Billy Morgan has said that the GAA should leave January for the Sigerson Cup, following the criticism of the GAA calendar from inter-county managers.
This month has seen teams pull out of pre-season competitions due to lack of players available, with the Sigerson Cup and All-Ireland club finals taking place this month.
As a result, there have been calls for change to the calendar from managers, with players facing a hectic schedule before the National League even gets underway.
Morgan was speaking to Balls.ie Lauren Guilfoyle after UCC prevailed as 1-12 to 0-08 winners over ATU Galway, keeping Billy Morgan's side of progressing to the knockout stages alive.
In difficult conditions in Tuam with neither side at their best with key players ruled out through injury, Billy Morgan spoke to Balls.ie on how he viewed their victory.
It was a typical Sigerson game first of all, in the conditions and everything, and I'm glad to say we stuck at it better over the hour, in the second half particularly we got on top.
I thought they all worked their hearts out, Ruairi Murphy in midfield and Brian Hartnett dominated throughout the game, gave us a foothold. We felt it would have been a crime if we went out of the competition. We were unlucky last week against UL, so it was make or break today.
We said ourselves after all our preparation if would have been a sin to go out so we were determined. "
In a week where inter-county managers have dominated the headlines for their comments on scheduling issues in the GAA calendar, Billy Morgan has praised the players who have been caught up in the controversy.
You have the Cork lads, a couple from Kerry and Tipperary. It's difficult but fair play to them for trying to be with us. But I can't understand why the GAA put on these mickey-mouse competitions.
Why they did not leave the month of January for third level, I don't know. I think the Sigerson is a great competition, the players want to play it, there's good crowds at matches, but for some reason, the GAA want to seem to squeeze it out.
I think they could free up January for third level competitions."
Billy Morgan's UCC Keep Alive Sigerson Chances
UCC got off to a flying start, with Fionn Herlihy and James Foley were among the scorers as they raced into a 0-6 to 0-2 lead in the opening 20 minutes.
ATU weren't going down without a fight, and rallied in the final minutes of the half to reduce the gap to a single point, despite missing several chances.
Dylan Geaney was the highest scorer of the day with 0-6, including five points from free's to keep the scoreboard ticking for UCC.
ATU Galway were unable to test the UCC goal, and lived to regret it in the final minutes, when Séan O'Connor scored the only goal of the game to secure UCC victory.
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