Fixtures challenges for Kileeshil

Kileeshil have been missing Kevin Hughes

KILLEESHIL manager Ronan Murphy has called for ‘a more sporting approach’ having seen his depleted side succumb to a heavy defeat at the hands of Gortin last weekend.

The official final score of the game was 9-21 to 0-6 in favour of  visitors Gortin in the relegation battle at the foot of the Division Two league ladder, but the result alone does not tell the whole story.

Killeeshil were forced to field a side which was barely recognisable due to the unavailability of players for the game. The primary reason was the wedding of one of their former team mates in Tipperary on Saturday, with 14 of the senior squad invited to the wedding and staying over, while most of the remainder of the side attending a second local wedding, of the brother of a number of the senior squad.

Despite Killeeshil’s best efforts to move the game to an alternative date, their requests fell on deaf ears. It meant that the club were forced to delve deep into their minor team, and indeed minor bench, just to fulfil the fixture.

The manager, himself a former long-serving senior player with Edendork, admits that he was disappointed that the club found themselves in such a position, but reveals that frustration is the overriding emotion in relation to the fixture.

“I think it shows a disregard for players, that they can’t get accommodated to go to Tipperary to celebrate their brother’s wedding. The entire senior panel was basically wiped out, we had no senior players to call on. It was a no-win situation for us.

“It’s a wider problem in my view. The CCC have a hard enough time of it with fixtures, but surely there should be some sort of leeway whenever there is legitimate reason for doing so.

The full story is in the current issue of Gaelic Life, published on Thursday July 12. Buy your copy now in your local newsagent, or you can purchase the online version – for only 90p – by clicking here