Seventeen games in the adult hurling league in Dublin are set to throw in at 6:30 pm on Saturday, just half an hour after the county side will take on Tipperary in Semple Stadium in the All-Ireland qualifiers.
The games are fixed across the four divisions in the hurling league in Dublin, with two of these games being division one clashes.
The division one games that are taking place are between Kilmacud Crokes and Na Fianna and between Ballyboden St Endas and Parnells.
Three Ballyboden St Endas players are on the inter-county panel.
Former Dublin hurler Conal Keaney, who plays for Ballyboden St Endas, said that his club had requested to have their fixture changed in order to facilitate travelling support to the match, but that the game wasn’t rescheduled.
“I know there’s a round of League of fixtures fixed for Saturday evening. We tried to change the game, we tried to change it to earlier in the day. We couldn’t change it. Now, the other team (Parnells) couldn’t do it because of work-related stuff… I heard some teams are getting it off to support the team but I know our game couldn’t be changed. It’s tough, we can’t go down because it’s not even on television so what are you going to do?” said the Ballyboden St Enda’s man.
“There are so many lads (involved in the club games) that would like to go down (to the game,) but we’re taking the league very seriously because we’re not sure if we’re still in the Championship or not in the Championship. It’s all shoulders to the wheel at the weekend for us.
“We would have them (the county players) back,” (if the game was scheduled for the following weekend),” continued Keaney.
Some games have been changed due to the county side’s clash. The division one meeting of O’Toole’s and Cuala has been rescheduled for this Friday at 7:45 pm while some division four, five and six clashes are taking place on Sunday.
This means that the members of the 34 teams who are set to throw in in these club games at 18:30 won’t be able to watch their county side play, nor will be they be able to travel and support Ger Cunnigham’s men in their knockout clash with The Premier County.
You can listen to the discussion from The GAA Hour Hurling Show here from 7″00′.
