Annoyed Harte tells Offaly to 'attend to their own business'

A DEFIANT Louth manager, Mickey Harte told Offaly to “attend to their own business” after his side was beaten by Longford in the O'Byrne Cup senior football final on Saturday.

The Tyrone legend was responding to questions about the O'Byrne Cup and criticism of Louth for not fulfilling a midweek fixture in Wexford in the previous round.

Offaly manager Liam Kearns had criticised Leinster Council for not punishing Louth for not fulfilling the fixture after they had beaten Dublin. Kearns accused Louth and Leinster Council of undermining the integrity of the competition. Offaly were supposed to play Louth in the semi-final but subsequently conceded a walkover to them.

Kearns had complained that Louth had been handed an unfair advantage by having an eight day break between their previous round and the semi-final and hit out at Offaly having to play three games in eight days.

He immediately suggested that Offaly would pull out and this controversial stance was taken two days later. Offaly GAA chairman Michael Duignan clarified at an Offaly GAA County Board meeting last week that they took their action because of concerns about player welfare and players playing colleges games. He said it was not because of Louth not fulfilling their fixture against Wexford and he felt they had no choice – he explained that they had apologised to Leinster GAA chairman Pat Teehan for withdrawing.

Speaking to LMFM after Saturday's final, Harte addressed Offaly's complaints, saying: “We didn’t do anything out of order, we did everything by the book, and if the Leinster Council wanted to sanction us for that decision, we’d have taken that. They didn’t, we went on and played the two games, and because we ended up in a semi-final….and it’s a bit rich for somebody to be giving out about us not going to the bottom end of Wexford on a Wednesday night, when they felt hard done by, having to go from the midlands to Parnell Park, they were making the argument for us!

“Then as if they were overburdened themselves, they were in a group of three, and they only had to play two games, and we had to play two games as well. So I don’t know where they got the room to gripe. I think they should just attend to their own business and leave everybody else to tend to theirs as well.”

Harte stated that they had told Leinster Council at the start of the competition that they would not travel to Wexford on a Wednesday night.

Asked did he stand by the decision to withdraw from the Wexford game, he responded:

“That’s not the way to put it, we didn’t withdraw from the game. That’s the problem, there’s a narrative out there that’s been put into the public domain by someone who isn’t from Louth, and wasn’t involved with Louth and doesn’t know anything about them. The fact of the matter is Louth county board, under our instructions, said we could not make it to Wexford on Wednesday night, between the distance and the time of the night that it was due to be played. Leinster Council were told that before a ball was kicked.

“Then, they gave us an alternative, which was to be January 2nd. So if you took the game on the 2nd of January, another one on the 4th, another on the 6th, that would be three games in six days after playing no football at all. So we said that did not suit us and it wouldn’t work. So we made it totally clear before a ball was kicked that this was our position.

“For people to suggest otherwise, saying that we tried to pull out of the competition or abandon the competition, or do it harm – that’s people who don’t know what they’re talking about, and they’ve been quite vociferous in what they’ve been saying.

“We did everything above board, the Leinster Council were properly informed of everything we were doing, and we didn’t refuse to go to Wexford on the Wednesday night, we had declared long in advance, before we kicked a ball, that we weren’t going, so I think people need to get that narrative right and straight again.”