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*Corofin’s senior footballers stand for the national anthem in Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg, Ennis. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
COROFIN’s senior football manager has labelled it as “lunacy” that their dual players will be forced to play four championship games in fourteen days.
Ending up in the preliminary quarter-final of the TUS Clare senior football championship has heightened the demands on Corofin’s dual players who will be lining out in a knockout football encounter on Friday evening before taking to the field for a must-win hurling tie on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Corofin lost out to Kilmurry Ibrickane in the third round of the Clare SFC by four points. They play St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield on Friday evening in the preliminary quarter-final of the SFC.
Clare GAA have moved Corofin’s clash with Sixmilebridge in the Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship which was originally fixed for Sunday back to Tuesday (September 8th) while their final round group game in the PIHC is fixed for Sunday September 13th when they face Whitegate.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Corofin senior football manager, Peadar O’Brien voiced his criticism with the lack of consideration to player welfare. “The hurling will be on Tuesday which is an absolute nightmare, it is totally wrong, there’s no question. We have eleven or twelve of the same players, they will be either playing intermediate or junior hurling, it is crazy, they will have no session this week, they had no session last week and are going out playing a game against a team that are available to train all the time, it is totally ridiculous.
“I know the issue with isolated players, that is fine and there is nothing we can do about that but when they are your own club players and you are expecting them to go out and play four championship games in two weeks is absolute madness, that is what they’re going to do, we played Sunday, we’re playing Friday night, the hurlers play Tuesday and again the following Sunday, it is lunacy, player welfare? Forget about it,” he continued.
When asked about the level of consultation the club has had with Clare GAA on the matter, Peadar remarked, “We’ve been told the football is on Friday night and the hurling is Tuesday, that is the level of consultation we’ve had”.
According to a Clare GAA insider, the matter has not been raised with the Clare GAA Competitions Control Committee (CCC).
Facing off with Sixmilebridge on Tuesday is a must-win game for Corofin’s hurlers if they are to stay in the PIHC. Manager Dave Hannan told The Clare Echo, “From a hurling point of view we had our last match vs Parteen/Meelick two weeks ago and we haven’t been able to have a session since, we’re going up against teams which are non-stop hurling, we have four lads not playing football and we let the rest of them focus on football when it is football weeks and it’s vice versa for hurling weeks. This week we have the issue of a football play-off in the middle of a hurling week so we’ll only be able to get them together for a small session on Sunday morning, we can’t do much training in between matches, it is crazy really”.
Dave believed those responsible for fixtures should have marked round four in the PIHC as a bye for Corofin if they were also planning on holding the football preliminary quarter-final on the same weekend. “Player welfare doesn’t seem to come into it from the County Board when fixing two games in the same weekend. We’ve loads of injuries and now they are throwing extra games in the middle of it, they could have found an week somewhere else in the calendar or planned ahead because there was always a good chance that Corofin would have been in the play-off for the football quarter-final so if we were given the bye in the hurling this weekend it would have made a massive difference. Players have no choice but to get on with it, they are frustrated, the amount of phone calls I’m having to deal with from players asking if there’s changes or anything they can do but the County Board have put in the games with such a quick turnaround so it’s just about managing it and hopefully fingers crossed we’ll get no injuries before the hurling games on Tuesday and Sunday”.
Stakes are high for Corofin this weekend regardless of the quick turnaround, he flagged. “If we don’t beat Sixmilebridge we’re looking at a relegation dogfight and if we lose both games we’re in relegation. If we beat Sixmilebridge we’re looking at potentially fighting with Whitegate for top spot in the group. In the premier intermediate hurling championship, every team is equal and any team can come out on top, the Sixmilebridge game is so important but we haven’t had much preparation for it, we’ll have had one session since the Parteen/Meelick game and that is on Sunday”.
Hannan acknowledged the calendar is very tight for Clare GAA to source alternative weekends. “The weekends aren’t there to fit it in, something has to be done for next year, it seems to be a bit rushed, we went four weeks without a game and now all of a sudden we’ve two coming together in a couple of days. The County Board’s hands are tied”.
Jamie Malone has returned to his teaching post in the Middle East and missed Sunday’s loss to Kilmurry Ibrickane but is expected to feature this weekend in the preliminary play-off. “It’s Friday night, we have no information on that whatsoever,” a tight-lipped O’Brien said on the prospect of Malone returning this weekend.
Facing off with St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield presents a tricky headache for Corofin coach Mark Rafferty. He lined out in the 2011 county final for The Parish and was their manager a year later when they lost out in the decider to Kilmurry Ibrickane. His two sons, Joe and James are part of the Doora/Barefield team which makes for a tense household in Knockanean this week. “He has bought a mobile home,” quipped Peadar on how the situation will be dealt with.
Reflecting on their latest outing, Peadar lamented their first half where they conceded 1-1 without reply in the first five minutes and trailed by six at the interval. “It was a game that we could have got something out if, be it a draw or whatever but we didn’t play well enough in the first half which was the bottom line, that is a bit of a trend at this stage, we’re not getting to the pace of it for whatever reason and it is something we have to look at, you can’t afford to be giving teams five or six points of a headstart but we’d have to be happy with the second half”.
An improved second half showing saw Corofin outscore the Bricks 0-12 1-4. “I looked at one stage in the first half and thought the breeze was non-existent, I don’t know what happened in the second half, maybe we pushed up better, they kicked a few balls over the sideline and weren’t winning clean balls, we were competing reasonably well so we should be happy with that side of it”.
Slow starts have been a constant of their three group games but so too have been spirited comebacks. “There’s a bit of steel in our team and you’d be going nowhere without it, our full-back line were very good again today, we conceded three goals and maybe that wasn’t all down to them, we conceded nine points which is not massive with their star-studded forward line, we competed reasonably well with them”.
