The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Warriors’ dismay at losing Superleague title after arbitration
GARVEY’S Tralee Warriors chairman Terry O’Brien has described the decision to uphold the points deduction for his team, which means they will be denied the Men’s Superleague title – despite topping the league table – as “a real kick in the pants”.
The Warriors were found to have “committed an unintentional rule violation towards the end of the playing season”, which involved the registration of new player Andre Berry, an American import.
Warriors were initially docked six points, but on appeal they regained the lost points. However, the appeal decision was subsequently appealed again resulting in the arbitration process, which ultimately cost the Tralee outfit the title.
Last Saturday Chairman of the Men’s National Competitions Committee (MNCC), Bernard O’Byrne, stated: “Both Tralee Warriors and Belfast Star have accepted the result of the hearing, the appeal process and the outcome.”
Nevertheless, there is real disquiet in Tralee at the way the situation played itself out.
O’Brien said: “As chairman of the club I’m very disappointed in what transpired. We’re a relatively new club and in four years we’ve never had any misdemeanour or any real disagreement with Basketball Ireland. We never took a chance or played an illegal player, which we’re accused of doing.”
On Twitter Warriors player Kieran Donaghy said: “...we feel we have been massively wronged but such is life, that happens...”
TRALEE Warriors Chairman Terry O’Brien has reacted to the outcome of the attribution proceedings last week, which cost the Warriors the Superleague title, by describing it as “a real kick in the pants to be honest”.
The Warriors were found to have “committed an unintentional rule violation towards the end of the playing season”, which involved the registration of new player Andre Berry, an American import.
Tralee were initially docked six points, but on appeal they regained the lost points. The appeal did find, however, that Warriors would still have to pay a fine for the infraction, understood to be administrative in nature and relatively minor.
“We thought that was common sense and actually when they appealed it they kind of went half in half,” O’Brien told The Kerryman on Monday.
“They still gave us the fine, but they gave us the points back, and to be honest I was actually disappointed by that, because I felt that by us taking the fine showed that we were some bit wrong. I firmly believe still that we did nothing wrong, I still think that we got a bad deal here to be honest.”
The appeal decision was subsequently appealed again resulting in the arbitration process, which ultimately cost the Tralee outfit the title. Chair of the Men’s National Competitions Committee (MNCC), Bernard O’Byrne, last Saturday stated: “Both Tralee Warriors and Belfast Star have accepted the result of the hearing, the appeal process and the outcome.
“They have congratulated each other on a fantastic season of basketball and wish each other well. The MNCC would like to take this opportunity to express their appreciation to both clubs for their sportsmanlike attitude.”
Even so it’s fair to say that there’s real disquiet in Tralee at the way the situation played itself out.
“As chairman of the club I’m very disappointed in what transpired, O’Brien continued.
“We’re a relatively new club and in four years we’ve never had any misdemeanour or any real disagreement with Basketball Ireland. We never took a chance or played an illegal player, which we’re accused of doing.
“The outcome, which we thought was resolved, Basketball Ireland took it on themselves to appeal it again so it was unfortunate for us, but that’s what they did and the arbitrator went on their side so basically that cost us the league, which we had fought hard to win and like there’s a lot of work that goes into this.
“There’s a great committee there. There’s a fantastic team of volunteers there and probably the best supporters of any club in the country. In the complex in Tralee we put on a good show. We work with local charities.
“Every year we do something for local charities. It’s all voluntary and when something like this happens it’s a bit of a kick in the pants to be honest.
“When this kind of stuff happens, it makes you wonder why you bother, do you know?”
The Warriors squad and coaching staff, led by Pat Price, are understandably gutted at the outcome.
“The players are very disappointed,” the chairman explained.
“They put a lot of work into it as have the staff. We’ve got good sponsors and we’ve had good backing with the press and good support. Remember, this is a club that is four years old and this is our first year in the four not having some title.
“We thought that was our title, but obviously not and it’s [Belfast] Star’s and we wish them all the best, it’s not their fault they inherited it. That’s where it’s at for us. It was an administrative error, they called it an unintentional error, so it’s still a hard pill to swallow, but that’s it. We were still in the race and we just found out about it on Friday so that was very disappointing.
“I’d say there will be always be an asterisk beside the winners. I don’t think Belfast Star want to be winning the league that way either. They’ve a good team, they’ve a good bunch of guys there, I don’t think they’d want to win the league that way, but unfortunately whatever they decided they wanted to contest.”
Despite the significant set back this represents, O’Brien wanted to put on record the positive contribution the Warriors have made the basketball in Tralee, in Kerry and across the country in their short existence.
“What I’d like to mention is the support, we’ve the best fans in the country bar none,” he emphasised.
“Every other club coming to Tralee will tell you that, there’s always good craic here in the complex. We always meet them after for a few pints and provide food for them. We always make their travelling supporters more than welcome. The sponsors Garveys as well have been very good to us.
“Since we’ve come in the numbers involved in basketball has multiplied because of Warriors. We’ve great friends in clubs from Ballybunion to Duagh, you name it from all over the county. We went to Castleisland twice this year. We’d full houses on two occasions in Castleisland. We went to Ballybunion and they were celebrating their tenth anniversary and we celebrated with them, it was chock-a-block out there, we had a great day.
“We always give to charity, we gave a few hundred euro to the children’s ward in the hospital. The team went down on Christmas morning and shook hands and smiled for the kids who were delighted the basketballers were there, we gave them presents and we gave a few hundred euro to the lads over there.
“We like to do nice things, but then this happens you do think what’s it all about really.”