Offaly succeed in request to have under-21 final deferred

OFFALY'S FIXTURE pile-up has been alleviated with the news late last night that the Leinster Council has agreed to switch the provincial under-21 hurling final between the county and Kilkenny to Thursday week in Tullamore.

The county had applied to the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee to have matches rearranged in order to prevent some of their hurlers having to play three times in seven days.

The situation had come about because of Offaly's stunning win over Limerick in last weekend's All-Ireland hurling qualifier. As a result the county were drawn to play Waterford in Thurles on Saturday afternoon.

That originally meant that up to five of the successful team - including Joe Bergin who hit three goals - would be expected to play an under-21 Leinster final as well as the two senior matches: Diarmuid Horan, Derek Molloy, Bergin, Daniel Currams and one of last Saturday's replacements Conor Mahon.

There are also six other players, who are members of both panels: James Dempsey, Damien Kilmartin, James Gorman, Conor Hernon, Brian Leonard and Stephen Wynne.

Offaly were seeking an undertaking from the CCCC that should the county defeat Waterford and qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-finals, the latter match would be postponed in order to allow the Leinster under-21 final be played on that weekend.

"Although it's probably not ideal we're happy enough with how things have turned out," said county chair Pat Teehan, who had been unhappy earlier yesterday at the decision to turn down their request for postponement.

"I can totally sympathise with Offaly and their case is a really genuine one," said Jimmy Dunne, chair of the CCCC, "but we have no flexibility in the fixtures' schedule.

"Also, bear in mind that once we allow one change we have created a situation where other counties with equally genuine cases could also be looking for postponements.

"Already this season we've had to turn down a couple of requests from counties with dual players."

Last night, however, Leinster Council chief executive Michael Delaney confirmed that the offer was still there for the under-21 final to be postponed until the end of the month and it was subsequently announced that the match had been refixed for Thursday, July 24th, at 7.15pm in O'Connor Park, Tullamore.

"We told Offaly that we are willing to postpone and that Kilkenny have agreed," said Delaney.

Teehan had added earlier yesterday that Offaly were also unhappy with the scheduling for the weekend's qualifiers, which sees the footballers due to play Down in Tullamore just two hours after the hurling qualifier.

"The times aren't fair on our supporters," he said. "Even if we went to two o'clock there wouldn't be time to get to Thurles for the hurling throw-in.

"We'd also be worried about the knock-on effect of people watching the hurlers on television and whether they'd have the time to get to Tullamore for the football as well as the temptation to stay and watch Galway-Cork."