Silke calls on GAA chiefs to ensure fixture fiasco doesn’t happen again
THE world and its mother knows there’s a serious problem when Liam Silke has two All-Ireland semi-finals scheduled for the one day but the Galway football ace wants to see something done to make sure history doesn’t continue to repeat itself.
UCD student Silke – last year’s Club Player of the Year – will miss Saturday’s Sigerson Cup semi-final against St Mary’s, Belfast as the 24-year-old will be in action with defending All-Ireland club football champions Corofin earlier that day.
It received much air-time when a similar scenario arose last year which saw Corofin clubmate Kieran Molloy receive a Garda escort from Tullamore to Santry to play in the Sigerson Cup final with NUIG and Silke can’t fathom that the same situation has arisen again.
“Everyone recognises that there is a problem. It would be great to see the GAA do something about it, to have some plan in place to do something. We can’t see any action being taken,” Silke said at yesterday’s launch of Bodibro’s 2019 GAA Sportswear range.
“The UCD management had flagged to the GAA back in November that there was a potential fixture clash. It was flagged to them early in January last year. But again, same situation, they put it on the long finger.
“They didn’t do anything about it until the last minute. The way it’s worked out now, they’ve changed the NUIG game to the day after, that’s not ideal either. Kieran won’t be able to prepare fully for what is an All-Ireland semi-final.”
Silke – a post-graduate medicine student who is on scholarship – hoped to also have his Sigerson Cup semi-final put back a day but manager John Divilly refused to do so on player welfare grounds, a decision he understands.
He wants the chance to play in the Sigerson final – he missed last year’s victory with injury after a similar fixture mess – but sole attention is now on Saturday’s club semi-final against Donegal and Ulster kingpins Gaoth Dobhair.
Having spent last summer with Donegal Boston alongside Gaoth Dobhair’s Michael Carroll – as well as Dublin star Diarmuid Connolly – he has “a little bit of a mini-rivalry” with the Donegal attacker and knows the test that lies ahead.
“They’re a very good team so we’re under no illusions how good they will be and we’re just looking forward to the game,” Silke said.