Dooley fumes over Ring Cup final ‘insult’

WESTMEATH hurling boss Johnny Dooley last night branded the decision to fix their Christy Ring final for Friday night in Croke Park (7.30pm) as “an insult” to weaker counties.

The Offaly legend said opponents Carlow were “just as annoyed” with the decision and claimed the two counties had “drawn the short straw by being shoved” out to Friday.

“It must be a long time since the gates of Croke Park were opened for a Friday night game. We are very annoyed about this.

“But it’s the players I feel sorry for. We train as hard as any senior squad and to be treated like this is an insult.

“The GAA are always on about what they are doing to promote hurling in the weaker counties, but this has the opposite effect.’’

He continued: “I’m disgusted, it’s a joke; it’s unbelievable to think that they (the CCCC) would even consider putting it on a Friday night. The place is going to be empty and it beggars belief why they’d do something like this. I’m depressed over it.”

Dooley expects the Westmeath Board to make their dissatisfaction known to officials GAA bosses later this week.

Even from a purely logistical point of view, he felt it was totally unreasonable to opt for an evening game in Croke Park, meaning that players would have to get a half-day off work and then to try and negotiate their way through the city on a bank holiday weekend.

Meanwhile Meath senior hurling team manager John Andrews has hit out against the alleged lack of regard by Croke Park committees for the game’s weaker counties. He strongly criticised the decision to change the format of the Christy Ring Cup with teams only getting two games in their group, saying, “they made a mess of it this year, it was a great competition last year when we got four meaningful games.

“Teams had plenty of good hurling in the summer and that’s what the Christy Ring Cup was designed for but it was very disappointing to see the amount of games cut this year.

“The powers that be in Croke Park seem to just want an elitist group, the top eight teams in the game, that’s what they want. “The committee which made the decision to change the format included people from Kilkenny, Tipperary and Clare. What do they know about our level of hurling? They never asked anyone at our level about these decisions and that’s disappointing. They’re not asking what we think.”