“I just think the GPA have to have a serious look at themselves.”
Leitrim manager Andy Moran has hit out at the GAA for the “absolutely insane” situation that they have put his team, and several other counties in.
Moran guided Leitrim to promotion from Division Four this season, and also managed the Under-20 team that caused an upset against Mayo just last week, but he has had several headaches to contend with already this year.
After losing the Division Four final against Laois last Saturday, his team only had seven days to prepare for their championship opener against Sligo, and it was never going to be enough time.
The former Mayo star referenced that his own county won Division One last year, and then lost to Roscommon in the Connacht championship just six days later, so it affects everyone whether you’re in the top division or bottom.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Moran also called out the GPA for not doing more to protect the players with the condensed fixture list.
“To be honest with you, we played Sligo in the last round of the league last year. I did the interviews with the boys and that is what I was giving out about. We had to get on a plane 10 days later to New York but Sligo had to go to a league final. If Sligo had lost that final for instance, they had to go to London on the back of a loss. That could have been a very risky game, but they won, the momentum carried them through and they beat London handily.
“It is just setting teams up for failure in supposedly our biggest competition which is championship. I just think the GPA have to have a serious look at themselves. The GAA put the fixtures, but the GPA have to say: ‘I need to protect the players.’
“We need to look after them.’ Obviously, Tom (Parsons) is a good friend of mine but what they are doing to players at the minute is absolutely insane.”
Westmeath beat Down last weekend in the Division Three final, and impressed everyone in the process, with many tipping them to go on and reach a Leinster final, however once again the short turnaround proved to be an extra strain as they lost to Wicklow a week later.
The high volume of games also means that injuries are cutting panels dramatically, and Moran explains in detail just how the heavy run-in of games has affected his squad.
“We have a 33-man panel,” said Moran. “We have two long-term injuries in Jordan Reynolds and Cillian McGloin. We had four U20s. That brings us down to 27 already. Mark and Conor were sick and concussed. That brings us to 25. Then we have three hamstrings, that is 22 players.
“The five weeks will help us a lot. It is not that we’ve an injury crisis but the U20s will very close to over. We will have them four back, we will add a fellas from the U20s squad and we will have our injured guys back.”
