Westmeath v Wicklow MHC

delta_bravo

Anyone hear about this? Wicklow somehow only managed to bring 13 players to Mullingar for this Minor Leinster Championship game. One of their players got injured early on in the game so it was 12 against 15. At half time the score was 9-22 to 0-0 (49 point difference!). Wicklow then refused to go out for the 2nd half and the game was abondoned.

Lawless_Samurai

I was just told about this a minute ago and I have to admit I laughed my ass off! Than it sank in and I thought how that would have felt playing for your county that day. Something that is suppose to bring pride and everything else that goes with wearing that jersey would have been replaced with embarressment and guilt and just about every opposite feeling there is to pride. To the Wiclow Minors.... Thats just about as unlucky as you can get.



To the Westmeath team, kinda bad form not fielding just 13 against their 13 at the start, no?

eigrod

One of the saddest stories in years within the GAA, yet it got very little press coverage.

How will hurling coaches & youth development officers in Co. Wicklow feel this week (of which there are quite a few giving huge personal commitments just like coaches in KK, Cork, Tipp etc) ?

How can they motivate their 8, 9, 10, 11 year olds to aspire to something great in a few years time if this is what is happening to their county team at minor level ?

An Citeog

Lawless_Samurai wrote: »

To the Westmeath team, kinda bad form not fielding just 13 against their 13 at the start, no?

Eh, why? It was a championship game and Westmeath were well within their rights to field their strongest possible team of 15 players. No room for sympathy in champioship hurling! I lay the blame for this squarely on the Wicklow management, selectors and county board. There are most definitely more than 13 lads playing hurling in Wicklow that are eligible for minor.

pd101

An Citeog wrote: »

Eh, why? It was a championship game and Westmeath were well within their rights to field their strongest possible team of 15 players. No room for sympathy in champioship hurling! I lay the blame for this squarely on the Wicklow management, selectors and county board. There are most definitely more than 13 lads playing hurling in Wicklow that are eligible for minor.

There were six other lads who had played the day before (in a vocational All Ireland Final, and won). Whoever was in charge of the bus assumed that they were making their own way to the match, so left without them. But your right it is all down the management and it doesn't help that the county board couldn't care less about hurling.

delta_bravo

Its more of a condemnation of the county board than the young lads. Ridiculous that they hadnt planned this through. There are quite a few wicklow hurling teams and some are decent enough. I remember playing bray emmets at u-14 level hurling about 4 years ago when they played in the dublin hurling league and they were in division 2 so there is a foundation of good players there. The county board really messed up

future_plans

There's another story behind this one.

But all I'll say here is after reading this I was embarrassed for the county. It was a black day for Wicklow GAA be you a football or hurling man or woman. How such a story could not stir ill feeling in your gut puzzles me. As somebody else put it, the buck stops at the county board and the blame for this should lie squarely on their shoulders. Nicky Brennan cries out for the development of the game throughout the country and then this happens under his nose. He should come down on the board like a tonne of bricks over this disgrace.

As the last poster said, there is a level of hurling pedigree in the county. Look at clubs like Glenealy, kiltegan and Carnew. But these teams are looking south to Wexford. Much work has also gone into keeping the game alive in North Wicklow. But these clubs are looking North to Dublin. It shows the level of commitment they get from their own board when they are looking further afield. So yes, the players are there and if the county board cannot be bothered to address a situation like this (that has been brewing for months) then they are solely to blame. It shows the disregard and carelessness attitude they have for this game.

I'm also very surprise it hasn't got more media coverage up to now.

Danno

The GAA should establish a committee to monitor hurling promotion in EVERY county each year. And the basis of Croke Park funding should be based on a score achieved from the committee's review.

thirdmantackle

there'd be a lot of counties in trouble

jellybaby21

Lawless_Samurai wrote: »

To the Westmeath team, kinda bad form not fielding just 13 against their 13 at the start, no?

The referee wouldn't allow Westmeath to play with 13 players. It had been agreed with the 2 teams before the match that they would but the referee wouldn't allow it.

