Laois and Antrim irked by schedule

Laois and Antrim board chiefs have blasted the impractical Leinster SHC schedule, claiming it is "unfair" to force both counties back inside the whitewash this weekend.

The counties are part of Sunday’s quarter-final double-header at Portlaoise, with Laois lining out for a fifth consecutive weekend. Antrim, meanwhile, have only had one weekend’s reprieve since the end of April.

Antrim boss Kevin Ryan yesterday labelled the scheduling of the provincial championship as a “disgrace”, a sentiment shared by county board chairman Jim Murray.

“The schedule is too tightly packed and it is unfair on players,” he fumed. “Kevin is looking at this from the players’ perspective where the turnaround is very quick and the occurrence of injuries is very high.”

The county board executive had sought to move the game to Saturday evening so as not to clash with Sunday’s Ulster SFC quarter-final between Antrim and Fermanagh, but were not accommodated.

“We did write to GAA officials seeking to have one of the games moved to Saturday, but we were not successful,” continued Murray.

The Laois U21s open their provincial campaign this evening and with eight players also featuring on the senior squad, chairman Gerry Kavanagh bemoaned the overcrowded schedule.

“It is not satisfactory, but we are not throwing our toys out of the pram. This round-robin system and the constant flow of games was agreed upon at the end of last year, that was the time to take issue with it and prevent it’s implementation. We didn’t oppose it at the time, other counties affected also didn’t oppose it so you now have to get on with it.”