Decision to relegate St Michael’s ‘slur on club and insult to Cork’

THE decision to relegate Cork champions St. Michael’s to Division Two of Féile Peil na nÓg in Limerick yesterday, provoked an angry reaction from the Blackrock club.

At the conclusion of the presentation of the Division Two cup, several members of their team sprayed bottles of Coca Cola in the direction of the dignitaries, and while it was easy to understand their frustration, it took the gloss off their emphatic victory over local club St. Patrick’s.

The irony of it all was that St. Sylvester’s (Dublin) who were given St. Michael’s place in premier grade to ensure there were two teams from the capital in the top division, won it in dramatic fashion from the holders Corofin (Galway)

St. Michael’s coach Ray Delaney described the demotion as a slur on his club and ‘an insult to Cork, a county with a very good and proud record in Féile Peil.’

“We had a team capable of rattling the premier final, and they were denied the opportunity to represent their club and county in a national final. It’s simply not good enough to make way for a second Dublin team at Cork’s expense, and those who made that decision should be ashamed of themselves. Despite our protestations, we failed to remain in the top grade. It’s also totally unfair on the teams we played in the Féile and the heavy beating we gave them. They were not competing at the same level and it must been very disheartening for those clubs to be on the wrong end of such big beatings. That does nothing for the promotion of Féile Peil. Heavy defeats like that only turn kids off the game and somebody should be held accountable for what was done to St. Michael’s and to Cork.”

St. Michael’s won the right to represent the Leesiders in the premier grade by winning the Cork competition, but were downgraded to accommodate a second team from Dublin.

National Féile chairman Donal Fitzgibbon explained: “There are eight teams in each division and we had a problem when it was agreed that Dublin should have a second team involved. We based our decision to put St. Michael’s down to Division Two on the performances of Cork teams in the past two years. It was not a slur on Cork and I want to make that perfectly clear.”