Greene furious as Christy Ring final fixture ‘fiasco’ rages on

WESTMEATH manager Johnny Dooley has already vented his wrath at the GAA authorities over the fixing of the Christy Ring final for this evening in Croke Park at 7.30pm, a slot which he felt showed utter contempt for the hurlers of Westmeath and Carlow.

At the request of both counties, the final will instead take place on Sunday in Tullamore at 6pm, but yesterday, Carlow manager Jim Greene was still fuming.

“The Croke Park thing was a pure fiasco. The minute they started tampering with the Christy Ring final, they ruined it. The original idea, when Seán Kelly (former GAA president) first introduced it, was that the weaker counties were now going to get their big day in Croke Park, playing in front of a big crowd on All-Ireland hurling semi-final day, a proper setting for them.

“Originally it took the place of the minor semi-finals, but then last year they played the Christy Ring final at 12.15pm, then this year they decided to take it away from the hurling altogether, put it with the football, again at a terrible hour — just flog it in somewhere, get rid of it. Totally disrespectful, and the damage is done now. If they were to pull the All-Ireland final in September and put us on instead it won’t rectify the damage they’ve done to the people involved in this. They’ve insulted the players, they’ve insulted every team involved, they’ve insulted everyone involved with those teams.

“It’s not just Carlow and Westmeath, they’ve insulted Mayo, they’ve insulted Wicklow, they’ve insulted everyone who played in the Christy Ring, it was a total lack of respect. I don’t care what excuses they make, they didn’t treat it with the respect it deserves, they certainly didn’t treat it with the kind of respect those individuals who are putting in so much effort deserve. I have fellas in Carlow who work as hard at their game as Tony Browne, Ken McGrath, Dan Shanahan (club-mates of Jim Greene at Mount Sion, in Waterford), or any of those top hurlers, our fellas work just as hard, they take their game just as serious, no difference in their attitude or approach to the game.

“For our lads to play in Croke Park on the same day as those guys, that’s the carrot I’ve been dangling in front of them since October, getting that game in Croke Park on the same day as the All-Ireland hurling semi-final. Even last Saturday, at half-time against Mayo (the Christy Ring semi-final), we were in a bit of bother and that’s the motivation I used, that was the call, to get to Croke Park. And then on Monday, we’re not there anymore. If it wasn’t so serious, it would be funny,” blasted Greene.

He added: “You have four football qualifier games this weekend in Croke Park, and I know one of the teams involved there can still win the All-Ireland but it’s still a notch below the quarter-finals; you have the Nicky Rackard final, which is the third level competition in hurling, you have the Tommy Murphy Cup, which is a lower-level football tournament, and you had the Christy Ring — that was the one which should have taken precedence over them all, but that’s the one that was shifted.

“When all this is over though, I hope all the Division 2 counties stand up and are counted on this in Croke Park, call a spade a spade, tell them we’re not going to be messed around anymore. We’re as important a part of the association as anyone else, but unfortunately for us, we don’t make as much money for them.”