SEVERAL GAA STARS including Dublin hurling duo Liam Rushe and Ryan O’Dwyer and Roscommon footballer Cathal Cregg have opted to depart to the USA for the rest of the summer in the wake of their counties recent All-Ireland championship qualifier exits over the past ten days.
Seven Dublin players, six of whom featured in their defeat to Clare last Saturday week in Ennis, have transferred to play for clubs Stateside. Six of them have moved to New York with David Treacy and Peter Kelly playing for Galway, Joey Boland set to line out for Offaly, while O’Dwyer, Eamonn Dillon and Niall McMorrow have moved to Tipperary. Rushe has switched to the Galway club in Boston.
After their round two football qualifier defeat to Tyrone in Dr Hyde Park last Saturday, Roscommon attacker Cregg has gone to Boston where he will play with the Shannon Blues club. Fellow Connacht footballers Colin Forde, Gary Sweeney and Joss Moore who were all part of the Galway side that lost to Antrim in their qualifier last Saturday in Casement Park have also left with their transfers being sanctioned this week. Forde is gone to San Francisco to play with Sean Treacy’s while Sweeney and Moore, both from the Mountbellew-Moylough club, have gone to Chicago Patriots.
Wexford’s Eric Bradley and Joey Wadding, who were dumped out of the football championship by Tipperary in Semple Stadium last Saturday, have gone to the Cavan club in New York while Paul Bannon, midfield on the Westmeath team who nearly caused a huge upset against Kerry in Mullingar last Sunday, will play for the Wolfe Tones club in Boston.
Last week, after their respective round one football qualifier losses, Armagh trio Jamie Clarke, Ciaran McKeever and Brendan Donaghy moved to the Leitrim club in New York while Derry’s Emmet McGuckin switched to Aidan McAnespies in Boston.
Meanwhile Laois boss Justin McNulty has named an unchanged side for next Saturday’s All-Ireland football round three qualifier against Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon from the side that defeated Monaghan last Sunday afternoon.
LAOIS SF: Eoin Culliton (Timahoe); Cahir Healy (Portlaoise), Kevin Meaney (Arles-Kilcruise), Jamie Kavanagh (Stradbally); Darren Strong (Emo), John O’Loughlin (St Brigid’s), Conor Boyle (Portlaoise); Brendan Quigley (Timahoe), Colm Begley (Parnells); Ross Munnelly (Arles-Kilcruise), Billy Sheehan (Emo), Gary Walsh (Ballylinan); Damien O’Connor (Timahoe), Padraig Clancy (Timahoe), Colm Kelly (Stradbally).
