Offaly football and hurling league semi-finals and finals to go ahead without county players

THE Offaly GAA adult football and hurling league finals and semi-finals will be concluded without county players – if Offaly senior footballers stay going in the Tailteann Cup.

A proposal by Offaly GAA Competitions Control Committee secretary, Pat Teehan that the leagues be put on hold drew a very luke warm response from clubs at a County Board meeting on Tuesday evening.

Mr Teehan stated that they had received requests from clubs and the CCC felt that no club should be forced to play a knockout game without county players. The football league semi-finals were pencilled in for June 19-24 with the finals down for July 3 to 8.

Offaly play New York in a Tailteann Cup preliminary quarter-final on Saturday next and with the final on July 12, holding them up for county players would have resulted in the concluding stages of the leagues being fitted in during the club championship if Offaly reach that stage.

After almost unanimous opposition to holding up the leagues, it was agreed to proceed with league semi-finals and finals and relegation semi-finals as fixed. The relegation finals may be deferred for county players if clubs request this: Clonbullogue's Brian O'Neill referred to the difficulty they have had in the Division 1 Football League without their county players, Keith O'Neill and Jack McEvoy while Ballinagar, in relegation trouble in the Division 2 Football League, have also complained at playing games without their county players – they have Morgan Tynan, Geordi O'Meara, Robbie Gallagher and Diarmuid Finneran on the extended Offaly panel -, though they were not represented at Tuesday's meeting and didn't present those views publicly there.

Edenderry's Willie Forde was the first to pour cold water on the proposals. Noting that they have three players on the Offaly senior football panel – Lee Pearson, Jordan Hayes and Rory Egan -, he described the proposal as “madness”, adding that it would lead to “chaos”.

He referred to the masters fixtures plan which was published to give structure and guidance to the season. Stating that clubs have been making plans around this in the lead up to championship, he complained: “Shur you can plan nothing if this changes. They should go ahead without county players. How can managers of club teams put a strategy around getting ready for the championships and then to say we will play the league matches within the championship. It is going to end up chaos at the end. There will be a fixtures pile up. We are asking players to stop playing competitive football and they are entitled to competitive football every two weeks. It has worked brilliantly. We are asking them to stop playing on the 6^th or 7^th of June and not play another competitive match until July 19 if Offaly did get to the Tailteann Cup final. Why break it if it is not broken.”

Stating that the master fixture plan worked well the last few years, Mr Forde said some players have holiday plans made around it: “Why change it? If it goes back, the leagues will mean nothing. If someone is beaten out of the championship, who wants to play a league final. We just have to rock on. This is the split season, this is what it brings to us and we just have to suck it up. We have county players and we will suck it up.”

Gracefield's Colin Hanlon supported going ahead with the leagues without county players as did Bracknagh's Dick Weldon who said: “The leagues should go on. The clubs who have county men will be looking at the championship and not league in my opinion so why should Bracknagh suffer over that. It has worked for the last number of years so why change it.”

Ferbane's Brian Flynn also agreed with moving ahead with the leagues, referring to the problems dual clubs will face if they end up being played during the championship.

Mr Teehan stressed that the CCC wanted the leagues to go ahead and were just reacting to a request from a club – he revealed that two hurling clubs wanted to go ahead with their knockout league games even though they would be without Offaly senior footballers on their panel.

Clonbullogue's Brian O'Neill was the only speaker in favour of holding the leagues for county players and he only sought this for teams in relegation play offs. Clonbullogue are in relegation trouble in Division 1 Football League and have played all their league games without their county players, Keith O'Neill and Jack McEvoy. “Why should clubs be punished for having players representing their county,” he asked.

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Relegation has changed in the Division 3 Football League following the withdrawal of Tullamore and Kilcormac-Killoughey. Instead of the bottom four teams facing off in two relegation semi-finals, the bottom two teams will go straight into a relegation final.

Durrow are relegated in the Division 4 Football League after conceding walkovers.