Saffrons boss slams fixtures ‘disgrace’

DRAWING Kerry was bad enough but Antrim football manager Liam Bradley was left fuming last night when the dates and venues for next weekend’s All-Ireland qualifiers were revealed.

It has been decided that the Saffron hurlers will face Offaly at Parnell Park on Saturday while Bradley’s footballers will be in action a day later in Tullamore’s O’Connor Park.

“I think it is an absolute disgrace that the GAA have decided to have the Antrim hurlers play Offaly in a relegation qualifier in Dublin on the Saturday and the footballers in Tullamore on the Sunday,” said Bradley.

“They are asking Antrim supporters to travel to Parnell Park on Saturday then either go back home again or stay and go down to Tullamore the following day. That is disgraceful.

“The GAA are showing no consideration to the supporters whatsoever.”

Bradley also believes that the choice of Tullamore as the venue for the novel meeting with Jack O’Connor’s side will result in a poor attendance.

“It’s a very simple thing to do. You know as well as I do that the Kerry supporters won’t travel in big numbers this weekend for a qualifier against Antrim. We will be very, very lucky if there are 500 Kerry people at that match. They would have had a huge number of Antrim supporters had they had it in Dublin. It is straight down the motorway to Parnell Park which was the obvious choice. I would say there will hardly be 1000 people in Tullamore on Sunday.

“I have no doubt whatsoever it will put off Antrim supporters as well and rightly so. I wouldn’t blame the supporters. In this day and age there is very little money about. Now they have the option of going to two games on two different days. Either that or they go to one game. That’s a wee bit sad. There are people in Antrim who love their hurling and their football and they would love to see both county teams.”

There were no such qualms from Kerry.

“We would be happy enough with it,” said county chairman Jerome Conway. “Sunday afternoon at 3pm. It is fine in that it gives us an extra day to prepare but the other way of looking at it is it means a day less on the other side. You can’t have it every way.”

The other two All-Ireland round four qualifiers, as well as the delayed round three game between Meath and Roscommon, will all take place on Saturday evening. RTÉ will screen the plum tie of round four between Galway and Donegal at 5pm on Saturday at Markievicz Park. TV3 air the Kildare-Wicklow meeting from Portlaoise (7pm).

Mick O’Dwyer’s side have already accounted for three Ulster sides on their journey through the back door but Kildare will be glad of the opportunity to atone for their defeat to the Garden county in Leinster last year. This will also be the first time O’Dwyer’s men troops have operated away from Aughrim since their provincial championship defeat to Westmeath, something Kildare will be only too happy about.

“The All Blacks wouldn’t win in Aughrim so, yeah, we are happy that it won’t be played down there,” said selector Niall Carew.

Details of the weekend’s All-Ireland hurling qualifier games were also released yesterday. As expected, the Dublin-Limerick and Galway-Waterford games will be held as a double header in Thurles. Both games are to be screened live on RTÉ2 while the second hurling relegation tie between Clare and Wexford, will precede the Kildare-Wicklow tie in O’Moore Park.