Louth to make one last attempt to get Arthurs back
LOUTH hurling manager Philip O’Brien has revealed that Wee County chiefs will make one more attempt to overturn the decision to revoke Niall and Gerry Arthur’s exemption to play for the Reds in the Nicky Rackard Cup ahead of a makeor-break clash in Longford on Saturday.
While he wasn’t making excuses for last weekend’ defeat to Warwickshire he did admit that the loss of the Clare brothers was a huge blow to a county who don’t have a very big pool of players to pick from.
Niall and Gerry Arthur’s exemption for playing with Louth was lifted by the CCC meaning that neither were eligible to play against Warwickshire.
‘The two Clare boys had an exemption to play for Louth which was overturned last Thursday week. I was notified that their permit to play for Louth had been revoked by Croke Park. We appealed it on the grounds that it wasn’t correct and unfortunately that appeal was turned down yesterday.
‘I believe that there is another appeal forthcoming over a technicality but I have no idea if they will be available for Longford. You’d nearly want to be a solicitor to know what’s going on here,’ remarked Philip.
‘They are a big, big loss to us but we have to move on and focus on Longford now. We’ve got the toughest game out of the way now and it’s still all to play for.’
The Meath man was left to rue a poor ten-minute spell in the second half as he watched his side succumb to a nine-point defeat against Warwickshire on Saturday afternoon.
O’Brien was pleased with his side’s efforts in the first half but pointed to a couple of defensive errors in the second period as reasons for this loss.
‘Our first half was excellent and I thought we really played well and probably shaded the first half. If anything we should have gone in ahead but once again we just weren’t clinical enough up front. In saying that I can’t fault any of the lads. They gave it 100% and never gave up which is what you want to see.
‘The game went away from us during a ten-minute spell in the second half where they got a run on us. It was similar to the last game where they also had a bit of a purple patch and unfortunately when that happens you’re playing catch up and you’re up against it. Of course it’s disappointing especially a couple of the goals which we let in which I felt were soft but I have to take the positives from it. All of our forwards scored, our midfield scored so you’re always happy when that happens.
‘On the day you’d have to say they were a better team than us and we’ll have to regroup and go again next week,’ stated Philip.