weekend because of club commitments. However, there were four management teams who had agreed to replay their games at the end of April, with Waterford even forfeiting home advantage to travel to play Leitrim in Abbotstown on April 25, but the CCCC refused to accommodate a proposal to reschedule the games. The GAA has designated next month exclusively for club fixtures, and it declared in a statement yesterday: ‘While it would have been preferable that the games
could have been rearranged before the conclusion of the League season, it was felt by the CCCC that this should not happen at the expense of pre-scheduled club games in April.’
However, the last round of club fixtures in Waterford takes place on April 22, which would leave them free to fulfil their game with Leitrim.
McGlinchey said that Croke Park’s attitude showed scant regard for the game’s developing counties.
‘I think it shows an absolute lack of respect for Division 4 teams who take the League every bit as seriously as Division 1 teams, but all the GAA were interested was in getting the competition over rather than facilitating the wishes of the players.
‘We beat London last weekend and it gave our players a huge boost and had we beaten Leitrim in our rescheduled game, we would have finished fourth in the table.
‘That might not mean much to some teams but it was huge for our players and that goes for all the teams in our division,’ said McGlinchey.
The decision to scrap the outstanding games means that Leitrim, who previously conceded a walk-over to London, will have played just five games this spring.
‘I think it is ridiculous that a county like Leitrim will get so few games, when the one thing a county like that needs is games,’ said McGlinchey.
‘We all do, and yet the GAA can cut games off our schedule which we wanted to play and which could have helped us prepare for the Championship.
‘I think it shows once more that they only pay lip-service to the counties in the lower divisions and they know that when the Super 8s, which should be renamed the “Elite 8s”, take place, no one will be thinking of the Division 4 teams.
‘Well, they are the ones who should be,’ blasted McGlinchey.
Meanwhile, Kildare manager Cian O’Neill has denied claims that he dropped a number of players for last Sunday’s defeat to Galway as a disciplinary action for an alleged breach of a social curfew when the team overnighted in Killarney the previous weekend.
There was intense speculation that action was taken against a number of players who socialised in the aftermath of their St Patrick night’s defeat to Kerry, but O’Neill has denied the claim.
‘No, there’s no disciplinary problem in the camp,’ said O’Neill.
‘If you’re referring to last week, basically we went out for a few drinks as a group — I think the lads deserved it.
‘We were staying in Killarney after the match which is very different to staying somewhere before a match — you don’t even leave the hotel.
‘That’s what happened last week, obviously there will be stories, there will be discussions,’ added the Lilywhites boss.
Kildare slumped to a seventh straight defeat in the League to the Tribesmen on Sunday, which extended their losing streak to 12 games in all competitions.
“It was huge for
our players and our division”