Munster Council responds to Liam Kearns on scheduling

The Munster Council have defended their decision to ask counties play two McGrath Cup fixtures within the space of four days.

Tipperary football manager Liam Kearns, in the wake of Sunday’s trouncing away to Kerry, expressed deep frustration at having to line out against Cork tomorrow evening and cannot see the logic behind the council’s scheduling.

Tipperary defenders Colm O’Shaughnessy and Paddy Codd will miss the Cork fixture after both suffered hamstring injuries at Austin Stack Park and Kearns is fearful of more injuries such is the short turnaround between games.

“Overload is the biggest cause of injury. There is a chance we could pick up another couple of injuries and that is the last thing you want three weeks before the league starts,” Kearns asserted.

“The idea of preparatory games in the McGrath Cup is that you come through it without too many injuries. I’d be disappointed [with the scheduling].”

Midweek fixtures, according to the Tipperary boss, could easily have been avoided had the competition been run off over four weekends. This would have seen the final played on January 29, one week before the commencement of the Allianz leagues. As it is, the McGrath Cup decider is on January 22.

“The premise of any competition is that every team gets treated the same. As it is, one team in either group gets seven days between their games, while the other four teams have to play two games four days apart.

“We normally train on a Tuesday and Thursday. We lose both those sessions this week as a result of having to play on Wednesday.”

No concerns were raised in advance of the McGrath Cup, according to Munster Council PRO Ger Ryan.

“We met with managers and county board officials towards the end of 2015 (CORRECT) to discuss these competitions and we made changes such as the exclusion of third-level teams from the hurling competition. It was agreed at the time to finish the McGrath Cup within such a timeframe so as to afford teams a free weekend ahead of the National Leagues. We also didn’t want to start on the first weekend of January as that would have been unfair to county board officials, match officials, management teams and players.”

Kearns is demanding a better performance when Cork visit Dr Morris Park, even if he is still without a number of key players.

“Bill Maher should be back. There isn’t a whole lot else, though. Michael Quinlivan and Alan Campbell won’t be back. Kevin O’Halloran won’t be back. George Hannigan won’t be back. I’d be hoping Cork would be something similar to ourselves. They might be a bit ahead of us as we are obviously a bit behind.”