Players to make ‘dignified protest’

THE possibility of a players strike during the All-Ireland hurling and football championships was firmly ruled out by the GPA yesterday, but this weekend’s National League fixtures will be delayed by 15 minutes as a form of “dignified protest”.

Such a course of action falls well short of the proposed boycott of League action, but evidently player fury is barely suppressed.

It was only the cooling words of the GPA executive in Portlaoise on Saturday night that persuaded rank and file not to down tools this weekend.