Laois hurling manager Eddie Brennan has questioned the fixture schedule of the local hurling championships as they finish just two weeks before his side are to take on Dublin in this year’s Leinster quarter-final.
While Brennan accepted that the localised lockdown didn’t help the situation, he felt a different approach should have been taken for the year that was in it to allow the county team more time to prepare together.
Laois are due to meet Dublin on the weekend of October 24-25 in a knockout Leinster championship game, just two weeks after all the Laois hurling finals are played.
Brennan gathered the panel for their first training session on Wednesday night but with most teams still involved in club championship, their attention is divided.
And with the Dublin senior final on this weekend, it leaves Laois three weeks behind their opponents, though there is a chance that the Laois senior final could be brought forward by one week.
Having famously beaten Dublin in last year’s qualifiers to reach an All Ireland quarter-final, he said on this week’s LaoisToday Talking Sport Podcast that he finds the situation frustrating.
“There was no creative thinking or no alternative looked at with relation to how the championship rolled,” he said.
“It just appears that the generic championship that has been in place for the last number of years that that system has been adapted. One week hurling, one week football. That has been in place for quite some time in Laois.
“The case in point is what was done in Wexford. There seems to have been a bit of lateral thinking. There was definitely very concrete optipons looked at. It may not have pleased everyone but I suppose if you were to turn around and say could it have been a different championship in Laois?
“Could we have looked at the option of playing hurling over a fortnight and football over a fortnight and get your round robin three matches done in that period of time. I think that option was there.
“I wasn’t consulted, I wasn’t in on any of those decisions. It’s not my place to dictate to Laois County Board how to roll their championship but I do think we could have done it better.
“Definitely you’re trying to keep everyone happy with that and that’s an impossible situation. I don’t envy guys on a fixture committee but I do think we have been left very short changed with what it is.
“Realistically what you’re looking at is a scenario where your full panel isn’t going to be available until 13 days before a knockout championship match. These things happen but that is not the way I would like to prepare for that match.
“We would be looking at dropping our standards completely. I think we made progress this year in Year 1 and would love to build on that. And I think there is a massive, massive opportunity to get to a Leinster semi-final. That’s the frustrating element of this.”
Brennan says that Dublin have a huge advantage as the situation stands but that his views are “not about putting an insurance policy in place … not about generating excuses.
And he says that in what is an exceptional year, he feels modifications should have been made and the clubs would have been sympathetic to the job he is trying to do.
“A plan was put in place and that was it. I expressed my disappointment at that and said surely we could have done it a little bit better and be fair to everybody. I absolutely respect what the clubs are doing but I do think we could have done things better. And ok the lockdown compunded things but again it was pushed back.
“I’m sure the clubs would have worked with everone. If you had to put all the people around the table, you’d have come up with something that would have been win-win for most.
“I just think you’re dealing with an exceptional set of circumstances so I think in light of that, you’re perfectly valid to look at it and see can we do it better.”
You can listen to this week’s Talking Sport episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Podbean or below on Soundcloud.
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The post Laois hurling boss Brennan hits out at club fixture schedule as Dublin three weeks ahead of Laois appeared first on Laois Today.
source https://www.laoistoday.ie/2020/09/18/laois-hurling-boss-brennan-hits-out-at-club-fixture-schedule-as-dublin-three-weeks-ahead-of-laois/
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