Regan hits out at treatment of Offaly hurlers

All-Ireland SHC winner Daithi Regan has backed Joe Dooley and the Offaly senior hurlers in their current dispute with the County Board over training access.

Dooley's men were unable to train fully at Tullamore's O'Connor Park last Saturday morning, where some players were denied pitch access before their scheduled training time and allegedly challenged by a member of the ground staff.

It is understood that the Offaly senior panel was scheduled to train at 1pm, following the viewing of a DVD under the stand at 11.30am. The ground was also being used for a Centra skills competition that day, which was due to finish around midday.

The dispute over access emerged as some of the Offaly players tried to take to the pitch ahead of schedule, leading to a groundsman allegedly requesting that they get off it. In a letter to the County Board from Dooley, the Offaly management and squad, it says that the groundsman ordered them off the field, would not allow them to cross it and finally suggested that their cars could be removed from the car park.

Dooley, who is preparing his side for a qualifier against Laois or Cork next week, called off the training session as a result and took the decision to put pen to paper in the hope of addressing a number of issues.

But following a meeting last night, the Offaly County Board has insisted that they will not respond to the issues raised until the completion of Offaly's All-Ireland Championship campaign.

Reacting to news of the letter and Dooley's grievances, former Offaly midfielder Regan said: "It's disgraceful what's being done to Offaly hurling and people have to answer for that, the people in power, they're the ones with the responsibility.

"I've seen the problem myself, first hand. I'm involved with the Birr Under-16s and on the Tuesday night before Offaly played Dublin in the Leinster Senior hampionship we were having a training-session in our own pitch when we noticed a group of players starting to build along the sideline. It was the Offaly senior team, with nowhere to train, so they had come to Birr.

"We stepped aside, gave them the pitch, but to see the Offaly senior hurling team five nights before they played Dublin, looking for a place to train - we were embarrassed for them.

"Our young fellas should be looking up to these fellas but to see them like this, waiting on the side of our pitch because they had nowhere else to go was terrible. Tullamore wasn't available to them, again."

Many feel that Birr, the county's hurling stronghold, should be the training and playing base for Dooley's hurlers, but since its redevelopment, O'Connor Park has been used by all of Offaly's inter-county teams.

The busy schedule of matches taking place at the Tullamore venue - both club and inter-county fixtures - is reportedly down to the fact that the Offaly County Board have an estimated €2m debt to clear from the stadium's refurbishment, which was completed in 2006.

Regan told the Irish Examiner: "The feeling locally - and I'd feel very strongly about this - is that the Offaly County Board is interested in one thing and one thing only, and that is servicing the debt on O'Connor Park.

"The big thing for them isn't that Offaly beat either Cork or Laois in the hurling qualifiers, it's that they get 15-20,000 in O'Connor Park this Saturday for the Leinster quarter-final between Galway and Dublin.

"They have no interest in Offaly hurling. I'm not saying that lightly, they have no interest whatsoever in the future of hurling in Offaly.

"I have a copy of a letter which is even more damning than Joe's letter. It was written by the Offaly minor hurling management to the same individual in the Offaly County Board, pleading and begging them to play the Minor Hurling Championship game against Westmeath in Birr.

"They are two smart men, a brilliantly-written letter, a very true letter, but it was disregarded completely by the County Board...wasn't even brought up at the meeting. Nothing ever came of it. We're all very sick at what's happening, we're all very disappointed at what's happening."

Dooley has asked the Offaly County Board to get the clubs involved in terms of providing pitches for his players to train on, and Regan explained that hurling folk are rallying around the Faithfuls boss.

"Joe has already been contacted by about 10 clubs in south Offaly offering their pitch, their facilities - those clubs are giving him their full backing. Hurling isn't wanted in Tullamore but it is wanted in Birr. South Offaly will give that its full backing.

"I know (Offaly Chairman) Pat Teehan has issued a statement, saying 'no comment, it will be dealt with internally.' But the people I've spoken have said, 'no way, enough is enough, this can't be brushed under the carpet.'

"It has to be sorted, openly, and what's got to happen is this - Offaly hurling teams have got to be given a pitch on which they can train, that's surely a basic requirement.

"Hurling in Offaly needs to come back to Birr, a fantastic facility now, and all of south Offaly would like to see that. If it's not sorted quickly, agitation will occur. I've been approached by two different clubs already in south Offaly to know if I'd head up a separate group to lobby the County Board on this.

"I have declined on the basis that I know Birr have already been lobbying themselves to try and get games back down there."

Offaly has a proud and successful hurling tradition, having won four All-Ireland SHC titles (1981, 1985, 1994 and 1998), nine Leinster Championships and a National League crown since 1980. Current captain Shane Dooley, a son of Joe's, was an All-Star nominee last year.