Fitzgibbon Cup final clash ‘a disaster’, says Kirby
Against DCU on Saturday, Kirby should have all of the inter-county players available to him from last week’s semi-final win over IT Carlow.
However, as they have players on the UL side, Clare, Limerick and Tipperary may have to change their line-ups the following day. Dublin, Kilkenny, Waterford, Westmeath and Wexford face a similar situation regarding DCU.
The proximity of the games is a sore point for Kirby, who feels the final should be staged on a football league weekend, as it has been in the past.
“I think it’s a disaster, to tell you the honest truth. I feel sorry for the county managers. The common sense approach would be to have the Fitzgibbon final on the same weekend as a football league round instead of a hurling one. It is very unfortunate and it could have been organised way better than this.
“We have worked well with the county managers. We have an understanding and they have been very fair to us and we’ve been fair to them. We haven’t overused the players and spoke regularly since September and I think we’ve all come out of it okay, so far.”
The former Limerick star has his mind trained on what happens in Mallow on Saturday, but he doesn’t rule out players lining out for their counties the following day, though Limerick manager John Kiely has ruled his UL hurlers making the trip to Antrim, despite them chasing promotion to Division 1A.
“It wouldn’t be the best for the players to play two hard matches over the same weekend, but it has been done and it will be done again,” said Kirby. “These guys are fairly fit, but the Fitzgibbon Cup final weekend is one the players need to enjoy.”
Kirby has heard the suggestion that the competition be put back to November, but he sees January as the most appropriate month, though some colleges stage exams then.
“I think it would be worse if you did that (move to November), because you would have a lot of club teams involved at that time of year in knock-out stages and they definitely wouldn’t be able to play. I think January is the right time, but going to November, there are going to be clashes with clubs.”
Eleven UL players involved in the Carlow IT game played for their counties at the weekend: Conor Cleary, David Fitzgerald, Tony Kelly (Clare); Seán Finn, Gearóid Hegarty, Tom Morrissey, Barry Murphy, Pat Ryan (Limerick), Jason Forde, Barry Heffernan and John McGrath (Tipp).
“We’re lucky enough that all our players seemed to come through okay,” reported the Patrickswell man. “We have a few long-term injuries, but they have been missing all year.”
