The bulk of the second round of the Galway hurling championship was postponed with three days’ notice by the county board on Tuesday evening.
On the back of the county’s emphatic 16-point win over Tipperary at the weekend where they captured the National League title, the Galway CCCC released a statement regarding this weekend’s Hurling Championship fixtures.
“The Galway CCCC decided last night to postpone the proposed round of SHC & IHC fixed for this weekend due to a combination of firstly having received medical advice on the workload of the County Panel having played 14 out of the last 16 weekends and secondly because of some football games this weekend. The round of SHC & IHC games will be played on the following weekend.”
The second round of games in the Galway Senior and Intermediate Championship will be postponed until the following weekend, 5 May.
And with many players commuting from counties outside Galway to attend training in the build-up to their Championship game, some players were given as little as three days’ notice of the postponement of this weekend fixtures.
CPA Secretary Declan Brennan told SportsJOE that, considering the matches were only fixed a few weeks ago, the Galway CCCC could have given clubs more notice.
“It’s positive in one way that the Galway County Board are seeking medical advice and acting on it but they really should have foreseen the situation and acted sooner,” said Brennan.
Just across the border in Tipperary, who had a similar fixture list to the Tribesmen, there will be a full set of Championship taking place at the upcoming weekend.
Liam Griffin was on fire this morning #CPAhttps://t.co/M5kGU7vVl1
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) January 9, 2017
Four Galway clubs will play Championship matches this weekend, with the statement from the Galway CCCC saying:
“There are 2 SHC games going ahead though with Ardrahan v Beagh (6.00pm) and Mullagh v Craughwell (4.30 pm) playing in a double header in Athenry on Sunday.”
Interestingly, despite starting seven of Galway’s eight league games, Adrian Tuohy and his club Beagh are out at the weekend.
Tuohy will play against Ardrahan, which is the club of fellow intercounty star Johnny Glynn.
Glynn had recently announced that he will commute from New York, where he lives and works, to play for Galway this summer and will be available for his club side this weekend before returning stateside.
This isn’t the first time that club fixture schedules have come under criticism with Mayo GAA announcing that the third round of their football championship will not take place until the senior county team exit the All-Ireland Championship.
Something tells us it won’t be the last.
