Clubs unhappy with lack of access to inter-county players
What had been a meeting largely dominated by discussion over the rescheduling of county championship fixtures in the wake of Cork reaching the All-Ireland U21 final took a turn under any other business, when a number of delegates made clear their dissatisfaction.
After Denis Hurley (Sarsfields) sought clarity from chairman Ger Lane on the cut-off date for club access to players before Cork’s meeting with Tipperary in the Munster SHC on May 22, St Finbarr’s hurling delegate Denis Harrington and Christy Ring of Glen Rovers pointed out that the senior hurling management had stopped players from playing for their clubs in RedFM SHL game.
Midleton’s Pat Horgan expanded on this. “We have four players on the senior panel and we had a game recently and only one was released,” he said.
“We were told that two weren’t fit and that the other wouldn’t be released under any circumstances. This was five weeks before the championship. A number of weeks ago, we went to Kilmallock to play a tournament match. It was the day of the Cork-Galway game so we didn’t have our players or the five who were with the Cork intermediate team. The night before, though, Limerick had played Dublin and Kilmallock’s four Limerick players played the whole game against us.
“It’s very disappointing if it’s the case that clubs are being denied players, it has been a hobby-horse of mine for 40 years but nothing has changed. I’ve no doubt too that the players are willing participants in the mollycoddling.” Chairman Ger Lane said that he would talk to the senior hurling management in relation to this, and informed Freemount delegate John O’Flynn that there had been no progress in relation to the proposed county-wide premier junior hurling championship as the competitions control committee had been inundated with fixtures issues. O’Flynn had reiterated his wish that that the junior championship should stay as it is, citing widespread opposition from junior clubs.
Earlier motions of sympathy were passed for Frank Healy (Kanturk) and John Fenton (Fermoy), who died recently.
