O’Sullivan upset over Avondale’s walkover to St Patrick’s

AVONDALE hurling boss Emmet O’Sullivan has expressed his disappointment and embarrassment at his side’s failure to field for their Dacia Cars Senior Hurling Championship clash with St Patrick’s in Joule Park, Aughrim, last Saturday afternoon.

There’s no denying the fact that 2017 has been a tough year for Avondale’s flagship hurling outfit and O’Sullivan says an injury to talisman Eamonn Kearns was a blow that was hard to take for some of his charges.

“We had a couple of suspensions and a couple of injuries but at the end of the day it was embarrassing from my point of view and from the club’s point of view,” said the Carnew native.

It’s been a difficult year for the lads and with Eamonn (Kearns) injured it makes it harder. He’s a talisman. Some lads don’t see the point when he’s not there,” he said.

A total of 13 players turned up for the Senior championship clash with Michael Neary’s St Pat’s side and with not enough players to contest a game it was left for referee Mattie Dowling to throw the ball in to start the game with 15 St Pat’s players lined out and for Andy O’Brien to trot up the field and fire home a goal to make the walkover official.

Emmet O’Sullivan says he had over 20 names on a list for the game on Friday night and if he had known at that time how many were going to turn up on the day he would have made a phonecall to avoid the wasted journey and the embarrassment.

When asked if the Wicklow GAA County Board should look at helping out clubs facing difficulties in the county, O’Sullivan had a refreshingly honest reply.

“Help is a lad answering the phone or turning up when you say you’re going to turn up.

“Help is helping yourself. The County Board in Wicklow can’t be blamed because lads didn’t turn up for a game on Saturday,” he said.