St Finbarr's manager Paudie Murray believes their should be no club league games in June

St Finbarr’s and Glen Rovers produced a Red FM Senior hurling league game of the highest quality at Togher last Thursday night, but the Barrs manager Paudie Murray believes the format needs to be changed in the interest of player welfare.

“June is holiday time and I believe it’s a month that we should have no league fixtures and as a dual club we have struggled big time in this campaign,” said Murray.

The Barrs had to rely on the cooperation of the Glen to get this game moved to Thursday as numbers in the club were insufficient to field two teams at the weekend.

“I have spoken with many of the dual clubs and they are all feeling the same as for us its match after match with no time to train the team and our injury list is mounting every week with two more going off injured in this game,” added Paudie.

So, what is the answer for the demands of clubs like St Finbarr’s?

“There has to be less games and when you take a month like June you have Leaving Certificate exams and we have told our players to take their holidays this month as you got to fair to amateurs.

“We had people playing here tonight that will have played 16 league games before the championship gets underway and that to me is far too many and hopefully it can be sorted.

“Dual clubs are most definitely affected big time and the bottom line for me in all of this is players well-being.” 

 Reflecting on the game Murray believes it was good standard with plenty to take from it for both sides going forward.

“It was a real good workout for both teams and although disappointed with the result I felt we were right in it up to the closing minutes.” 

The Barrs manager felt his team fatigued when the game hung in the balance.

“We had a few players coming back from injury and a couple of lads from the Cork Senior hurling panel back, so it was nice to put out a fairly decent team in a season where we have struggled for numbers.” 

The mood in the Glen camp was positive as selector Kieran O’Callaghan praised the efforts of the players in this competitive game.

“It was a decent game of hurling but we had the wind in the first half and didn’t use it to our advantage but thankfully in the second half playing against the wind it was much better,” said Kieran.

Ensuring the Glen game plan would kick in for the second half was the main topic in the Glen dressing room at half time.

“It took 30 minutes for the lads to execute our game plan but when it did the scores came our way and to finish in the manner, we did was very encouraging,” added O’Callaghan.

The subline striking of Patrick Horgan was once again very encouraging and his ability to punish teams was evident in the closing minutes.

“Once Patrick and Simon Kennifick got quality ball the scores kept totting up and in fairness the manner all the lads stuck to the task when the game hung in the balance was top class.” 

The Glen are no different to other competing clubs in this league when it comes to getting numbers for training and matches.

“We see it when we have a week off that we will have only 10 players training as we have lads on the panel playing football but this season in particular has been tough on the injury front.” 

The commitment of players playing at this level should be commended according to O’Callaghan.

“In fairness, we have a group of players that work their socks off at training and you could see the energy we finished with this evening.” 

After completing three league wins on the belt O’Callaghan believes they are on the right path.

“It was great to complete a hat-trick of wins and having a full complement of fully fit players will be see a huge difference to our squad.”