Dublin Hurling controversy: The Dublin County Board have ruled out any possibility of University College Dublin (UCD) being removed from the club championship in 2006.
Despite the threat of strike action from seven leading hurling club captains, outgoing Dublin chairman John Bailey confirmed yesterday no club had drafted a motion seeking their removal ahead of next month's annual convention. The deadline for motions to be put on the "clar" has now passed.
"Any club, under the official guide of the GAA, can put a motion to the county convention, which if passed will go forward to National Congress for ratification," said Bailey.
"It's interesting that none of the captains have been supported by their clubs. I personally don't have an opinion either way on the matter. It is my job to implement the rules."
However, Bailey, in "balancing out the argument", noted that one of the seven signatures, Faughs captain Trevor McGrath, "was born in Wicklow not Dublin".
The main thrust of the players' argument against UCD's presence in the championship is that, by dominating the competition recently, they are hindering the progress of Dublin hurling.
UCD and Wexford intercounty hurler and footballer Redmond Barry is a prime example of the type of player that has ensured the county title has been annexed by the university side three times since 2000.
"I see where they are coming from as UCD players do get to play in two separate county championships, which is not really fair, as they only get one chance," said Barry.
"Having said that, there never seems to be a problem until we win it. There was no problem in 2001 to 2003 but when we put back-to-back titles together all this comes back up.
"Officials in Dublin GAA seem okay with our presence, otherwise we would be out. They have every right to object but it now depends on how far they are willing to go."
New Tipperary manager Babs Keating, who is doubling up with the students during their championship run, was adamant this week's furore will not disrupt preparations for Sunday's Leinster final against Kilkenny champions James Stephens.
"It has annoyed me though that they choose this time of year to do this. March or April would have been okay but not now.
"The standard at UCD is the standard that Dublin clubs need to reach.
"They should spend more time concentrating on training with their clubs than complaining about us.
"There was another point made recently that we are a team of all-stars but take our defence; five of which have never saw a county jersey."
The Gaelic Players Association have not yet been briefed on the matter as both senior officers from the players' body, Dessie Farrell and Donal O'Neill, were out of the country this week.
Meanwhile, UCD announced their sports scholarships for 2005/'06 yesterday with hurling receiving 13 awards, behind only rugby (23) and men's soccer (15).
This includes intercounty players like Paul Ormonde (Tipperary), Eoin Quigley (Wexford), Bryan Barry (Kilkenny), Tommy Fitzgerald (Tipperary), Brendan Murphy (Offaly) and John O'Connor (Wexford).
In total, 37 GAA scholarships were handed out with men's football receiving 11, women's football six and camogie seven.
Contrary to what was stated in yesterday's GAA fixtures, the women's All-Ireland club football final between Ballyboden St Enda's and Donaghmoyne will take place in Drogheda, not Croke Park.
