Bergin highlights risk of early exit in Connacht

GALWAY’S Joe Bergin has urged the GAA to shut off the loophole that could see a Connacht county left without a second chance in the Championship.

The Tribesmen required a late scoring burst to defeat New York in their recent Championship clash and would have been sensationally finished for the summer if they’d lost.

That’s because there’s no provision for a second chance in games involving New York as the Exiles are normally easily defeated.

With more and more players leaving Ireland for New York due to the economic crisis, however, there’s every chance of a first win for them over Connacht opposition in the coming years.

“It needs to be looked at in fairness,” said Bergin. “I don’t know how they’ll work that. I wasn’t aware of that situation when we were going out there that if we were beaten we were out. Thankfully that didn’t happen.”

Meanwhile the squads for Saturday’s Ladies Football interpros were announced yesterday.

Notably no Mayo player is named in the Connacht selection. The games will be played in Kinnegad GAA Club, Westmeath

CONNACHT: J Connolly, S Noone, A Gilmore, C Cormican, R McPhilbin, E Flaherty, G Conneally, A Daly, U Carroll, E Concannon, S Burke, S Murphy, M Coyne, N Duggan, T Hughes, S Conneally, N Connolly, P Gleeson, C Hehir, N Lohan, M Maloney, K Mullins, G O’Connor, JA Russell, A Seoighe, AM McDonough (All Galway).

LEINSTER: M Nevin, C O’Connor, G Fay, L Peat, D Masterson, S Aherne, R Ruddy, N Healy, N Comyn, M Kavanagh (Dublin), N Kirwan, T Lawlor, M Kiwan, L Muckian, A O’Loughlin, A Quigley, P Fogarty (All Laois), Sharon Treacy (Longford), B Leahy, A Gately, T Noone, A Holton, D Berry (All Kildare), L Walsh (Westmeath), S Keogh, L Tector (Wexford), C Deeney (Wicklow), I Munnelly (Meath).

MUNSTER: E Harte, V Mulcahy, R Buckley, L Barrett, A Walsh, G O’Flynn, AM Walsh, M O’Connor, B Stack, N Cleary, (Cork), L Scanlon, A Leonard, P Dennehy, B Breen, L Ni Mhuircheartaigh (Kerry), E Power, M McGrath, M Ryan, L Wall (Waterford), G O’Brien, M Morrissey, S Lambert, C Carroll, A O’Dwyer (Tipperary), E Considine, S Kelly, L Henchy, N Keane (Clare), D O’Brien, S Healy (Limerick).

ULSTER: L Martin, A McAnespie, S Courtney, A Casey, C McAnespie, T McNally, N Fahy, C McConnell, C Reilly (Monaghan), C Morgan, D Mallon, S McCleary, C O’Hanlon (Armagh), E Downey, K Trainor, A Pyers, S Fegan, O Fegan (Down), S Donnelly, G Begley, L McGillion, C Donnelly (Tyrone), C Timoney, C Carey, C McCoy (Antrim), Y McMonagle, E Ward, A McDonnell, C Hegarty (Donegal), N McMullan (Derry).

Schedule

11am: Pitch 1: Connacht v Ulster; Pitch 2: Leinster v Munster.

12.30pm: Pitch 1: Connacht v Leinster; Pitch 2: Munster v Ulster.

2pm: Pitch 1: Connacht v Munster; Pitch 2: Leinster v Ulster

3.45pm: Shield final

4.30pm: Inter Provincial final