SEAN CAVANAGH BLASTED the club of former Tyrone colleague Cormac McAnallen, claiming they’ve ‘disrespected’ the International Rules series.
Cavanagh was almost left to choose between club and country on Saturday as his club, Moy, were scheduled to play Eglish at 3.45pm in a senior league relegation tie.
The match was eventually rained off due to a waterlogged pitch and Cavanagh played for Ireland in Cavan, contributing three points.
But he said he was left in limbo until Saturday and hit out at Eglish for being ‘obstructive’ and insisting the game went ahead.
Cavanagh revealed that Croke Park officials including GAA Director General Paraic Duffy even requested that the game be moved to accommodate Cavanagh but to no avail.
The Tyrone midfielder said Eglish’s stance was particularly upsetting as the International Rules series awards the Cormac McAnallen Cup to the winners.
“Paul Flynn was in the same boat and he managed to get his game moved and Tyrone wouldn’t move it for myself but then Eglish were being quite obstructive,” said Cavanagh.
“Maybe they were taking their chance. You’d think if anyone would understand, Eglish would understand. Cormac was a proud Eglish man, a proud Tyrone man and a proud Irishman and I’d like to think if the roles were reversed that he would be looking to play in this competition if it was in my name. He was a great friend of mine.”
Cavanagh said that he would have played in the club game if it had gone ahead.
To me it was just disappointing,” he continued. “They (Eglish) disrespected the competition, especially when it’s in Cormac’s name and we’re playing Eglish.”
Cavanagh said the game has been rescheduled for Tuesday evening, clearing him to line out and also to feature for Ireland at Croke Park next Saturday.
Damn!!, misread it, thought it said English disrespect competition!!, I’ll hold off on the Brit bashing for today so :(
Like the site .keep up the good work.
Same here, and second time reading it!
Eglish unfortunately lost sight of the bigger picture here. Sportsmanship should always be to the forefront but the small mind involved here would rather avail of every available angle rather than win thru fair play. When the adults act like that what chance have the kids they parent and influence of being decent people and opponents. their actions were all the more shameful given the fact that the late mcanallen was one of their own
Well said Sean.
You can forget about Eglish as a club!
Club has to come first then your county then country but every effort should be made by all clubs to give players chance to wear a green Jersey gaa players don’t get chance often
Nothing comes before your country.
“Nothing comes before country”?
I can think of a couple of things..
Family.
Conscience perhaps?
“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind”
Albert Einstein
You can be damn sure if there was a direct clash both Séan Cavanagh and Michael Murphy would be lining out for their respective clubs. County medal versus Compromise Rules medal? No brainer.
pretty sure the nationalism Einstein considered a disease was a bit different to a club versus country debate!
[see WW1]
Nationalism. Thinking your country is the best because you were born there.
Your not good at Irish history Brian? When we are independent out little village becomes more important, when the Brits are running the show then the country is important!! I am one who believes that your club is important but this whole scheduling dilemma is a tad diriculous.
There will be a lot of disappointed spelling police out there this morning.
Agree with Séan but not sure if he should use his public profile to grind the axe in the national
media, especially since there was no clash in the end up. Eamonn O’Hara did the same re Sligo Co. Board and Kevin Walsh on the Sunday Game. This sort of thing happens frequently in club football (albeit not the compromise rules aspect) where an opposing club is asked to move a fixture due to a wedding/bereavement etc. and you often get the opposing team taking advantage.
I would just like to point out a few things here that people may have missed.
1- Eglish didnt fix the game, the CCC did. None of the Eglish players dis agree that the game should never have been fixed for the day he was due to play for Ireland.
2- Sean Cavanagh was playing for his club, no matter if the game went ahead, and still would have made it on time for the irish game, albeit that he would have had to play two games
3-The game is a crucial relegation battle and all games are meant to be played at the game time to avoid other teams in the battle from throwing points, and this is why Eglish wanted the game played as was fixed.
Point 2 is hardly valid… You can’t expect a man to play two games in one day. It was bad form by eglish. It’s pretty clear for all to see…
Why do the Australians take part in the compromise games? And who has respect for this money-spinning hybrid?
He should know. There’s no i in Team. Of course the opposition would see the advantage of a top player not being on the opposing team. They do what’s best for their team.
Gaa should not have stuck their grubby fingers in either. There was two games on , if you can’t play both then pick one and play your best.
I think its bad form that Eglish wouldn’t move the game to let one of the best players in gaelic football to represent his country in a competition named after an Eglish club man, who wore the jersey for club, county and country with pride.
Maybe we should do away with club football entirely as the CCC are finding it increasingly difficult to accommodate those footballers who are not selected for their county teams or a team to play a hybrid game that makes it ok to drag down Michael Murphy on a Saturday night but not on a Sunday in Ballybofey. Somebody please explain it to the under-12s
@ Brendan devlin. You tell em its a different game. They can tell the diff between rugby and gaa so I’m sure theyll manage it. Kids are smart
So why are the GAA promoting it when soccer or rugby has as much in common with Gaelic football as what was on show on Saturday night
Direspected? New one on me.
Club first.
Disrespected!!! It’s only an armature game don’t take it too serious mate!
Hey ‘mate’, learn to spell!
I know how to spell just can’t type very well! So I’ll learn to type. Does that make you feel better?
You could learn to read instead before you post a comment. That would be wiser choice.
Where do you get the impression that I have not read the article? My mistakes were in spellings. Including the word “mate” that should say another word I am not allowed use on this site. starts with an a has an ss and ends in hole!
Clubs don’t fix games anywhere as far as I know but I’m pretty sure they can refix them in exceptional circumstances. Its called flexibility/fair play. And just because the GAA wouldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery that doesn’t absolve eglish from being remarkably poor sports. On point three above why would other teams involved in a relegation battle throw points?? It sort of ties in with the overall lack of integrity on show however
It can be argued that the reason club football is taking place in the middle of October is the fact that too many games are postponed leading to a backlog of fixtures having to take place in a short period of time.
One other thing, would this discussion be taking place if both clubs were in a mid table position safe from relegation?