PORTLAOISE GAA CHIEFS say they have no comment to make on criticism by club forward Colm Parkinson in the wake of Sunday’s Leinster club championship exit.
The Laois side were beaten in the provincial semi-final by Dublin outfit St Brigid’s after extra-time.
Last night, Parkinson took to the national airwaves to vent his frustration with the decisions made by management during the game.
The wing forward scored a goal but was then taken off, before he was reintroduced for extra-time… and then substituted again by joint-managers Mick Lillis and Mark Kavanagh.
“To be fair, I thought I was after having a good first half,” the player told Newstalk’s Off The Ball last night, “I’d be honest enough to say if I wasn’t playing well. And I only got a few minutes of the second half. I couldn’t believe it to be honest when they were taking me off.
“And I was sitting there completely tuned out of the game. My hands were freezing, my feet were freezing, and then the full back came up to me when the game was over and said to me ‘you’re gonna come back on, I’m after telling the manager to bring you on.’ Which I couldn’t believe.
“And then when I came into the dressingroom, the manager was telling me I was coming on. So I had a bit of a row with him, saying what were you at taking me off in the first place. And what good is bringing me back on only because some player tells you to bring me on.
“But then I come back on and in fairness I was poor in extra time and I deserved to come back off then. But it was just mad stuff.”
Retirement
And Parkinson says the buck stops with the management after Portlaoise again let a shot at a provincial title slip by.
“I can’t understand a management team that would take you off with 20 minutes to go, have you freezing on the bench and then just bring you on because someone tells you to.
“We have joint managers, some of the decisions that they make are absolutly crazy. I don’t know if they’re going to stay on next year or not but they’re totally out of their depth.
“I’ve given out about intercounty managers – like a lot – but never once have I publicly given out about a Portlaoise manager. But it’s hard to keep your mouth shut with these two fellas.
“I was freezing cold and I was livid as well and I was whinging on the bench. I wasn’t in the frame of mind and I never thought it would go to extra time and when I come back into the dressingroom then the whole scenario of being told by a player that I was coming back on, before them; the whole idea of being brought off when I thought I had been playing well. I just couldn’t understand it.”
One club spokeseperson said that the club have yet to discuss the remarks and would not be making any comment at this time.
The player informed his Twitter followers that he was bowing out of the game, writing:
But last night, talking to Eoin McDevitt, he seemed to leave some wriggle room.
“[I]f there was a new manager of Portlaoise, you wouldn’t know, in a few months time you might get it into your head. But sure, at the end of the day you have to be realistic too and I’m not as good as what I used to be.
"So, if you’re struggling to make your club team, I don’t want to start ending-up hanging-on and just coming on for a subs role. That’s not my kind of game, when you’re driving down from Dublin and stuff like that, to only be getting bit-part stuff."
