Leitrim captain slams board over decision to cancel NY trip

Leitrim senior football captain Emlyn Mulligan has criticised the County Board's failure to consult with the players before deciding to cancel next week's Connacht FBD League final trip to New York.

Leitrim won the FBD League for the first time last January, setting up an 'away' decider against the Exiles on Sunday week (October 6), but they will not be fulfilling the fixture in the Big Apple due to financial constraints and the players' work commitments.

They already ventured to New York to play a Connacht Championship match back in May and have opted to pull out of the FBD League 'away' final following a County Board vote.

However, it does mean that the Leitrim board are open to being fined unless the Connacht Council look favourably on them as it is understood that they gave sufficient advance notice.

Last year, All-Ireland runners-up Mayo also failed to travel to New York for the FBD League 'away' final - at short notice - and were hit up with a €10,000 fine.

Leitrim GAA secretary Diarmuid Sweeney told the Irish Examiner: "We are not travelling to New York for the game and to be honest the vote went through very easily at the recent committee meeting.

"It was proposed and seconded and there was no big discussion about it. After we were already in New York for the Championship earlier this summer there was a general understanding that we couldn't really make the trip.

"Everyone was looking forward to it, but in the current climate we couldn't expect lads to take off work."

The last line of Sweeney's statement irked Mulligan in particular, and the free-taking forward took to his Twitter page to express his annoyance.

"'In the current climate we couldn't expect the lads to take off work'. We could at least have been asked!", tweeted Mulligan, the Longford-based Garda who scored 3-7 (0-6f) in the May game against New York.

Re: FBD Final NY13 ''in the current climate we couldn't expect the lads to take off work '' We could at least have been asked! #fbd #joke

— Emlyn Mulligan (@emlynmulligan) September 25, 2013

"The most frustrating thing is having to find out via the media that the trip to New York is not going ahead. Once again players have no say!"

Leitrim embarked on a four-match winning run during the 2013 FBD League competition, culminating in their 0-8 to 0-5 'home' final victory over Sligo on January 27.

That meant they had a prized trip to New York to look forward to in the autumn, a weekend away that wing forward Gerry Hickey felt their efforts deserved.

"No New York for the FBD final. Hard to take after months of commitment," tweeted Hickey, following confirmation of the County Board's decision to pull out.