Never a dull moment.
The Westmeath county board have moved to clear up confusion this evening surrounding claims by their minor hurling manager that the county’s teenagers have been excluded from an All-Ireland competition because of a lack of jerseys.
The minor manager Johnny Greville claimed on Twitter earlier that the county’s minor hurling panel were not going to be able to play in the All-Ireland ‘B’ competition because there was no gear for them to wear.
https://twitter.com/GrevilleJohnny/status/623517996603056128
Greville went on to make several other allegations against the county board, and when contacted by SportsJOE this evening, the Raharney clubman said he was waiting for contact from the county board after his tweets were published.
However the Westmeath county board have confirmed to SportsJOE this evening that the minor hurlers were never entered into the B competition in the first place.
County secretary James Savage told us that the county had played in the second tier competition last year, but because of their progress to the semi finals this year in Leinster, where they were beaten by Dublin, they would not be playing in the ‘B’ competition.
Savage also stated that Westmeath could not withdraw from the B because they were never in it in the first place, and he hoped that Greville would have contacted the county board before tweeting his allegations.
However Savage did confirm to SportsJOE that there was an issue with jerseys with the minor team from this year. He confirmed that the county board were still awaiting the return of the set of jerseys used by the players in the semi final loss to Dublin.
He stated that some of the players kept their jerseys despite being instructed not to, and the issue is an ongoing one with the team management.
UPDATE
The Westmeath County Board have issued an official statement on the matter tonight shortly after 11pm
Statement received from Westmeath GAA this evening. pic.twitter.com/Z80Ny7YghN
— Westmeath GAA (@westmeath_gaa) July 21, 2015
