GAELIC GAMES:DUBLIN GAA look about to revisit one of the more contentious issues of recent times with confirmation that county centrefielder Eamonn Fennell has submitted another transfer request away from the O'Toole's club.
County chief executive John Costello said the application had been received before Christmas.
“It won’t be adjudicated on until next month’s meeting and we haven’t heard yet whether O’Toole’s will oppose it again.”
Fennell, who played in all of Dublin’s championship matches during last year’s run to the All-Ireland semi-final, has been turned down three times when applying for a move to Ballymun Kickhams and St Vincent’s (twice).
Last year the matter came to a head when county manager Pat Gilroy named Fennell in his panel for 2010 even though he has been refusing to play for O’Toole’s. Although the club didn’t attempt to stop him playing for Dublin, they insisted he remained registered with the club.
The player’s request was turned down last year at county committee on the casting vote of chair Gerry Harrington. Appeals and an application to the GAA’s arbitration tribunal, the Disputes Resolution Authority, failed to reverse that decision.
Despite that, Fennell still hasn’t played for O’Toole’s since. A games promotion officer with Cabra club Naomh Fionnbarra, he left that post last year in order to take up a course in Dublin City University.
Elsewhere, Tipperary expect to have confirmation of the county’s sponsorship situation within the next week. The hurlers played Waterford IT in Sunday’s Munster League without a sponsor’s name on the jersey. There is speculation that Enfer, who have sponsored the county since 2002, will not be renewing the deal. Skoda are said to be the replacement.
County press officer Ger Ryan refused to pass substantive comment on the situation, saying, “We’re saying nothing about this for the moment”. But asked when there might be news, he replied: “Later this week or early next week. As soon as there are any developments we’ll be making a statement.”
Finally, the Leinster provincial competitions present an interesting contrast with the losers’ tournament, the O’Byrne Cup Shield, featuring more of the province’s heavy hitters than its primary counterpart, the O’Byrne Cup. Saturday’s shield semi-finals feature All-Ireland semi-finalists Dublin and Leinster champions Meath, who play Offaly and Laois respectively.
An unexpected aspect of the cup quarter-finals was the unsuccessful showing of the colleges, of which only UCD progressed. In recent years the third-level sides, who have precedence on player selection, are nearing the peak of their preparatory cycle with the Sigerson Cup starting this month.
DCU, holders of the O’Byrne Cup and one of the Sigerson front-runners, went down to Kildare by five points. DIT, another of the fancied contenders, were beaten by Westmeath, and it was left to UCD, hosts of this year’s Sigerson, to fly the colleges’ flag in the semi-finals by overcoming Carlow.
The presence of the colleges has proved contentious in the past. One of the managers who might have been expected to feel sore at the arrangement is Peter Fitzpatrick, whose Louth team lost last year’s final to DCU, but he expressed full support for the broader participation after his county’s win over Wicklow on Sunday.
“No, I’m delighted. I think it’s great to see so many teams in it. In fairness, it’s probably easy for me saying that because we only have two or three players involved. I think the colleges do make a big difference.
“We played DCU in the final last year and they beat us in what I thought was a very good, competitive game. All we want at this time of the year is competitive games because we’ve done nothing in November and December. All I am afraid of is people getting injured.”
