Kelly lashes GAA chiefs as ‘fatigued’ Louth bow out in Derry

LOUTH boss Colin Kelly insisted GAA administrators know nothing about ‘player welfare’ after his team crashed out of the All-Ireland Qualifiers on the back of a six-day turnaround on Saturday evening.

In the interest of keeping the show on the road, the Reds’ chief may have held back a little immediately after Louth’s defeat to Meath in the Leinster Championship, but he emerged with all-guns-blazing at Owenbeg.

‘I felt the lads gave all they could give and I think it’s disgraceful how they were treated,’ he started. ‘We go around talking about player welfare, but we don’t actually do anything about player welfare. For one county to be treated the way we have bee treated, it’s embarrassing for the GAA to say the least.

‘People in high-up positions preach about this player welfare, but do they understand it? Have they played the game? Do they realise what it’s like for these lads to come up here and try to represent their county? I think it’s an absolute disgrace.

‘I have to ask are we the dirt on the bottom of people’s shoes? Whatever trouble it causes for me I don’t mind saying it. Today wasn’t a true reflection on this Louth team.’

Kelly believes the whole qualifier system needs to be looked at as he also had some sympathy for Louth’s hosts.

‘It’s not fair on Derry either because they’re sitting around for four or five weeks waiting to play a match. Meath’s season could have been over in six days if we had beaten them, all their preparation gone in six days. Where’s the logic in all of this?’

However, Kelly feels the issue actually goes further than simply player welfare as he believes Louth would have won Saturday’s game if they had been afforded more time to prepare.

‘I don’t think we would have been beaten if we had the two weeks. We just couldn’t get a handle on them and it was more to do with us being fatigued than them being creative and up front we found it hard to open them up and an awful lot of it was to do with the six-day turnaround.

‘[It looked good] after halftime when we kicked on and got the two scores, but we had lads on the bench that were literally injured. You have to name a squad of 26 early in the week and then you can’t change that squad. It’s just a farce all round.

‘We were punch drunk in the second-half. We couldn’t get to fellas, we couldn’t track runs and our skillset suffered too; hand-passes and kick-passes went astray. You try to cajole a performance out of lads, but that’s all mental and physical fatigue.

‘We got it very hard to get a handle on it attacking wise. Our breaking out of the middle third wasn’t what it needed to be but again that was down to tired the legs. The physios were at it overtime today with the lads. James Stewart, Jim Mac, Burnsie, they were all running on empty and they’ve given us so much this year. It’s a joke.’

Reflecting on the season as a whole, Kelly conceded that despite the sour taste the last week or so has left, it has been a decent campaign.

‘It’s been a positive season and I can’t complement the players enough on how they have embraced everything we’ve asked them to do. I think it’s been quite a successful season too. We set out to win Division 4 and we beat Carlow and I suppose in the end Meath and Derry were beyond us. They’re both Division 2 teams and that’s where we’re striving to get to.

‘We still have to improve and the squad will be evaluated to see if there’s anyone we can bring in or lads we can bring to the next level. Ultimately the goal is to get up through the divisions because to compete at this level that’s where you need to be.

Overall I thought we matched Derry in most areas but we just didn’t have the legs to see it out. The response to score the goal in the second-half and close the gap showed the fight they have but it was just beyond them.

‘Overall I suppose we found coming out of Division 4 that last Sunday and today were eye-openers for us, but we’ll regroup and come back stronger.’

People in highup positions preach about this player welfare, but do they understand it? Have they played the game? Do they realise what it’s like for these lads to come up here to represent their county?