The War Of Words: Keating v Pilkington

After Sunday's defeat by Kilkenny Babs Keating described the Offaly players as "like sheep running around in a heap". He complained that his methods were not being followed: "My job is to teach and show them what to do. but it appears it's falling on deaf ears."

He went on: "I feel awful disappointed with the application of the stick and quality of the play. All of the negatives out there involve areas I've gone over and over again. I just wonder am I wasting my time in an Offaly dressing-room.

"You'd like to think you have something to contribute but equally you'd like to think you'd be listened to. I'm not being listened to. It's a vein running through this Offaly team of individualism, of not thinking of their colleagues. The players just sail along. There's not a lot disappointment in that dressing-room. They just take every day as it comes.

"Lots of different attitudes needed in the Offaly hurling camp for the next three weeks. I hate saying that in the middle of July. These are doubts and phrases I used last October/November when I came to Offaly. Didn't think I'd be repeating them in July."

Not surprisingly the Offaly players were stung by this criticism and, in yesterday's Irish Independent, Johnny Pilkington responded, saying: "It is wrong for Babs to be talking like that. He's making it look like the Offaly players are idiots and indisciplined. It is stupid and unfair.

"Babs is washing his hands of all responsibility. I will stand up and say I didn't play well on Sunday. But other things happened. John Troy was taken out of centre forward and Canice Brennan came really into the game. No one is sticking up their hand and saying that moving John Troy out of centre forward was a bad move.

"You can't blame Babs for everything but you can't blame the players for everything either. We're all a team, We go down together and we win together. What he said will only cause trouble.

"The players will not take this criticism lying down. The comments are unbelievable. I don't think any manager anywhere has ever made comments of this nature after losing.

"Certain players, including myself, will have to take more responsibility. The management will have to stand up too and say `we made an error'. We don't need this kind of stuff from Babs. It's very unprofessional of him," said Pilkington.

Pilkington also queried Keating's training methods, claiming that they hadn't done any ground hurling - one of their strong points - in training.