Updated at 12.00
DEFLATED LAOIS BOSS Seamus ‘Cheddar’ Plunkett didn’t mince his words after last night’s All-Ireland senior hurling qualifier defeat to Dublin and now believes hurling is an elitist game.
Plunkett accused GAA chiefs of a dereliction of duty when it comes to promoting the small ball code in the so called weaker counties, and urged Croke Park top brass to halt the malaise.
Laois fell to a ten-point defeat against Dublin but made steady progress this summer and defeated Offaly in senior championship hurling for the first time since 1972.
But Plunkett is disillusioned by the fact that only a handful of teams can realistically win the All-Ireland title and insists that it’s GAA top brass who have allowed an elitist situation to develop.
And he’s demanding that the chance to grow hurling in Laois on the back of an improved campaign must be grasped at top level.
“There is an opportunity in Laois at the moment to do something absolutely brilliant,” he said.
“There are a lot of businesses out there trying to flog products and they don’t have the natural customers that you see in this field at the minute.
“I’ve presented it to enough people at GAA headquarters and everywhere else I can do it.
“But for some reason they just close their eyes to this and that is just incredibly disappointing.
“It’s time for somebody here to wake up and decide how this things is going to be done better.
“What is the objective here? Is the objective to have an All-Ireland championship with four counties for the next 30 or 40 years, which we’ve had for the last 40? Is that what is is?
“Let these people stand up and be honest if that’s what they want. Let us all go away and we’ll do something else.
“If the vision is to grow hurling in counties like this, where there’s a fantastic opportunity at this minute to do it, let them stand back and say that what’s gone before hasn’t worked enough here. Let’s do something different.
“Let’s go into these counties and talk to them and decide what we can do.
“It hasn’t happened and I’ve no confidence that it’s going to happen either lads, to be honest with you.”
