Kilkenny manager Brian Cody has said that he will be releasing players from his panel for next weekend's third-level competition finals. Speaking after his team had extended Waterford's two-year winless home run in Walsh Park, he said that the Fitzgibbon and other competitions were part of the pressures on young players' involvement in county panels at this time of the year.
“Ah, it’s testing, it’s very, very testing,” he said looking ahead to next weekend’s league meeting with old rivals Tipperary. “As well there’s Fitzgibbon, and Fitzgibbon final weekend is next weekend as well and that means we are going to be without a few of the players.
"Today we had John Donnelly, Conor Delaney [both play with DCU who face UL in the final] involved and Pádraig Walsh involved with Maynooth [in the Ryan Cup final], but I mean Tipperary are in the same boat, it's not just ourselves.
“It’s a shame that that weekend is clashing with a serious league weekend but look it, we will work our panel and take it on.”
He said it was a matter of regret that the third-level competitions were clashing with the league.
“It is a strange thing to see big matches – lads committed to big matches with their county and big matches with their colleges. The college has to be respected and we’ve been looking after these lads and minding them, like everybody else as well to be fair.
“They are just disappointed they can’t play with their county as well as the college next weekend, absolutely. We will hand them over to the college and we won’t need to see them this week. Anyone that plays Saturday will be ruled out Sunday for sure.”
