Ballybacon rage after being ordered to replay

FURIOUS Ballybacon-Grange officials are up in arms after Tipperary GAA chiefs ordered them to replay their SHC relegation clash against Cashel King Cormacs.

Furious selector Thomas O’Leary has described the situation as “the worst, lousiest thing I saw in my life”.

Ballybacon-Grange, home club of Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins, won the original clash in September after extra-time. That left Cashel facing into a winner-takes-all clash with Borrisokane to maintain their senior status.

But Cashel appealed on the basis that under rule, no extra-time should be played in the semis and final of the relegation series.

The Tipperary county board originally ruled in favour of Ballybacon-Grange but Cashel successfully appealed to the Munster Council, who referred the matter back to Premier County top brass for reprocessing.

Tipp officials have now refixed the Cashel-Ballybacon tie for December 11, with the losers to face Borrisokane a week later.

But Ballybacon have contacted Croke Park to explore their options, with former chairman O’Leary revealing the club has been told by the Tipperary County Board that if they do not replay against Cashel, they will be relegated.

O’Leary fumed: “We won the game in extra-time, and both teams agreed to play extra-time. The county board and Munster Council should be ashamed. If we were beaten, we would have went and played Borrisokane. When you’re beaten on the field of play, you’re beaten on the field of play.”

O’Leary admitted that Ballybacon-Grange have yet to decide on their next course of action, revealing: “That’s the six-mark question and it wouldn’t be right for me to say yet. But we’ve been finished training for the last eight weeks.

“But we’ve been told by the county board that if we don’t fulfil the fixture, we’ll be relegated. We have appealed to CHC in Dublin and whether they’ll hear it or not, I don’t know.”