Blow for Kearns as Lucey sidelined for League

LIMERICK football manager Liam Kearns has been dealt another blow in the build-up to their 2005 campaign with confirmation yesterday that star defender Stephen Lucey is set to miss all their League matches.

Lucey underwent an operation on a shoulder injury at a Dublin hospital on Tuesday.

Limerick Football Board PRO John Ryan said: “We have been told it will be at least four months before Stephen is available. Even then there are no guarantees. His loss is a big blow as we are already without John Galvin and Jason Stokes, both of whom are due to go into hospital for leg operations.”

In the meantime, Kearns is expected to draft a few new players into his already depleted squad.

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte has added his voice to the growing lobby of rule change sceptics.

He dismissed concerns over the Ulster Council’s decision not to implement the experimental rules changes during the Dr McKenna Cup.

Harte is unimpressed by the proposed changes, but doesn’t feel the Ulster counties will find themselves at a disadvantage later in the season.

“I’m not impressed with the new rules, and there are even conflicting opinions about whether they will be used in the National League,” he said.

He gave his backing to the Ulster Council rejection of the Croke Park rules experiment for the pre-season McKenna Cup.

Harte believes that the university sides would have been seriously inconvenienced by changes in the playing regulations, which would not continue in the Ryan or Sigerson Cup competitions.

“The Ulster Council have a valid point,” he said.

“What would be the point of having the universities in this competition if they were going to be playing under false rules?”

And the Red Hand boss feels the game is in a healthy state, and not in need of tinkering.

“I would prefer to keep the game the way it is, and work with the rules that exist rather than try to blame the non-application of the rules for some deficiencies.”

Meanwhile, the history of the GAA in Galway is finally to be brought up to date with a former newspaper boss undertaking the task of documenting the past 70 years.

The early days of Galway GAA have been chronicled by the late Canon Padraic Ó Laoi, who published two books which covered 1884-1901 and then 1901 to 1934.

Now Gerry Cloherty, who retired two years ago as managing director of The Connacht Tribune, has agreed to bring the story up to date.

A former chairman of the county board, Cloherty has written a history of his club Rahoon/Newcastle.

His task will include detailing some of the best eras for sport in the West, the highlights of which were the footballers’ three-in-a-row success in the ’60s and the hurlers’ three All-Ireland titles in the 1980s.