Sixmilebridge ‘not getting a fair crack’

Sixmilebridge GAA club’s decision not to reveal the line up of their team for last week’s replay with Kilmaley was taken because they “wanted to make a stand as we felt we weren’t getting a fair crack”, club chairman Christy O’Connor told the Clare Champion this week.
“It wasn’t just because of last weekend’s fixture,” he went on saying he took full responsibility for the decision. He referred “to last year’s championship and our game with Inagh-Kilnamona. We were fairly sore with the way we were treated on that occasion.  A young lad had his hand broken and hasn’t hurled since and won’t hurl this year as the bone is not mending. We were fined €200 and we appealed it and were fined €300. That’s disgraceful. It’s high time we made a stand. The opposition player that was involved in the incident in which our player sustained a broken hand got two months and missed no match.  That’s one of the reasons along with last week’s fixture that led to the decision. I just had enough and we felt we needed to make a stand and say we are being pushed around too much,” O’Connor said.
The decision to fix the U-21A hurling semi-final replay for last Friday evening clearly angered Sixmilebridge. Because manager Paddy Meehan said they would not play the game, the fixture was in doubt up to shortly before match time.
When asked for the line-out before the game, Meehan blasted “there is no team been given to anybody”.
As she filled out the official team list for the game, club secretary Louise Corbett confirmed that  “that’s the decision that has been taken”.
Cusack Park officials met with a similar response when they looked for information on the line out to enable the announcing of the team over the public address as is the norm for matches at Cusack Park.
There was no announcement with regard to the make up of the teams, as a result.
Plans to produce a team line-out sheet/programme were dispensed with when the ’Bridge refused a request for a list of players earlier on Friday.
Chairman O’Connor went on to say that “the last thing we would want to do is to upset supporters. We were making a stand against the board”. He went on to congratulate Kilmaley on their win. “I say well done to Kilmaley and I wish the best of luck to both teams in the final,” he said, as he pointed out that Sixmilebridge had snatched victory over Inagh-Kilnamona with a last minute score in the opening round just as a last minute goal gave Kilmaley victory on Saturday evening.
Incidentally, the Sixmilebridge chairman was unavoidably absent from Friday’s game due to a family commitment.
Clare GAA chairman Michael O’Neill said he was disappointed with Sixmilebridge’s decision not to announce their team for last Friday’s game. “This will be dealt with through the normal channels,” he said.