Relegation serves no purpose, insists Sambo

ANTRIM hurling joint manager Terence ‘Sambo’ McNaughton has claimed that the GAA will only go ahead with relegation from the Liam MacCarthy Cup if it is his side that is destined for the chop.

The Saffron legend is adamant that relegation serves no purpose and has pleaded with Croke Park chiefs not to banish his charges to the second tier, if they fail to beat Offaly, and the losers of the other semi-final between Clare and Wexford.

“My own gut feeling is that if we do get relegated it won’t do hurling any good. It will be no good for Antrim, or for teams in the Christy Ring Cup.

“You and I know they’re not going to relegate Clare and make Munster a four-team competition. They’re not going to relegate Offaly, who are a Division 1 team next year. What is the point of having a Christy Ring Cup then, if a Division 1 team is there?

“They won’t relegate Wexford either. I think they’re waiting to see if we are relegated and if that happens, they’ll let it go but it will be of no benefit to us or the other Christy Ring Cup teams.”

Reports that Clare and Wexford will refuse to play their semi-final today has only added to the sense of farce surrounding the relegation play-offs, with Clare boss Mike McNamara claiming he didn’t even know they existed until after his side’s loss to Galway.

“I know it’s our own fault because we lost to Dublin and I’m not crying,” McNaughton insists. “We got ourselves in this position. But I said all along that getting into Leinster wasn’t a magic switch. We needed a few years and we needed our underage teams in there as well. If people are serious about helping the game in Ulster, they’ll take the brave steps and give us some time.

“But if Croke Park are just waiting for us to go down and want us to go down, they should come out and have the balls to say it.

“I urge the powers-that-be to bite the bullet and do the right thing. I’m not saying Carlow shouldn’t come up. But there is nothing to be gained from relegating Antrim.”

He continued: “It’s very difficult to keep the players motivated and the clubs are getting involved now, looking for players for their championship. No player wants to be involved in a losers’ competition. That’s the bottom line.

“We were a puck of a ball away from beating Laois so we could be where Limerick are tomorrow. Dublin beat us but they could be in the last four of the All-Ireland and if we took our goal chances in the first half, there wouldn’t have been 10 points in it.

“Offaly is a Division 1 team. We played them in the league and were poor but still there were only five points in it at the end. We’re not going to run away.”