Lure of the US growing worry for managers

The anger in Tommy Byrne’s voice is thinly masked.

This should have been a good week for Offaly, one pregnant with optimism for both county teams, the footballers having given a good account of themselves against Kildare last weekend and then the hosting of a Henry Shefflin-less Kilkenny in Tullamore tomorrow.

Instead, he is coming to terms with news that two of Emmet McDonnell’s footballers — Brian Connor and John Moloney — are upping sticks and heading to the USA for the summer three weeks before the qualifiers.

What does it say about their attitude? Not much, he states. But then Offaly have plenty of company in such circumstance. Armagh and Laois are just two other counties who have seen players depart prior to the backdoor.

It’s not a new phenomenon but when more and more are doing it, the extent of their ambitions and, to a certain extent, those of their teams, are revealed to be quite limited.

More will follow as soon as their counties’ involvement in the qualifiers comes to an end. Last year several of Dublin’s hurlers and Armagh’s footballers headed across the Atlantic once their inter-county summers finished up.

But they hung around while their county had interest. Byrne has little time for those who quit before their counties had even realised their second chance.

At the start of last year, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan was roundly criticised for describing emigration as a lifestyle choice for some. In the case of Offaly this past week and other counties, Byrne concurs.

“They made the decision. A lot of them would like to say this, that and the other but it was their decision. I just think these lads want to be tourists for the summer and they’re going to go anyway.

“These lads would have had it in their mind to go away. I’m not talking about Offaly specifically but in general.

“It’s hard to know why they would bother preparing so much for just one match. I don’t know what the answer for that is. But what can you do? You can’t say ‘you can’t do this’ or ‘you won’t do that’.”

Laois secretary Niall Healy feels just as helpless having seen Kevin Meaney, Brendan Quigley and Gary Walsh opt for a summer in the States over the possibility of putting together another good qualifier run under Justin McNulty.

“It’s just disappointing but what can you do? There’s not much we can do about it. They’re a huge loss to the county. People are disappointed and that’s the way it is.”

Armagh have lost four players – Peter Carragher, Declan McKenna, Gavin McParland and Michael Stevenson who has officially emigrated.

Their departures were discussed at Wednesday’s board meeting and secretary Paddy Óg Nugent admits the developments “haven’t gone down well”.

Having a 20-year-old son working in London having before looked for employment in Australia, Nugent qualifies his comments by saying he doesn’t want to be a hypocrite.

He knows the difficulties about finding a job and the allure of one and a different lifestyle for a few months in the US.

But he can’t mistake it is a setback for Paul Grimley. “To lose them now before the qualifiers is definitely disappointing and there’s no two ways about that.

“To alienate these lads who are going is a very tough thing but there is disappointment for the manager and the rest of the players that they let us know so late.

“If they had said it at the start of the season they wouldn’t have been in the panel. It wouldn’t have affected us. It hasn’t gone down well but you do have to look at it from their point of view as well.”

The solution? A change to the Championship structure and more games might be one. The rescheduling of games, as will happen next year with a maximum of four weeks between games for counties.

“We’ve a five-week break,” says Healy of the gap between the defeat to Louth and their first round qualifier. “Imagine if there was only a fortnight’s break, they would have stayed on.”

Nugent believes it’s a matter that has to be nipped in the bud by a rule change.

“Maybe something can be done about the sanctions. It’s early stages and you’ll be talking about it come convention time.

“It’s being discussed at the moment and I’m sure it will become more of an issue in the next couple of weeks for more counties. It’s just a situation that needs to be tied up.”

Byrne suggests a much easier answer is a charter players will be obliged to sign up to. For the manager and the county board, it would make a lot of sense.

“I’d say down the line managers will start saying, ‘listen, if you’re going to America you’re no good to me for the winter’.

“A lot has been invested in these players both in terms of time and finance. Every county puts a lot into a player and running an inter-county team is an expensive business. It’s very hard to know if it would work anyway because I would be of the opinion that these lads want to go to America for the summer and no matter what happens, they’re going to go.”