Storm brewing

The management of the Meath senior hurlers are on a collision course with the executive of the Co Committee following a decision to fix a number of IFC and JFC games for Tuesday, 1st July ahead of the Royal County"s crucial Christy Ring Cup clash with Kerry in Tralee on Saturday, 12th July. Co Committee chairman Barney Allen told the Meath Chronicle that Meath manager John Andrews has threatened to drop players from his senior hurling panel if they turn out for their clubs in those fixtures. That decision could have a direct impact on up to 15 players and eight clubs and could have serious repercussions for Meath"s Christy Ring Cup ambitions. Andrews declined to comment about the matter, but Allen maintains that the Meath Competitions Control Committee (CCC) are perfectly within their rights to fix the games. 'We have fixed a number of games for Tuesday, 1st July to try to catch up in the championships, but John Andrews has told a number of the players that if they play for their clubs then they will be dropped off the Meath hurling panel,' commented Allen this week. 'The rule states, as per the official guide, that the 13-day rule only applies in the same code. John Andrews cannot stop lads from playing football with their clubs once it is outside seven days from an inter-county match, in the same way that football manager Colm Coyle cannot stop fellows from playing hurling seven days before a football qualifier match. 'All other grades of championship are bound by a seven-day rule. If there were senior club hurling matches fixed within the 13 days of a Christy Ring Cup game we would call them off, although the rule decrees that we only have to give seven days. I don"t know what is going to happen now. It is unfair to put this on the clubs. The CCC are within the rules and John Andrews has gone overboard by telling the clubs this. 'I don"t want to be having a row with John Andrews, but the rules are on our side. When the managers are appointed they know they have to play under the rules of the CCC. He should have waited until the fixtures were available and then talked to us, but he shouldn"t have told the players that they can"t play for their clubs,' concluded Allen. This latest incident is sure to anger Andrews who has also expressed his frustration in the past at an apparent lack of respect for hurling in the county. The manager complained that he wasn"t informed in sufficient time about the official qualification system in the NHL Div 2 earlier this year. He also expressed his disappointment following the NHL Div 2 defeat by Down that the Pairc Tailteann pitch was like a 'harrowed field'after a Feis Cup match had been played the night before. Andrews was also 'disillusioned' at the fixing of SHC games that led to a lack of preparation for the forthcoming Christy Ring Cup and the Kehoe Cup final, which Meath won last week. This is another in a long list of incidents that the Trim man believes is hampering the development of hurling within the county. The players likely to feature in next week"s IFC and JFC games are: Gary Mangan (Clann na nGael), Kevin Dowd (Dunderry), Martin Horan, Stephen Clynch, Ger O"Neill and Joey Keena (Dunsany), Tony Fox, Noel Kirby, Padraig Geoghegan and Sean Corrigan (Kildalkey), Stephen Donoghue (Kiltale) and Michael Foley (Gaeil Colmcille).