McGrath laments double red cards as well as playing game on a poor pitch

By Shane Brophy

Loughmore/Castleiney manager Frankie McGrath was fairly measured in his initial response following the manner of his sides controversial defeat to Ballygunner in the Munster Club Hurling semi-final on Sunday.

The sending off of his two nephews, Noel & John, removed any chance of Loughmore’s season extending to a Munster Final in the New Year.

“We had two incredible hurlers ended up in the stands; somebody would want to stand back and have a little look at it,” he began.

“Two guys that have incredible discipline records. We come down here, at this level, look we'll stand back, and we'll wait and see what's on the video.

“But given the two characters involved, I'd be pretty sure somebody got something wrong somewhere.”

As well as the two sending’s off, McGrath also felt the big decisions went against his side, including the second Ballygunner goal which he felt should have resulted in a free out for his side for barging.

“Well, sure ye saw it, ye'd a better view of than I had,” added.

“If I'm annoyed and if I sound annoyed, well you know what I mean.... Cathal Barrett met some of those officials previously, so they did. I am annoyed. Incredibly annoyed”.

He added: “Sure, what happened prior to Noel’s sending-off? It’s the incident before it. I mean somebody put a hurley into Noel’s helmet like. You were all near enough, we all heard it. And that’s not an event at all so it’s not?

“If Noel is sent off for some event…. like I couldn’t see that it was a sending-off either. Maybe the video will tell us something else.”

“We've had nineteen weeks in a row, this is the standard that we got when we came down here.

“Look I don't want to say too much, our guys are in there, they're absolutely gutted. What do they expect when they come down here? They expect at the very least, fair play. Did they get fair play? Well, I'll let ye decide that. We'll go back and we'll scrutinise the video, so we will. But our first reaction was we were treated pretty badly down here.

The Loughmore/Castleiney manager was also critical of the fixing of the game for Fraher Field, a pitch that is notoriously soft in the wintertime. While it was expected the game would be played in Walsh Park, it was moved to the Dungarvan venue as it has floodlights.

“These guys absolutely deserve better,” McGrath added.

“For the game to have to be played under floodlights today like…two outstanding teams. And we have to play…no disrespect to the people who have to look after the pitch…. but people want to promote hurling.

“Today was the big hurling match of the day and we played on a poor pitch, under lights. Was that necessary? So, the powers that be that promote the game have some soul-searching to do. We’re doing our best to promote it. Absolutely. You’ve seen what we’ve been doing for the last number of months. And we got rightly lauded for it and stuff.

“But it’s a bit hard to take then at the end of the road to be treated like that. And that’s no disrespect to the people that look after the pitch. They do the best that they can. Big teams in Leinster can go to Croke Park to play their games so they can. I mean that’s the very least that players are entitled to at this time of year. If they want the club season to happen at this time of the year…. they’re talking about the split season…. then take the games to the playable pitches. Pairc Ui Chaoimh isn’t too far from here, an outstanding facility. Why couldn’t it have been played there?

“I’m sure Ballygunner wouldn’t have had any problem going there either. So, the powers that be have soul-searching to do. We do our work…. today is the first day I’ve gone on a little bit of a rant, but I think I’m justified. And if I’m not justified, let somebody come back to me and convince me otherwise.”