On Sunday, we brought you the comments of Longford manager Denis Connerton, who was extremely flummoxed by the decision of the Tipp county board to cancel Sunday's Tipp-Longford Division 3 football fixture more than 24 hours before throw-in. Connerton was told that the Semple Stadium pitch could not hold two matches and was irate at the decision of the county board to call off - not relocate - the match.
The hurling match between Tipp and Clare went ahead as scheduled, and Tom Semple's field looked resplendent despite the various monsoons that swept the country over the last fortnight.
Tipp-Longford was the only intercounty game cancelled over the weekend.
In today's Irish Independent, Jackie Cahill put Connerton's statements to Balls.ie to Tipp football manager Liam Kearns and interestingly Kearns expressed his disappointment with his own county board for calling off the game. He added the decision to cancel the game also massively inconveniences his own side in their quest for promotion.
"I would agree that it was called off very early, at 12.30pm on a Saturday, and agree that it's very disappointing that our game was the only (inter-county) game in the whole country called off at the weekend.
"There are a number of things that should be clarified in relation to this. Firstly, we are as inconvenienced as Longford are, and we will now have to play four games over four weekends."Secondly, we have four U-21s not alone on our panel, but on our first 15, who are playing U-21 on Wednesday and, if they win, playing next Wednesday also.
It's the second time the Tipp footballers have been in the news during this league campaign. Attendance for the league curtain raiser was a dismal 722 people.
Crowd numbers aside, when the Tipp football manager is expressing his disappointment with his county board on the public record, we have final proof that football really is very far down the pecking order for Tipp GAA.
