Clare want Munster semi delayed to give clubs time to play five rounds
With only one series of club games having taken place, the county board are under immense pressure to run-off the five remaining rounds in time for the provincial campaign.
Saturday’s All-Ireland U21 decider against Antrim, coupled with the senior hurling final replay on September 28, have added to a fixtures backlog, delaying club action until early October.
A special meeting of the Clare County Board convened on Tuesday night to determine what course of action would be taken, but instead of fixing games midweek to alleviate the backlog, it was agreed a postponement of the clash of the Clare and Cork champions would be sought.
“We have a problem with the hurling club championship so we are going to contact the Munster Council and see will they give us a couple weeks grace,” said chairman Michael McDonagh.
“We are in a situation where we have an All-Ireland U21 final this week, we have a drawn All-Ireland senior final in a fortnight. We are hoping to get a bit of grace along the line somewhere.
“The ball is in the hands of the Munster Council. We’ll work with anybody and if they want to work with us they will, but if they don’t, they don’t.
“We are under pressure and that is the bottom line.
“We didn’t talk about midweek games or putting clubs out under lights, we don’t want to push clubs, but we will have to talk with dual clubs after the hurling final replay.”
Clare boss Davy Fitzgerald denied he was to blame for the four-month break in club action.
“They played the first round of the club championship, that was no problem. Then it came to the second round, which I didn’t have a problem with either. The clubs looked for it off themselves for a reason.”
Meanwhile, the quartet of Clare U21 hurlers who featured on Sunday emerged unscathed from the tie with Cork and will return to training this evening for the squad’s sole session prior to the meeting with Antrim.
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