CLARE MANAGER John Burke is travelling with a depleted squad for today’s crunch TG4 Munster ladies senior football championship clash with Kerry.
An administrative error has robbed Burke of key personnel for the visit to Scartaglin (5pm).
Kerry were already raging hot favourites following their stunning victory over Cork and the Banner County’s task has now become a virtual mission impossible.
Former Dublin manager Burke, a native of Ennis, revealed that some of his players took holidays when they read that the Kerry game was fixed for Saturday week, July 13.
But this information was erroneous as the provincial decider is down for decision in Castletownroche on that date.
Burke confirmed: “They’re not back until the Saturday night. We looked for a postponement but Kerry said no. We’re travelling with 25 players and 15 of them are minors. We said that we would travel down to Kerry on the Sunday morning and play them before the men’s Munster final but they weren’t having any of it so the game goes ahead on Saturday night.”
Burke admitted: “I picked up on it three weeks ago. The error was corrected but we’ve been left in the middle of the ocean.”
Former Allstar nominee Louise Henchy, Sue Higgins, Emma O’Driscoll, Fiona Lafferty and Lorraine Kelly will not feature for Clare as a result.
Burke said: “That’s our gel – that’s our team. They’re all on holidays and had it booked. We have to look at our own administrators in Clare and at home and how things are managed here. But there’s no point in pointing the finger – I should have been more proactive about the situation.
“I didn’t see it and that’s the situation we’re now in.”
Kerry are hotly-tipped to beat Clare, who have already lost to Cork, and that would set up another provincial final showdown with the Rebelettes.
