Angry reaction in Waterford to cancellation of games

THERE has been an angry reaction in Waterford after GAA chiefs postponed all six senior football championship ties next weekend.

St. Saviours manager Tony Corcoran, himself a former county player, branded the decision an “absolute disgrace’’ and insisted that every team in the football championship has been badly let down by the county board.

Corcoran said: “Our club has been all geared-up to play a vital football championship game and now we are being told at the drop of a hat that the game is not going ahead. We had been given this date months ago and that was what we have been planning for. Now it is all up in the air, and as far as I am concerned the postponement is an absolute disgrace.”

The postponement request was made by Davy Fitzgerald, supported by his fellow selectors Pat Bennett and Paraic Fanning, along with the backing of the players.

Fitzgerald and three of the players addressed a meeting of the board’s CCC in Dungarvan on Thursday night with Fitzgerald voicing his concerns about the inevitable disruption to his preparations for the July 10 Munster final if the football games went ahead.

Twelve months ago a similar request from Fitzgerald had been rejected at a meeting of the full County Board, but this time the executive took a different stance and agreed to put the football games back.

“We did so in the best interests of the hurling team,’’ chairman Tom Cunningham said. “No one wants to impede the team’s preparations for the Munster final and we would never be forgiven if key members of the hurling team picked up injuries.

He added: “Right now our major goal is to retain our Munster senior hurling title.”

Of the team that started last Sunday’s hurling semi-final against Limerick just three — Clinton Hennessy, Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh and Shane Walsh — would be involved in the football games.