Fury over Emmets’ call to start 13 players

An ugly row is developing in Limerick after divisional club Emmets started with just 13 players in their championship game against Adare on Sunday.

Bruree and Granagh-Ballingarry are lodging protests to the county board about Emmets, who lost to Adare by 5-19 to 0-6.

That heavy defeat of Emmets, who had already qualified for the quarter-finals in Group One of the county SHC, meant Bruree missed out on the last eight to Adare on score difference while also ensuring Adare avoided the relegation play-offs at the expense of Granagh-Ballingarry.

Bruree defeated Granagh-Ballingarry 3-10 to 1-14 in Kilmallock on Sunday but the result was made redundant by what happened in Ballyagran.

Bruree manager Pat Bennett confirmed the clubs are taking the matter to the county board and will go further if needs be.

“Bruree are putting in an objection and so are Granagh-Ballingarry,’’ Bennett said. “Technically, Emmets did nothing wrong but they needed to get two players in from the stand after the game had started.

“Emmets were close enough to winning the championship last year, they lost to Na Piarsaigh in the semi-finals. They had 17 substitutes when they played us so how can they go from that to having less than 15? It’s a joke.

“If Emmets had given a walkover they’d have still gone through. Adare would be in the relegation battle then and we’d have qualified.

“The county board have a decision to make. A bad precedent has been set. Our last hour of hurling was a total waste because of what happened in the Emmets game. We may as well have let Ballingarry beat us if we knew that was going to happen.’’

Remarkably, Emmets finished top of Group One with a minus score difference of 4-6 (-18 points) compared to Adare’s plus 2-20 (+26 points).