THE LIMERICK COUNTY board has responded to claims made by the senior football manager Billy Lee, following his side’s Munster SFC defeat to Clare over the weekend.
Lee criticised the county board in a post-match interview with the Sunday Game for an apparent administrative error which forced the absence of one of his players for the Clare clash, and prompted him to consider forfeiting the game.
The county board however, says that the team lists that were received by the county secretary ‘were subsequently forwarded in good faith to Croke Park in accordance to compliance with regulation.’
It also says that a subsequent email received late on Wednesday night could not be accessed until after the deadline on Thursday morning.
The Limerick boss said that Jim Liston was not included in the panel that was submitted to Croke Park earlier in the week, and subsequently was deemed ineligible to feature.
“Unfortunately, tonight we had a lad who was due to be on the bench,” he told RTÉ’s Marty Morrissey.
“He togged out to be on the bench and because of inaccuracies in our administration, I couldn’t use him. I had to tell the lad afterwards he couldn’t play, he was distraught.
“I wasn’t asked, I wasn’t guided when the team for the programme had to be in. I had to convene a conference call at lunchtime on Wednesday to put some team into the programme or else the programme would have went with no Limerick team in it, and that wouldn’t be right for the general public coming in. The chairman rang me, I obliged.
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“We had two players we were trying to get on to the bench, namely Seamie Carroll and Jim Liston. We were training Wednesday night, one of them made it one of them didn’t.
“To find out then the wrong team was given in to Croke Park on Wednesday night or Thursday morning, it was the team for the programme.”
He added: “I threatened before we left Newcastle that if (Liston) wouldn’t be on the bench then I wouldn’t be in Limerick. I did that, yeah.
“I told the administrators that I wouldn’t be letting the team out. The chairman of the football board, the chairman of the county board and the secretary of the football board approached me in the tunnel there and I said, ‘Look lads, is anyone going to sort this out? Make a call to Croke Park’.
It was an error. It’s frustrating to say the least.”
Lee also claimed that there was ‘no food for us after training on Wednesday night.’
Limerick GAA has since responded to those claims in a statement which was posted on their official website.
The statement in full reads:
“The County Board tenders for and approves caterers at the beginning of each year. Each individual team management and their support team is then responsible for arranging the team meals after training as required.
“The team lists for this weekend’s fixtures week ending May 20th were received by the County Secretary on Wednesday evening and were subsequently forwarded in good faith to Croke Park in accordance to compliance with regulation.
A subsequent email was received by the County Secretary late Wednesday night which the County Secretary did not have access to until after the 9.00am deadline on Thursday morning.
“Any request made by the Senior football team management during 2018 was agreed and acceded to by Limerick Co Board.
“Limerick Co Board would like to acknowledge the contribution of the Senior Football players and management for 2018.
“Limerick GAA will make no further comment on this matter.”
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