Roscommon football manager Gay Sheerin has added his voice to criticism of the FBD Connacht League by questioning the safety of players involved in matches on poor pitches. His comments follow reservations about the timing of the competition expressed by his Mayo counterpart, John Maughan. Connacht secretary John Prenty has, however, taken issue with both views.

"It's a useful competition but totally out-of-season," said Sheerin, whose side have a rest this weekend. "You're working on weights up through December and back on January 2nd, and then playing on the third. It's not right, you can't expect the fellas you're bringing out to play any sort of football.

"Kevin O'Neill (Mayo) was injured the first day and won't be back until April, Tommy Grehan (Roscommon) was injured the second day and is out for six months and last Sunday Gerry McGowan (Sligo) picked up an injury that fortunately turned out to be not as serious as it first looked.

"I was at that match in Enniscrone - our own was called off - and the pitch was unplayable. Players were just sloshing around in water. The Sunday before the pitch was frozen, and the Sunday before that it was waterlogged. There's no way players should be expected to turn out in these conditions.

"During the summer, managers are being found guilty of infringements for going onto the pitch to get messages to players. Now, during the winter, there's no attention being paid to players' safety."

Roscommon have already had two matches postponed and are scheduled to play on successive days the weekend after next. Sheerin believes that secondary competitions have more future if played during the summer months, and he cites the old Gael Linn tournament as an example.

"When we had the Gael Linn Cup to raise funds for players' insurance, we played Galway a week after the Connacht final about 20 years ago and seven or eight thousand turned out for it and there was huge interest. Crowds were bigger, conditions were better and players fitter than at this time of the year."

Prenty responded by pointing out that the weather this year has been unusually bad and that in the first three years of the Connacht League there had been no difficulties.

"This is the first year that we've had problems," he said. "At the start of the year we considered a change of format and offered the competing counties the option of a knock-out competition, but they all said they wanted the league. Because this has been an unprecedented spell of poor weather (for the competition), there are no plans to consider re-scheduling it in future.

"I'm surprised at John Maughan's criticisms as he is on the record in Mayo as saying, `The FBD League is a very useful competition for trying out new players'. The basic problem is that the weather has been terrible for a couple of games."

On a separate matter, Sheerin said that the declaration of former Roscommon player Niall O'Donohue for his native Dublin was part of a trend. "It seems to be happening a lot that players from the country are opting to play closer to the city if they're working there.

"Last year, Niall O'Donohue decided that he couldn't give a full commitment to Roscommon because he felt that commitment was too severe. It doesn't help us to lose players, but if it happens, it happens. The place is littered with fellas who leave and don't make it and come back again."

How does he rate O'Donohue as a player?

"I'm not going to state over the paper whether I think he's a good player or not. He has his own certain qualities. Tommy Carr (Dublin manager) is obviously interested in him and it's up to him to decide."

Meanwhile, Maughan will have scouts in New York ahead of Mayo's historic championship clash with the US team in May. Maughan, who has only recently left the Army to become Civil Defence officer for Mayo, can rely on a briefing from former colleagues, as an Army team, managed by his former team-mate Kevin McStay, will be playing two matches in New York before the championship starts.

In the course of an upbeat interview on Community Radio Castlebar, Maughan said Mayo could bounce back from last year's early championship exit. "We have 12 or 13 exceptionally talented players," he said, "but we need that three or four more to turn us into an exceptional team."

Kilkenny (SH v Tipperary): J Dermody; J Butler, T Hickey, M Kavanagh; T Henderson, E O'Dwyer, P Barry; P Larkin, A Comerford; P J Delaney, J Hoyne, B McEvoy; B Ryan, N Moloney, K O'Shea.