U-21 selector Laffan blasts board in Wexford dual player row

THE Wexford hurling crisis deepened last night as the county’s Under-21 selector Gary Laffan, an All-Ireland SHC medallist in 1996, launched a scathing attack on his own county board over the use of dual players.

Laffan revealed how the U21 hurlers were promised the use of eight dual players for a challenge match against Offaly last Sunday — before they were later pulled from the squad.

The matter is complicated by the fact that the players in question, Liam Óg McGovern, Michael O’Regan, Matthew O’Hanlon, John Lacey, Barry O’Gorman, Alan Nolan, James Breen and Emmett Kent, are preparing for next Wednesday’s Cadbury’s Leinster U21 football final against Longford.

But Laffan has warned that if the U21 hurlers don’t get some access to the players during their preparations, the Slaneysiders are in for a hiding against Kilkenny on June 8.

“Ger Doyle, the county board chairman, agreed that after the first round of the U21 football against Louth (February), that dual players would be released for both codes,” he said.

“They won that and then went on to beat Kildare and Carlow to reach the final. But we’ve hardly seen our hurlers. In the last eight weeks, we’ve seen four of five them twice, with the other two on three or four occasions. It’s not good enough.

“Last Monday week, myself and Tom Foley, from our backroom team, went to see Ger Doyle. We wanted the dual players last Sunday for a challenge match against Offaly, before the senior game in Tullamore.

“On the Thursday, Ger Doyle said they were being released. But on the Friday evening at around 5.30pm, we were on our way to Waterford for another challenge and I got a phone call informing me that they were not being released, but that we could have them for the Waterford match.

“We were already in transit, on our way to Waterford, and we weren’t going to have access to the players by then. You can’t go ringing lads that late, at 5.30pm in the evening. We had our team picked by then.”

Last Saturday, manager Dempsey and his selectors Laffan and Paul Dempsey met to discuss the previous day’s events. “Tony and Kevin (Wexford U21 football manager) had been in discussions and have come to some sort of arrangement for after the Leinster (football) final.

“We knew the U21 footballers had a good team and we had to look at the eventuality of them winning a Leinster or even an All-Ireland. But we’re trying to prepare for Kilkenny on June 8 and they’re playing practice matches twice a week, without any dual issues. And if we don’t prepare properly, Kilkenny will come to Wexford Park and blow us out of the water.”

Laffan is particularly frustrated as he believes there is enough potential in the Wexford U21 hurling camp to go one better than last year’s provincial final defeat to Dublin. “They were minor champions three years ago and we have to prepare 100% to challenge them in the first round. Wexford hurling is not in a great place but this U21 team is a very good team. We have 13 of last year’s team unlucky to lose against Dublin in the Leinster final and this is a team we targeted to win a Leinster championship. But we’re finding it hard to get access to players.

“There has been talk about the management threatening to resign but at no stage was that an issue. We’ve been with these lads a year and a half and we’re not going to walk out now.”