Lawless_Samurai

Well thats fair enough so. I take back anything bad I said about westmeath minor hurlers

Scootay

pd101 wrote:

There were six other lads who had played the day before (in a vocational All Ireland Final, and won). Whoever was in charge of the bus assumed that they were making their own way to the match, so left without them.

That's ridiculous, especially with the number of mobile phones around these days. 30 seconds would have found out if that was the case or not.

jellybaby21 wrote: »

The referee wouldn't allow Westmeath to play with 13 players. It had been agreed with the 2 teams before the match that they would but the referee wouldn't allow it.

They could have fielded 15 and had two lads just sit in a corner somewhere and have a bit of a chat. (Joking obv)

Hopefully Wicklow hurlers will bounce back from this.

The Chessplayer

future_plans wrote: »

There's another story behind this one.

But all I'll say here is after reading this I was embarrassed for the county. It was a black day for Wicklow GAA be you a football or hurling man or woman. How such a story could not stir ill feeling in your gut puzzles me. As somebody else put it, the buck stops at the county board and the blame for this should lie squarely on their shoulders. Nicky Brennan cries out for the development of the game throughout the country and then this happens under his nose. He should come down on the board like a tonne of bricks over this disgrace.

As the last poster said, there is a level of hurling pedigree in the county. Look at clubs like Glenealy, kiltegan and Carnew. But these teams are looking south to Wexford. Much work has also gone into keeping the game alive in North Wicklow. But these clubs are looking North to Dublin. It shows the level of commitment they get from their own board when they are looking further afield. So yes, the players are there and if the county board cannot be bothered to address a situation like this (that has been brewing for months) then they are solely to blame. It shows the disregard and carelessness attitude they have for this game.

I'm also very surprise it hasn't got more media coverage up to now.

Carnew etc may be strong teams at senior, but Bray won the county minor the year before last I think it was.

Stevecw

ESB LEINSTER MINOR HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP 2008
20th April -Meath (3-13) Wicklow (2-3)

I see that was a result from last weekend. So did Wicklow field 15, & if they did what sort of a 15 was it? At least they got 60 mins out of it, so lets hope it was a proper Wicklow side, just beaten by a better Meath team.

future_plans

It would take some feat to outdo what happened in Westmeath.

http://www.braypeople.ie/sport/other-sports/battling-minors-lose-out-to-meath-1358468.html

Not a full strength 15. But a step in the right direction I suppose. Some clubs seem to be making more of an effort than others. Fair due's to them.

There was what looked like a fairly serious injury to one of Wicklows players (from Glenealy) during the match too. Could have unsettled them.

future_plans

I see there was another farce in the the Leinster Minor Hurling Championship this weekend...

Confusion reigned in Navan on Saturday evening last as the ESB Leinster MHC clash between hosts Meath and Laois failed to materialise.

While Laois arrived at the ground at 5pm, they weren’t informed ’till three-quarters of an hour later that the match was transferred to Boardsmill, some 20 miles away.

The Laois management, mindful of the fact that their players had been travelling since 1.30pm, refused to travel to the re-arranged venue.

While consultations later took place which lent to the throw-in time being put back by an hour, the match still didn’t take place.

The Laois party waited at the alternative Navan O’Mahony’s ’till 6.45pm before being informed that Meath would not be travelling to the new venue.

Well done to those responsible for promoting hurling in the province. That is 2 absolutely farcical scenario's in the Leinster Minor Hurling Championship within a few weeks of each other.....despair.

Bogger77

future_plans wrote: »

I see there was another farce in the the Leinster Minor Hurling Championship this weekend...



Well done to those responsible for promoting hurling in the province. That is 2 absolutely farcical scenario's in the Leinster Minor Hurling Championship within a few weeks of each other.....despair.

To make it worse, a lot of the supporters travelling to the Match from Laois, and the Meath hurling strongholds round Trim/Kilyon would have travelled through Broadsmill. It's just a small hamlet outside of Trim, there's only a church there from what I recall. Meath won the All-Ireland B Minor last year, but I guess Meath county board still doesn't give a flying **** about hurling, if they wouldn't give them one of the main pitches in the county's capital to play in.

Flukey

It should be the duty of every county board to promote both codes. Any county board not doing so is failing its duty and should be sacked and replaced with one that will do its duty.