FORMER LEITRIM CAPTAIN Emlyn Mulligan has hit back at the county board’s purse-tightening.
The Connacht men have been asked to cut down on overnight trips ahead of matches and travel on the day of the game where possible.
“It’s obviously irritating,” Mulligan told Newstalk’s Oisin Langan.
“When I became captain of Leitrim last year, you try to lift the standards and try to get it as professional as you can.
“I’ve been talking to the lads who are back this year and they’re back training hard again. When you hear little things like this, it doesn’t happen anywhere else and it’s very annoying to hear about it.”
The footballers’ Division 4 fixture list sees them travel to Wicklow, Offaly and Carlow in 2015.
They will have to do it without Mulligan who is taking a break from the inter-county game to travel.
“Your first league games are obviously huge depending on results,” he added. “For a lad coming from Kilknock where I’m from, it will take four-and-a-half hours to get to Wicklow.
“That’s unacceptable in my opinion to get a good performance [out of players] and to get a good result, I think it’s near impossible.”
In a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon, the Leitrim County Board clarified that overnight trips will be catered for where necessary.
“In the normal consultation process between team managements and the county management committee where it is deemed necessary and is in the best interests of the teams concerned, such overnight stays will be catered for,” they said.
“While being committed to getting the best possible value from fundraising and endeavouring to keep within budgetary restraints, Leitrim GAA is categorically committed to the best possible preparation of its county teams into 2015 and beyond.”
